The hypothesis that high heart rate and low perceived skill would be associated with greater return of fear than low heart rate and high perceived skill was investigated in a group of anxious musical performers (N=63) in response to an anxiety-reduction training program. Musicians were taught progressive muscle relaxation and attention-focusing skills over the course of four weekly meetings. Return of subjective fear was assessed between training program sessions and at a three-month followup assessment. The three major fear response systems were measured at pre, post and followup assessments and throughout the three training program sessions that included behavioural rehearsal. Subjects (pianists, violinists and vocalists) performed a short piece before an audience (at assessments) or before their fellow group members. Performance quality ratings by independent musicians served as the behavioural measure, anticipatory heart rate as the physiological measure, and subjective units of distress scales as the subjective measure. In addition, subjects completed memory questionnaires, designed to assess their recall of the setting and their response to previous performances, and thought questionnaires, to provide data pertinent to processes hypothesised to underlie return of fear. Four classification groups (high heart rate, low perceived skill; high heart rate, high perceived skill; low heart rate, low perceived skill; and low heart rate, high perceived skill) were formed on the basis of median splits of heart rate and perceived skill pre-assessment levels. At post-assessment, each group demonstrated fear reduction, heart rate reduced in high-heart-rate subjects, and performance quality improved overall. Followup return of fear was evident in high-heart-rate subjects regardless of initial perceived skill status, and was not dependent on initial fear levels. Perceived skill was not associated with return of fear. High-heart-rate subjects also overestimated their level of fear for previous performances, and reported more anxious thoughts and thought resensitization between performances. High non-performance heart rate was associated with greater return of fear only in extreme group analyses. Post-hoc analyses compared subjects who did (n=24) and did not (n=25) display followup return of fear. Return-of-fear subjects, in general, had higher heart rates and lower perceived skill than no-return-of-fear subjects, and tended to report thought resensitization between post and followup assessment. In addition, return-of-fear subjects were generally less skilled and performed on fewer occasions over the followup interval. The assessment of between-session return of fear was limited by design faults. The results were consistent with a dishabituation model of return of fear. They also lent support to Wagner's consolidation model in which an alteration of stimulus representations between exposures is believed to producedishabituation. The findings did not support the hypothesis that lack of consolidation may also arise from failure to attend to contextual cues, and hence, impaired retrieval of stimulus representations. Similarities of the data to Bower's description of mood-dependent cognitions were noted. It was suggested that salient internal autonomic cues during mood-congruent states facilitated overestimation of previous fear, expectation of distress and return of fear. Finally, research possibilities and treatment implications were considered. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

The present research examined the relationship between mood and fear. A musical mood induction technique was utilized to induced either a happy mood or a sad mood in eighty-four female university students fearful of spiders or snakes. Following mood induction, subjects underwent in vivo systematic desensitization to reduce their fear. Fear levels were reassessed four weeks later and those subjects who showed a return of fear underwent a second session of exposure therapy. Measures of subjective fear and self-efficacy were taken before and after mood induction and again after fear reduction. The length of time taken to reduce fear was also recorded. The findings showed that an induced sad mood led to greater subjective fear and lower self-efficacy compared with an induced happy mood. In addition, an induced sad mood during fear reduction was associated with greater return of fear four weeks later. No difference was found in the length of time taken to reduce fear for happy and sad subjects. This study also addressed the issue of mood state dependency of fear reduction. It was hypothesized that subjects who underwent their second session of fear reduction while in a mood state congruent with that of their first session would show more rapid habituation than those in an incongruent mood state. The results did not support this hypothesis. If the findings of this investigation prove generalizable to clinical depression, they suggest that the most effective approach in treating individuals who are both clinically depressed and anxious may be to treat the depression before beginning exposure to fearful situations or stimuli. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

