Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T14:42:30.105Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Preliminary Study of Anxiety, Negative Affect, Experiential Avoidance, and Delaying of Aversive Events

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2013

Kristalyn Salters-Pedneault  and
James W. Diller
Kristalyn Salters-Pedneault*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Eastern Connecticut State University, Willimantic, Connecticut, USA
James W. Diller
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Eastern Connecticut State University, Willimantic, Connecticut, USA
*
Address for correspondence: Kristalyn Salters-Pedneault, Eastern Connecticut State University, Department of Psychology, 83 Windham St., Willimantic, CT 06226, USA. Email: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

The current study examined the role of anxiety, negative affect, and trait experiential avoidance in choices between immediate and delayed aversive outcomes. Undergraduate students (N = 34) completed self-report measures and a laboratory-based delay-discounting task in which they made choices between electric shocks delivered immediately versus shocks delivered after various time delays. The hypotheses that higher levels of anxiety, greater negative affectivity, and greater tendency to engage in experiential avoidance would predict choices of an objectively worse delayed aversive stimulus over an immediate (but less severe) aversive stimulus were supported. These findings may have implications for interventions that target behavioural and experiential avoidance in anxiety.

Keywords

Anxietydelay discountingbehavioural avoidanceexperiential avoidance
Type
Standard Papers
Information
Behaviour Change , Volume 30 , Issue 4 , December 2013 , pp. 241 - 248
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Australian Academic Press Pty Ltd 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ainslie, G.W. (1974). Impulse control in pigeons. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 21 (3), 485–489. doi:10.1901/jeab.1974.21-485Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association. (2001). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., rev.) (DSM-IV-TR). Washington, DC: Author.Google Scholar
Antony, M.M., Bieling, P.J., Cox, B.J., Enns, M.W., & Swinson, R.P. (1998). Psychometric properties of the 42-item and 21-item versions of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales in clinical groups and a community sample. Psychological Assessment, 10 (2), 176–181. doi:10.1037/1040-3590.10.2.176CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barlow, D.H. (Ed.) (2001). Anxiety and its disorders: The nature and treatment of anxiety and panic (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Bond, F.W., Hayes, S.C., Baer, R.A., Carpenter, K.M., Guenole, N., Orcutt, H.K., . . . Zettle, R.D. (2011). Preliminary psychometric properties of the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire–II: A revised measure of psychological inflexibility and experiential avoidance. Behavior Therapy, 42 (4), 676–688. doi:10.1016/j.beth.2011.03.007Google Scholar
Buckner, J.D., Heimberg, R.G., & Schmidt, N.B. (2011). Social anxiety and marijuana-related problems: The role of social avoidance. Addictive Behaviors, 36 (1–2), 129–132. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2010.08.015Google Scholar
Coffey, S.F., Gudleski, G.D., Saladin, M.E., & Brady, K.T. (2003). Impulsivity and rapid discounting of delayed hypothetical rewards in cocaine-dependent individuals. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 11 (1), 18–25. doi:10.1037/1064-1297.11.1.18Google Scholar
Deluty, M.Z. (1978). Self-control and impulsiveness involving aversive events. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 4 (3), 250–266.Google Scholar
Evenden, J.L., & Ryan, C.N. (1996). The pharmacology of impulsive behaviour in rats: The effects of drugs on response choice with varying delays of reinforcement. Psychopharmacology, 128 (2), 161–170. doi:10.1007/s002130050121Google Scholar
Foa, E.B., & Kozak, M.J. (1986). Emotional processing of fear: Exposure to corrective information. Psychological Bulletin, 99 (1), 20–35. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.99.1.20CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Green, L., & Myerson, J. (2004). A discounting framework for choice with delayed and probabilistic Rewards. Psychological Bulletin, 130 (5), 769–792. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.130.5.769Google Scholar
Hayes, S.C., Luoma, J.B., Bond, F.W., Masuda, A., & Lillis, J. (2006). Acceptance and commitment therapy: Model, processes and outcomes. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44 (1), 1–25. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2005.06.006CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hayes, S.C., Strosahl, K.D., & Wilson, K.G. (2011). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: The process and practice of mindful change (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Hayes, S.C., Wilson, K.G., Gifford, E.V., Follette, V.M., & Strosahl, K.D. (1996). Experiential avoidance and behavioral disorders: A functional dimensional approach to diagnosis and treatment. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64 (6), 1152–1168. doi:10.1037/0022–006X.64.6.1152Google Scholar
Hirsh, J.B., Guindon, A., Morisano, D., & Peterson, J.B. (2010). Positive mood effects on delay discounting. Emotion, 10 (5), 717–721. doi:10.1037/a0019466Google Scholar
Hirsh, J.B., Morisano, D., & Peterson, J.B. (2008). Delay discounting: Interactions between personality and cognitive ability. Journal of Research in Personality, 42 (6), 1646–1650. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2008.07.005Google Scholar
Lovibond, P.F., & Lovibond, S.H. (1995). The structure of negative emotional states: Comparison of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) with the Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 33 (3), 335–343. doi:10.1016/0005-7967(94)00075-UGoogle Scholar
Mazur, J.E. (1987). An adjusting procedure for studying delayed reinforcement. In Commons, M.L.,, Mazur, J.E., Nevin, J.A.,, & Rachlin, H., (Eds.), Quantitative analyses of behavior: The effect of delay and of intervening events on reinforcement value, vol. 5 (pp. 55–73). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.Google Scholar
Michelson, S.E., Lee, J.K., Orsillo, S.M., & Roemer, L. (2011). The role of values-consistent behavior in generalized anxiety disorder. Depression and Anxiety, 28 (5), 358–366. doi:10.1002/da.20793Google Scholar
Mowrer, O.H. (1960). Two-factor learning theory: Versions one and two. In Mowrer, O.H., (Ed.), Learning theory and behavior (pp. 63–91). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Orr, S.P., Metzger, L.J., Lasko, N.B., Macklin, M.L., Peri, T., & Pitman, R.K. (2000). De novo conditioning in trauma-exposed individuals with and without posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 109 (2), 290–298. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.109.2.290CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roemer, L., & Orsillo, S.M. (2009). Mindfulness- and acceptance-based behavioral therapies in practice. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Rounds, J.S., Beck, J.G., & Grant, D.M. (2007). Is the delay discounting paradigm useful in understanding social anxiety? Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45 (4), 729–735. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2006.06.007Google Scholar
Thom, A., Sartory, G., & Jöhren, P. (2000). Comparison between one-session psychological treatment and benzodiazepine in dental phobia. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68 (3), 378–387. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.68.3.378Google Scholar
Watson, D., Clark, L.A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54 (6), 1063–1070. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.54.6.1063Google Scholar