Prevalence and Behavioral Styles of Fear of Flying

Abstract

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition (DSM-IV), fear of flying is a specific situational phobia, but it has a heterogeneous character because it can be influenced by many other fears. Attention toward (monitoring) or away from (blunting) threatening information is influenced by people’s control of voluntary attention. In our online questionnaire study, 9,166 subjects (age 17–70 years) were selected for participation. The Flight Anxiety Modality (FAM) questionnaire and Miller Behavioral Style Scale (MBSS) were used to measure fear of flying and behavioral style. Also, demographic information was collected. Women reported a higher FAM sum score than men, as predicted. Participants who scored higher on the MBSS were found to have also scored higher on the FAM. Participants who had never flown before scored higher on the FAM than participants who had flown before. In this sample, monitoring can be associated with an increase in fear of flying. Future research should focus on gaining a more multicultural picture of fear of flying.

Learning R Programming Language With Psi Chi

“…When airplanes were first commercialized, air travel could be hazardous because many of the safety precautions travelers have today were not established. Even as safety has increased, fear of flying (aviophobia) often remains for many travelers (van Almen & van Gerwen, 2013). Although not all apprehensive flyers meet the criteria for a specific phobia, nearly 10%-40% of the general population in industrial ized countries have a fear of flying, and about 20% of the flying population have continuous or mild apprehension about flying but fly anyway (Gerwen, Spinhoven, Dyck, & Diekstra, 1999).…”

The Effect of Model Minority Myth Salience on White Americans’ Perceptions of Black Americans and Their Support for Affirmative Action

“…Participants are allowed and encouraged to elaborate as much as they want.) Gerwen, 2013). Although not all apprehensive flyers meet the criteria for a specific phobia, nearly 10%-40% of the general population in industrial ized countries have a fear of flying, and about 20% of the flying population have continuous or mild apprehension about flying but fly anyway (Gerwen, Spinhoven, Dyck, & Diekstra, 1999).…”

Processes Contributing to the Maintenance of Flying Phobia: A Narrative Review

“…Regardless of these diagnostic considerations a number of stimuli have been demonstrated to cue threat-perception and anxiety response in flying phobia including a variety of external stimuli associated with flying (e.g., planes, safety briefings, cabin announcements) and interoceptive information (e.g., heart-rate, breathing difficulties; van Almen and van Gerwen, 2013 ). However, the nature of the internal and external cues that most typically trigger threat perception in flying phobia has yet to be fully understood.…”

“…However, to date, there has been very limited consideration of the role of selective attention in maintaining flying phobia and we identified only one study that directly investigated attention in relation to the fear of flying. This single study, conducted by van Almen and van Gerwen ( 2013 ), reported that increased monitoring of threat cues (quantified by a general self-report measure of responses to hypothetical non-flying stressful situations) was associated with higher self-reported flight anxiety. This study was not specific to flying-related material and measured participants' perception that they would engage in the intentional deployment of attention (i.e., monitoring or avoiding threat-relevant information), which may be conceptualized as being distinct from the automatic allocation of attention toward threat stimuli observed across anxiety disorders.…”

“…van Almen and van Gerwen ( 2013 ) noted that due to the heterogeneous phobic characteristics of flying phobia across individuals the characteristics of selective attention and attentional bias may be difficult to pinpoint. A wide body of research has demonstrated that attention bias toward threat is reliably demonstrated within anxiety disorders by its manifestation across a number of experimental paradigms and experimental conditions (for a review see Bar-Haim et al, 2007 ).…”