This thesis includes several studies on the use of fear appeals in social marketing advertising. The first study uses a content analysis to examine the use of fear appeals in a sample of 589 social marketing television ads. The social marketing ads represented five health-related behaviors (smoking, drinking, driving while impaired, drug abuse, unsafe sex) in five countries (Canada, United States, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand), covering the period from 1980 through to 1994. The sample was content analyzed to examine the incidence of fear appeals, the adherence to the prescriptions of the Ordered Protection Motivation (OPM) model (Tanner, Hunt, and Eppright 1991), and whether fear appeals vary by country-of-origin, the types of behavior being targeted by social marketing advertising (smoking, drinking, driving while impaired, drug abuse, unsafe sex), and the choice of an intended target group (by age and/or sex). Findings suggest that ads generally adhere to the major tenets of the OPM model. In terms of incidence, the use of fear appeals is less common when the sponsor is a for-profit corporation, when the ads are targeted at a youthful target group, and when the behaviors being targeted are perceived to be less serious. Fear appeals appear to be more common in ads from Australia, as compared to the United States or Canada. To examine the idea that different target groups may respond differently to fear appeal ads, two experiments and a focus group were conducted. First, an exploratory experiment used drinking and driving (DUI) ads as a stimulus to examine the differential effectiveness of two different types of ads against different behavioral risk groups. This study compared an "OPM" social marketing print ad (i.e., one using fear appeals of the format prescribed by the OPM model), to a "MALADAPT" social marketing print ad (i.e., one which simply presents counter-arguments against maladaptive responses, beliefs, and behaviors). Individuals who differed in the extent to which they engaged in the targeted risky behavior (i.e., those who do engage in DUI versus those who do not engage in DUI) were exposed to either the "OPM" or "MALADAPT" social marketing ads, or to a control condition. It was expected that the non-DUI group would experience the greatest change in attitudes and behavioral intentions when exposed to the traditional "OPM" social marketing ad, while the DUI group would experience the greatest attitudinal/behavioral change when exposed to the "MALADAPT" social marketing ad. However, the results of the initial exploratory experiment were inconclusive, and further study of the DUI target group was warranted. Therefore, a focus group was conducted which examined the attitudes and beliefs of the DUI group. A key finding from this qualitative research was that DUI individuals are unconcerned about getting into an accident, but are instead primarily concerned with getting caught by the police. This suggests that some of the traditional high-fear appeals which feature bloody accidents may not be effective with this high-risk target group, and reinforces the idea that the MALADAPT ad which tries to attack maladaptive beliefs may be the most effective means of influencing this DUI target group. Insights from the focus group provided the means for improving the ad stimuli and questionnaire for a replication of the experiment. Pretests for the ad stimuli helped in developing ads which were compelling and interesting for all experimental conditions. Based on these inputs, the experiment was refined and replicated. Findings indicated that the "MALADAPT" ad (which attacked maladaptive coping responses) was actually more effective with the high risk DUI group than the traditional OPM fear-appeal type of ad. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

Thesis advisor: Michael A. McDannald / Identifying the neural circuits underlying adaptive fear is fundamental to understanding and developing more effective treatments for anxiety disorders. Adaptive behavior requires fear to scale to the level of threat and dysfunction in this capacity is a hallmark of fear-related anxiety disorders. Identifying the neural circuits underlying adaptive fear is fundamental to understanding anxiety disorders and propelling more effective treatments for patients. Fear is adaptive when the level of the response rapidly scales to degree of threat. Using a discrimination procedure consisting of danger, uncertainty, and safety cues, our laboratory has found rapid fear scaling (within 2 s of cue presentation). However, the neural underpinnings of this behavior are unknown. The overarching goal of this dissertation is to examine a role for the nucleus accumbens core (NAcc) in scaling fear to degree of threat. In three experiments I used neurotoxic lesions, optogenetic inhibition, and in vivo electrophysiology combined with an intricate fear learning procedure to elucidate a role for the NAcc in both general and rapid scaling of fear. Permanent NAcc dysfunction, via neurotoxic lesion, generally disrupted the ability to scale fear to degree of threat and specifically impaired one component of scaling: rapid discrimination of uncertain threat and safety. Reversible NAcc dysfunction, via optogenetic inhibition, specifically impaired rapid discrimination of uncertain threat and safety. Further, I demonstrated that NAcc activity is threat responsive and exhibits heterogeneity in the timing and specific nature of threat firing. The results reveal that the NAcc is essential to scale fear to degree of threat and responds to threat cues across both rapid and general timescales. Taken together, the results reveal a novel role for the NAcc in scaling fear and identify it as a plausible source of dysfunction in stress and anxiety disorders. Identifying the brain regions underlying adaptive fear is fundamental to understanding and developing more effective treatments for anxiety disorders. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Psychology.

