Dethier Vincent, Bruneau Nicolas, Philippot Pierre
Laboratory for Experimental Psychopathology, Psychological Science Research Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, 10 Place du Cardinal Mercier, B-1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
Laboratory for Experimental Psychopathology, Psychological Science Research Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, 10 Place du Cardinal Mercier, B-1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
Behav Res Ther. 2015 Feb;65:86-92. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2014.12.016. Epub 2014 Dec 29.
Research has provided controversial results regarding the role of distraction (vs. attentional focus) during exposure therapy. In the present study, we manipulated the nature of the concepts activated during exposure. Sixty-six spider phobics were exposed to pictures of spiders and asked, or not, to form mental images of concepts that were either related or unrelated to spiders. At pre-exposure, mid-exposure, post-exposure, and follow-up, subjective distress, heart rate variability, and skin conductance responses were measured and the Fear of Spiders Questionnaire and a Behavioural Avoidance Test were performed. Results showed that the activation of concepts unrelated to spiders led to return of distress at follow-up. Moreover, the activation of concepts related to spiders decreased emotional and avoidance responses between sessions. This pattern of results suggests that the nature of the activated concepts does not influence subjective distress during exposure, but plays an important role in the maintenance of distress reduction between sessions.
关于暴露疗法中分心（与注意力集中相对）的作用，研究得出了有争议的结果。在本研究中，我们操纵了暴露过程中激活的概念的性质。66名蜘蛛恐惧症患者观看蜘蛛图片，并被要求或不被要求形成与蜘蛛相关或不相关概念的心理意象。在暴露前、暴露中、暴露后和随访时，测量主观痛苦、心率变异性和皮肤电导反应，并进行蜘蛛恐惧问卷和行为回避测试。结果表明，激活与蜘蛛不相关的概念会导致随访时痛苦复发。此外，激活与蜘蛛相关的概念会减少各疗程之间的情绪和回避反应。这种结果模式表明，激活概念的性质在暴露过程中不影响主观痛苦，但在各疗程之间维持痛苦减轻方面起着重要作用。
