Norton Peter J, Weiss Brandon J
Department of Psychology, University of Houston, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-5022, United States.
J Anxiety Disord. 2009 Mar;23(2):212-7. doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2008.07.002. Epub 2008 Jul 12.
The current study was conducted to assess courage, defined as behavioral approach despite the experience of fear, in an effort to better understand its relationship with anxiety, fear, and behavioral approach. Thirty-two participants who completed a measure of courage and reported elevated spider fears during an earlier screening participated in a Behavioral Approach Test where they were shown a display of four taxidermied tarantulas and asked to move their hand as close to the spiders as they felt comfortable doing. After controlling for scores on measures of spider fears, courage scores were significantly associated with approach distance to the spiders, such that participants with greater courage moved closer to the spiders. This study advances knowledge about the relationship between courage and fear. Based on our findings, future studies can explore the extent to which (a) courage mediates willingness to engage in therapeutic exposure in treatment, and (b) whether courage can be augmented in treatment prior to implementing exposure therapy.
本研究旨在评估勇气（定义为尽管经历恐惧仍采取行为接近的表现），以便更好地理解其与焦虑、恐惧及行为接近之间的关系。32名参与者完成了一项勇气测量，并在早期筛查中报告有较高的蜘蛛恐惧，他们参加了行为接近测试，在测试中向他们展示了四只填充狼蛛的展示，并要求他们将手尽可能靠近蜘蛛移动到自己感觉舒适的位置。在控制了蜘蛛恐惧测量的分数后，勇气分数与接近蜘蛛的距离显著相关，即勇气越大的参与者越靠近蜘蛛。这项研究推进了关于勇气与恐惧关系的知识。基于我们的研究结果，未来的研究可以探讨：（a）勇气在治疗中对参与治疗性暴露意愿的中介程度；（b）在实施暴露疗法之前，治疗中是否可以增强勇气。
