The role of evaluative learning and disgust sensitivity in the etiology and treatment of spider phobia

The role of disgust and contamination sensitivity in the development and treatment of spider phobia was examined. It was predicted that spider phobics high in disgust and contamination sensitivity have been more susceptible to evaluative conditioning processes and, as a result, less often report traumatic conditioning events and benefit less from exposure treatment than phobics low in disgust sensitivity (Baeyens, Eelen, Crombez, & van den Bergh, 1992). As a group, spider phobics (N = 46) were characterized by higher disgust sensitivity than nonphobic control subjects (N = 28). However, phobics high in disgust sensitivity reported, if anything, more conditioning events than low digust sensitivity phobics. Treatment effects of exposure were evident in both self-report measures and the behavioral modality. These effects were comparable for high and low disgust sensitivity phobics. Remarkably, high and low disgust sensitivity phobics did not differ with regard to the perceived dirtiness of spiders. Even when the perceived dirtiness of spiders was used as a classifying variable, no differences in acquisition history or treatment outcome emerged between high and low groups. Thus, the findings lend no support to the views that traumatic conditioning events are rare and that exposure treatment is less successful in phobics who presumably have an evaluative learning background. The methodological limitations of the present study are discussed.