Anxiety and Fear

Abstract

Most behavioral research in the area of anxiety and fear has been of the analogue type. Researchers have typically employed volunteers, usually students, with small animal phobias (e.g., snake phobia) or social anxiety (e.g., speech anxiety, dating anxiety) as subjects. While some researchers have selected only highly fearful subjects, others have used mildly fearful subjects or those with low fear. For instance, in a study by De Moor (1970), about one-third of the sample of “snake phobics” could touch the snake at the pretest; Melnick (1973) employed subjects with “dating anxiety” who dated less than twice a week. Analogue researchers have usually excluded subjects from participation who have real psychological problems. To give just a few examples, subjects who were undergoing or had undergone any form of psychiatric treatment (e.g., Mathews & Rezin, 1977; Mealiea & Nawas, 1971) or who manifested emotional disorder or psychological difficulties (e.g., Barrett, 1969; Beiman, Israel, & Johnson, 1978; De Moor, 1970) have been excluded. However, it should be noted that subjects with psychological difficulties may be more similar to phobic patients than subjects without such problems.