Hawkins-Gilligan Janice, Dygdon Judith A, Conger Anthony J
Roosevelt University, Chicago, IL 60605, USA.
Aviat Space Environ Med. 2011 Oct;82(10):964-71. doi: 10.3357/asem.3062.2011.
The nature of fear of flying (FOF) is not well understood. It is commonly assumed to be a fear learned from flight-specific experiences. However, existing literature suggests that FOF is a manifestation of fears of other stimuli (e.g., heights) embedded in the flying situation, but not specific to it. This study compared the level of prediction of FOF attained from flight-specific conditioning experiences (specifically, classical conditioning experiences in direct, observational, and verbal modes) with the level of prediction attained from flight-embedded fears.
There were 109 university students who completed the Flight Anxiety Situations Questionnaire (FAS) and the Fear Survey Schedule, Version III (FSS) as well as demographic and flying experience questionnaires built for this study.
All FOF measures were highly predicted by at least one flight-embedded fear. Conversely, conditioning experiences predicted only four of five FOF measures and this prediction was not strong. In general, conditioning experiences did not behave as in previous studies of conditioning and fear.
The results suggest that FOF is based more on several flight-embedded innate fears than on learned fears. The implications of these results for FOF emergence and prevention are discussed.
人们对飞行恐惧（FOF）的本质了解并不充分。通常认为这是一种从特定飞行经历中习得的恐惧。然而，现有文献表明，飞行恐惧是飞行情境中所包含的对其他刺激（如高度）的恐惧的一种表现，而非飞行所特有的。本研究比较了从特定飞行条件作用经历（具体而言，直接、观察和言语模式下的经典条件作用经历）得出的飞行恐惧预测水平与从飞行情境中蕴含的恐惧得出的预测水平。
109名大学生完成了飞行焦虑情境问卷（FAS）、恐惧调查量表第三版（FSS）以及为本研究编制的人口统计学和飞行经历问卷。
所有飞行恐惧指标都至少由一种飞行情境中蕴含的恐惧高度预测。相反，条件作用经历仅预测了五项飞行恐惧指标中的四项，且这种预测并不强烈。总体而言，条件作用经历的表现与先前关于条件作用和恐惧的研究不同。
结果表明，飞行恐惧更多地基于几种飞行情境中蕴含的先天恐惧，而非习得的恐惧。讨论了这些结果对飞行恐惧的产生和预防的影响。
