Implicit Association Task as measure of threat-related information processing in social phobia and panic disorder
Date
2005-03
Authors
Elbers, Diony
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch
Abstract
The main objective of the study was to adapt the Implicit Association Task
(IAT) to asses implicit self-relevant fear associations in individuals suffering from
social phobia and panic disorder. This involved the development of computerbased
word stimuli classification tasks in which participants were expected to
classify individually presented words belonging to one of four word categories,
namely self-related ‘me’ words, other-related ‘not-me’ words, threat-related words
(physical or social threat) and corresponding safety-related words. Two response
keys on the computer were to be used, each representing two word categories
during a specific trial (e.g., the one representing ‘me’ and ‘threat’, and the other
‘not-me’ and ‘safety’ words). The demanded task was to classify the presented
words as quickly and accurately as possible. This resulted in the construction of
the Physical Threat Implicit Association Task (PIAT) and the Social Threat
Implicit Association Task (SIAT). Both IAT versions were administered to a
group of 17 participants diagnosed with social phobia, 17 diagnosed with panic
disorder, and 17 ‘normal’ controls. Fear-domain specific self-threat association
biases were expected for the social phobics on the SIAT, for the panickers on the
PIAT, as well as significant differences with the performances of the control
group on the IAT tasks. A secondary objective of the study was to investigate the
relationships between the IATs and performances on a variety of self-report
scales, namely the Social Phobia Inventory, the Panic Disorder Severity Scale, the
State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Beck Depression Inventory-II.
In contrast to what was expected, the results of both the PIAT and SIAT
did not demonstrate a facilitation of the classification task during trials when ‘me’
and ‘threat’ words were allocated to one category (i.e., response key), and ‘notme’
and ‘safety’ to the other. On the contrary, all three participant groups
demonstrated significant effects in the opposite direction. Furthermore, the
differences between the groups on both IATs were insignificant. With the
exception of a significant, negative correlation between the results on the SIAT
and the Social Phobia Inventory for the social phobia group, all the other IAT and self-report scale correlations were insignificant. The results were explained in
terms of a newly proposed ‘two-forces’ cognitive theory. It was speculated that
the IAT effects might have been the result of two opposing forces operating at
different stages of the information processing system. This is namely (a) a
disruption of performance by attention diversion during an early pre-attentive
stage of processing, versus (b) a facilitation of the classification task by implicit
association during later elaborative stages of processing, with the former
apparently making the major contribution to the final IAT effect. This may be a
phenomenon unique to anxiety disorders. The implications for future research of
the findings and the newly proposed theory were also discussed.
Description
Thesis (MA (Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2004.
Keywords
Social phobia, Panic disorders, Anxiety, Dissertations -- Psychology, Theses -- Psychology