Individual differences in electrodermal response conditioning and self-report of discomfort: A phobia analogue

The present study was designed as an analogue to the acquisition and extinction of a classically conditioned phobic response. Thirty electrodennally labile and 30 electrodennally stabile nonphobic male undergraduates were assigned randomly to one of two experimental conditions, utilizing either "prepared" or "unprepared" eSs, after Seligman (1971). It was hypothesized that electrodennally labile subjects, in contrast to stabiles, would require a greater number of trials to habituate to either es, would exhibit greater changes in log skin conductance during acquisition, would report higher verbal discomfort ratings related to the es, and would require a greater number of trials to extinction. Differences between labiles and stabiles were also pr& dicted for instrumental "escape" behavior during extinction. The results revealed significant differences between labile and stabile subjects on all predicted dimensions; however, no significant differences were found for the "prepared" versus "unprepared" es contiDgencies. The study also reports unusual evidence for a relationship between a self-report measure of arousal and concomitant psychophysiological reaponsivity.