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Fear questionnaires for simple phobias: Psychometric evaluations for a Norwegian sample
Author(s) -
JOHNSEN BJØRN HELGE,
HUGDAHL KENNETH
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9450.1990.tb00800.x
Subject(s) - phobias , norwegian , psychology , clinical psychology , reliability (semiconductor) , sample (material) , psychiatry , anxiety , linguistics , philosophy , power (physics) , physics , chemistry , chromatography , quantum mechanics
The present study presents psychometric data for four different phobic fear questionnaires in a Norwegian sample of 284 subjects. The questionnaires concerned fear of flying, snakes, spiders and a questionnaire of general phobic complaints. The results showed a high estimate of internal consistence, and a very high test‐retest reliability for all questionnaires. A low to moderate degree of intercorrelation between the questionnaires appeared. A clear sex difference emerged in responding to all four questionnaires. In addition, a clinical sample of phobics with fear of flying as the main symptom was compared to the larger sample on a fear of flying scale. The results showed a clear difference in responding between the samples. The present study concludes that the four different fear questionnaires yielded a high degree of reliability, and their use in clinical practice is encouraged.