Schema Content for a Threatening Situation: Responses to Expected and Unexpected Events

Abstract

Although previous research has identified the components of event-based schemas, or scripts, for threatening situations in anxious individuals, no studies have examined how scripts change when anxious individuals are faced with a deviation in the expected sequence of events. In the present study, blood fearful (n = 49) and nonfearful (n = 48) participants assigned subjective units of discomfort (SUD) ratings to the events comprising the script for getting a bleeding cut on the arm. Subsequently, they listed a series of 10 events that would occur following 1 of 2 unexpected events that interrupted the script. Results indicated that blood fearful participants assigned higher SUD ratings to scripted events than nonfearful participants. Participants in the two groups generated largely similar sequences of events that would occur after the unexpected events. However, relative to nonfearful participants, blood fearful participants listed more events characterized by negative affect. These results suggest that blood fearful individuals are able to recover from deviations from the standard script for a common but threatening situation, although their associated emotional experiences are more distressing than those of nonfearful individuals.