The exact properties of the interaction between emotional drives and other psychological phenomena is still a vastly unexplored field. The purpose of this paper will be to examine further the effects of one of these emotional drives, that of fear, on task performance, and to explore some of the theoretical conceptualizations already put forth regarding this interaction.

Submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 1998. / Each individual's personal security is basic to the quality of life of a community. If the quality of life is affected by crime or the fear of criminal victimisation, then both crime and the fear of crime should be viewed as a social problem. The fear of crime is the focus point of this study as it produces changes in the lifestyle of the individual and the functioning of the community. Fear of crime generates feelings of anxiety, general mistrust, alienation and suspicion. At a social level, it can lead to a break down of social cohesion, the curtailment of normal activities and an unwillingness to help others. The study aims at bridging the gap in our substantive knowledge regarding the fear of crime. Through the use of a questionnaire, the study further seeks to establish the following: * Statistically measure and describe the nature and extent of fear of crime. * Determine the factors affecting fear of crime. * Account for the differences and variations in the fear of crime according to age, gender, household composition and type of housing, previous victimisation, crime as a social problem, role of the police and community neighbourhood involvement. * Make non-prescriptive recommendations for the prevention of criminal victimisation that might directly influence the quality of life. Research techniques employed in the study included the following: * Literature study of research done on the fear of crime covering the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. * A structured questionnaire consisting of demographicai information and questions pertaining to the factors influencing fear of crime. * Non-probability sampling techniques. * Statistical techniques to test the reliability of the measuring instrument and ten formulated hypotheses. The findings of the study indicate the following: (a) Age is related to fear of crime. (b) Gender is the strongest predictor of fear. (c) Household composition* is related to the fear of crime. (d) No significant differences were found between the type of housing respondents live in and fear of crime. (e) In general, people who have been previously victimised are more fearful of crime then those who have not. (f) Concern about crime and fear of crime are related issues, as people who are concerned about crime, generally fear crime. (g) The role of the police has not proved to be a significant factor influencing the fear of crime of respondents. (h) Neighbourhood involvement tends to reduce levels of the community's fear of crime. The following non-prescriptive recommendations are made: * Improvement of the image of the South African Police Service (SAPS) is a necessity to foster confidence in and respect for policing. * Increased role visibility of the police. * Promotion of effective Neighbourhood Watch Programmes. * Active involvement of citizens in community policing forums. / University of Zululand and CSD

Submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Mater of Arts in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2009. / This study entails an empirical inquiry of the police as a fear reduction agency in two rural communities in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It is based on data forthcoming from a non-probability sample selected from Mthatha and Butterworth respectively, according to purposive Judgemental) sampling procedures. A pre-coded, dosed-structured questionnaire has been implemented as data capturing instrument. Statistical outcomes are based on the opinions, perceptions and attitudes of 300 respondents randomly selected from those two areas. The study resembles an exploratory, descriptive analysis of dependent variables, cross-correlated with one prominent independent variable: gender and described in terms of frequency distributions. This investigation does not entail a comparative study. The study has two focal points: fear of crime and the role of the police in reducing fear. The safety (physical sense of protection) and security (psychological sense of peace) of each individual is a basic human right in terms of the Constitution, entrenched in the Bill of Rights. Individual safety and security are basic to the quality of life in any given society. If the quality of life is affected by crime and fear of criminal victimisation, then both conditions should be viewed as a social problem. The main objective of the study revolves around expanding our substantive knowledge of fear of crime. The study further seeks to establish whether selected priority crimes contribute to the respondents' fear of crime. Additionally, it is curious about differences in variations of fear of crime measures rating of certain crime measures as a social problem and whether the role of the police is conducive to the reduction of the fear of crime. Research techniques employed include literature study, questionnaire, random sampling and Chi-square test. Based on data contained in statistical tables, the following emerge: • Gender attributes appear to be a good predictor of fear of crime • Selected serious personal and property crimes and previous criminal victimization are posing a threat to respondents' safety and security which may result in fear of crime. • When cross-related with measures of fear of crime, significant differences between male and female respondents emerged; females are more fearful than males. • Acquisition of self-protection measures to allay fear of crime are slightly more popular among female respondents who opted to curtail their movements, leave the lights and TV on, but were less inclined to acquire a firearm. • Female respondents had more positive contact with the police than males and somewhat more inclined to work with the police. Reconsidering mission statements, enhancing police-public cooperation, appointing and training Community Police Officers, etc. are a few recommendations of this study.

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