Citation

Cisler JM, Olatunji BO, Lohr JM. J. Behav. Ther. Exp. Psychiatry 2009; 40(2): 219-229.

Affiliation

Psychology Department, University of Arkansas, 216 Memorial Hall, Fayetteville 72701, United States.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jbtep.2008.10.002

PMID

19041963

PMCID

PMC2895919

Abstract

Research consistently reveals a relation between disgust and specific anxiety concerns, but research has only begun to investigate possible mechanisms by which this relation occurs. The current study tested whether disgust sensitivity (DS; a specific difficulty regulating disgust) and general emotion dysregulation (GED; non-emotion-specific regulation difficulties) moderated the relation between disgust propensity (DP) and spider fear, blood-injection-injury (BII) fear, and contamination fear. A total of 594 undergraduate students completed verbal-report measures of DP, DS, GED, negative affectivity, and spider, BII, and contamination fears. Results suggest that GED potentiates the ability of DP to predict spider and contamination fears, but not BII fears. DS potentiates the ability of DP to predict BII fears, but not spider or contamination fears. These data suggest that GED and DS are possible mechanisms that strengthen the influence of DP on spider, BII, and contamination fears. The present study demonstrates the utility of incorporating emotion regulation into the theory of disgust in certain anxiety disorders.

Language: en