Focus of attention, chronic expectancy, and responses to a feared stimulus

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
C S CarverM F Scheier

Abstract

An attentional model of fear-based behavior is proposed and a study that tested the model is reported. It was predicted that among subjects with moderate fear of snakes, heightened self-attention during an approach attempt would cause increased awareness of existing anxiety, followed by one of two courses of events: Subjects who believed that they could do the behavior in spite of their fear were expected to redirect their attention to the behavior--goal comparison and exhibit no behavioral deficit. Subjects who doubted their ability to do the behavior were expected to divert their attention from the behavior--goal comparison and to withdraw behaviorally from the approach attempt. The results of the study support this reasoning. Discussion centers on relationships between the proposed model and previous theory.

Citations

Mar 5, 2003·Journal of Anxiety Disorders·Amy S JaneckSusan K Heffelfinger
May 6, 2009·Journal of Abnormal Psychology·Edward A SelbyThomas E Joiner
Jul 21, 2020·Scandinavian Journal of Psychology·Agata Ando'Alessandro Zennaro
Apr 4, 2006·Behavioral Sleep Medicine·Christina Neitzert Semler, Allison G Harvey
Dec 12, 2012·Self and Identity : the Journal of the International Society for Self and Identity·Paul J Silvia, Ann G Phillips
Sep 1, 1984·The Journal of Psychology·P Flanders, J R McNamara
Jan 1, 1982·Acta Medica Scandinavica. Supplementum·D C Glass

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Attention Disorders

Attention is involved in all cognitive activities, and attention disorders are reported in patients with various neurological diseases. Here are the latest discoveries pertaining to attention disorders.

Related Papers

Psychological Science
Jeremy P JamiesonWendy Berry Mendes
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
J W Pennebaker, C H Chew
Health Psychology : Official Journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association
J SulsP T Costa
© 2021 Meta ULC. All rights reserved