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Detail and Elaboration in Phobic Imagery

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2009

Fraser N. Watts ,
Robert Sharrock  and
Lorna Trezise
Fraser N. Watts
Affiliation:
MRC Applied Psychology Unit, Cambridge
Robert Sharrock
Affiliation:
MRC Applied Psychology Unit, Cambridge
Lorna Trezise
Affiliation:
MRC Applied Psychology Unit, Cambridge
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Extract

It is hypothesized that phobics have cognitive representations of phobic stimuli that are relatively lacking in detail and elaboration, and that this is reflected in imagery relating to them. In a study of verbal imagery for coping with a spider, the accounts of phobics were found to be briefer and to include fewer stages. In a study of stimulus imagery, vividness was separated into its two components of (a) awareness of the image and (b) degree of detail, following a similar distinction proposed by Klinger. Awareness, but not detail, was found to be greater in phobics, though the hypothesis of less detail in phobics was not confirmed. It is suggested that a lack of elaboration of phobic imagery is likely to impede anxiety reduction in imaginal desensitization, and to reduce the effectiveness of imaginal representations of coping behaviour.

Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , April 1986 , pp. 115 - 123
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 1986

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