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Cognitive Therapy and Research

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01.08.2015 | Original Article

Trait Anxiety, State Anxiety, and Attentional Bias to Threat: Assessing the Psychometric Properties of Response Time Measures

verfasst von: Stephanie Waechter, Jennifer A. Stolz

Erschienen in: Cognitive Therapy and Research | Ausgabe 4/2015

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Abstract

Attentional biases to threat are thought to play a central role in the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders. Various measures have been developed to index these biases; unfortunately, the psychometric properties of response time measures of attentional bias have not been thoroughly evaluated, and the reliability of those that have been evaluated is poor. The current study assessed the reliability and convergent validity of dot probe and emotional cueing bias scores in high-anxious and low-anxious participants in the context of a state anxiety manipulation to increase the likelihood of producing large, potentially reliable attentional biases. One hundred sixty participants completed an anxious or calm mood induction followed by dot probe and emotional cueing tasks. Reliability estimates for bias scores in the full sample were low, ranging from 0 to .44; convergent validity estimates were also poor. The anxiety induction did not substantially improve the reliability or validity of the measures. These results underscore the importance of developing new, more reliable attentional bias measures for future research.

Actors were 15 female and 17 male. Actor numbers were 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, and 41.

Actors were 8 male and 8 female; they matched those in Mogg et al. (2008). Actor numbers were 1, 3, 6, 7, 9, 12, 16, 18, 23, 24, 29, 33, 34, 37, 40, and 42.

The script for the mood induction can be obtained by contacting the first author.

When our data were analysed using a stem and leaf plot outlier procedure (Mogg et al., 1999), the ABT results were similar and the reliability estimates were similar or lower.

The results of these analyses are available upon request from the first author.

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Titel: Trait Anxiety, State Anxiety, and Attentional Bias to Threat: Assessing the Psychometric Properties of Response Time Measures
verfasst von: Stephanie Waechter
Jennifer A. Stolz
Publikationsdatum: 01.08.2015
Verlag: Springer US
Erschienen in: Cognitive Therapy and Research / Ausgabe 4/2015
Print ISSN: 0147-5916
Elektronische ISSN: 1573-2819
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-015-9670-z

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