A study of the psychology of agoraphobia

This study investigated the psychological characteristics of agoraphobics seeking treatment. The personality characteristics, level of autonomic arousal, cueing and attributional processes, marital satisfaction and responses to marital conflict of agoraphobics were compared to those of nonagoraphobi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behaviour research and therapy 1985, Vol.23 (2), p.97-107
Main Authors: Fisher, Lisa M., Wilson, G.Terence
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Agoraphobia - psychology
Anxiety disorders. Neuroses
Arousal
Biological and medical sciences
Cues
Female
Humans
Male
Marriage
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Personality
Phobic Disorders - psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
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Summary:This study investigated the psychological characteristics of agoraphobics seeking treatment. The personality characteristics, level of autonomic arousal, cueing and attributional processes, marital satisfaction and responses to marital conflict of agoraphobics were compared to those of nonagoraphobics in a laboratory analysis. The agoraphobics were more anxious, more depressed, less assertive and reported feeling more powerless and helpless than nonagoraphobics. The two groups did not differ in attention to internal cues, but the agoraphobics mislabeled cues to a greater extent and reported different attributions from the nonagoraphobics. There was no difference in reported marital satisfaction, although the agoraphobics responded in a significantly different manner to a videotaped scene of marital conflict. Differences were noted between agoraphobics of short and long duration, respectively.
ISSN:0005-7967
1873-622X
DOI:10.1016/0005-7967(85)90018-X