University of Mannheim, School of Social Sciences, Department of Psychology, L13, 17, 68131 Mannheim, Germany.
Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2022 Aug;139:104707. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104707. Epub 2022 May 25.
It is a defining feature of anxiety disorders that fear is elicited by a circumscribed class of stimuli rather than by only one specific exemplar of that class. Therefore, fear generalization, a mechanism by which associative fear extends from one conditioned stimulus to similar cues, has been central to theories on anxiety. Yet, experimental evidence for the link between generalization and pathological anxiety, as well as its moderators, has not been formally integrated. This systematic review and meta-analysis of empirical findings clarifies the relationship between fear generalization and pathological anxiety. In conclusion, enhanced fear generalization is associated with several anxiety disorders and stress-related disorders, which is supported statistically by a small, but robust effect size of g = 0.44 for risk ratings as an index of fear generalization. However, empirical results are inconsistent across disorders and they rarely allow for conclusions on their causality in the disorders' etiology. Therefore, based on theoretical considerations, we recommend directions for intensified research, especially on the causal relationship between overgeneralization and pathological fear.
焦虑障碍的一个显著特征是，恐惧是由一类特定的刺激引起的，而不是由该类刺激的一个特定范例引起的。因此，恐惧泛化，即联想性恐惧从一个条件刺激扩展到相似的线索的机制，一直是焦虑理论的核心。然而，关于泛化与病理性焦虑之间的联系及其调节因素的实验证据尚未得到正式整合。本项对实证研究结果的系统回顾和荟萃分析阐明了恐惧泛化与病理性焦虑之间的关系。总之，增强的恐惧泛化与几种焦虑障碍和与压力相关的障碍有关，这一结论得到了统计学支持，风险评定作为恐惧泛化的指标，其 g = 0.44 的效应量虽小但稳健。然而，实证结果在不同障碍之间并不一致，并且很少能够得出关于它们在障碍发病机制中的因果关系的结论。因此，基于理论考虑，我们建议加强研究的方向，特别是关于过度泛化与病理性恐惧之间的因果关系。
