The impact of a cognitive defusion intervention on behavioral and psychological flexibility: An experimental evaluation in a spider fearful non-clinical sample

Spider Fear and Avoidance: A Preliminary Study of the Impact of Two Verbal Rehearsal Tasks on a Behavior–Behavior Relation and Its Implications for an Experimental Analysis of Defusion

“…However, neither study sought to determine if performances on the IRAP and/or a BAT would be modified by a relevant "intervention" or "treatment" for spider fear and/or avoidance. One recent study, however, has examined the impact of a relevant intervention (Ritzert, Forsyth, Berghoff, Barnes-Holmes, & Nicholson, 2015). Specifically, participants were assigned to one of three conditions; a control condition, a defusion intervention (based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, ACT; Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999), or a thought distraction intervention.…”

“…Although the results reported by Ritzert et al, (2015) were encouraging, a spider BAT was not employed in the study, and thus the impact of the interventions on actual approach behavior towards spiders remains unknown. Furthermore, only IRAP effects for trials directly assessing relations targeted during the interventions were examined.…”

“…In one sense, therefore, the current research involved an attempt to combine the general strategies adopted by Leech et al (2016) and Ritzert et al (2015). Specifically, rather than simply determining if relational responding on the IRAP predicts fear, approach and avoidance, the current research focused on attempting to manipulate the IRAP performances and to determine the impact, if any, on actual approach behavior towards a spider.…”

“…And if so, would there be any difference between the groups' actual approach behaviors on the BAT. Given that the verbal rehearsal tasks were deliberately "minimal" and developed for the current study (i.e., they were not the tasks employed by Ritzert et al, 2015), the research was somewhat exploratory and thus we refrained from making specific predictions.…”

The Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) as a Measure of Spider Fear, Avoidance, and Approach

“…A recent study also employed the IRAP as a measure of fear (and disgust) related to spiders but no data pertaining to approach/avoidance were presented (Ritzert, Forsyth, Berghoff, Barnes-Holmes, & Nicholson, 2015). The research reported here therefore employed two separate IRAPs, one targeting fear and the other targeting approach/avoidance.…”