Emerging evidence suggests that in addition to fear, traumatic event-related disgust reactions may be integral to understanding the sequelae of sexual traumatization. Importantly, evidence broadly suggests compared to fear, disgust may be resistant to extinction. As such, conditioned disgust reactions may not evidence the same pattern of extinction observed with fear-based reactions. This may have important implications for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As such, the current study sought to fill an important gap in the existing literature by examining specific processes and mechanisms that are likely to affect outcomes of exposure-based interventions following sexual traumatization. Specifically, 72 women with a history of sexual victimization completed a laboratory-based assessment of disgust- and fear-based emotional reactivity in response to repeated exposures to disgust- and fear-focused idiographic scripts of their traumatic event. Results demonstrated that initial disgust responding was significantly greater than anxiety responding. Anxiety declined significantly across the course of exposure while disgust did not. However, comparison of slopes in disgust and anxiety did not result in significant differences. Theoretical and practical implications as well as directions for future research are discussed.
","abstract_html":"<p>Emerging evidence suggests that in addition to fear, traumatic event-related disgust reactions may be integral to understanding the sequelae of sexual traumatization. Importantly, evidence broadly suggests compared to fear, disgust may be resistant to extinction. As such, conditioned disgust reactions may not evidence the same pattern of extinction observed with fear-based reactions. This may have important implications for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As such, the current study sought to fill an important gap in the existing literature by examining specific processes and mechanisms that are likely to affect outcomes of exposure-based interventions following sexual traumatization. Specifically, 72 women with a history of sexual victimization completed a laboratory-based assessment of disgust- and fear-based emotional reactivity in response to repeated exposures to disgust- and fear-focused idiographic scripts of their traumatic event. Results demonstrated that initial disgust responding was significantly greater than anxiety responding. Anxiety declined significantly across the course of exposure while disgust did not. However, comparison of slopes in disgust and anxiety did not result in significant differences. Theoretical and practical implications as well as directions for future research are discussed.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Badour, Christal"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Beike, Denise R.","Ham, Lindsay S."],"advisors":["Feldner, Matthew T."],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2014,"date_issued":"2014-05-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2014-05-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T00:59:15Z","subjects":["Psychology","Anxiety","Disgust","Posttraumatic stress disorder","Sexual trauma","Clinical Psychology","Social Psychology"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/830","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Beike, Denise R.","Ham, Lindsay S."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Feldner, Matthew T."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Badour, Christal"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2014"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2017-09-29T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Psychology","Anxiety","Disgust","Posttraumatic stress disorder","Sexual trauma","Clinical Psychology","Social Psychology"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/830"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Emerging evidence suggests that in addition to fear, traumatic event-related disgust reactions may be integral to understanding the sequelae of sexual traumatization. Importantly, evidence broadly suggests compared to fear, disgust may be resistant to extinction. As such, conditioned disgust reactions may not evidence the same pattern of extinction observed with fear-based reactions. This may have important implications for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As such, the current study sought to fill an important gap in the existing literature by examining specific processes and mechanisms that are likely to affect outcomes of exposure-based interventions following sexual traumatization. Specifically, 72 women with a history of sexual victimization completed a laboratory-based assessment of disgust- and fear-based emotional reactivity in response to repeated exposures to disgust- and fear-focused idiographic scripts of their traumatic event. Results demonstrated that initial disgust responding was significantly greater than anxiety responding. Anxiety declined significantly across the course of exposure while disgust did not. However, comparison of slopes in disgust and anxiety did not result in significant differences. Theoretical and practical implications as well as directions for future research are discussed.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Differential Extinction of Disgust and Anxiety Among Victims of Sexual Traumatization"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Beike, Denise R.","Ham, Lindsay S."],"dc:contributor.advisor":["Feldner, Matthew T."],"dc:creator":["Badour, Christal"],"dc:date":["2014"],"dc:date.available":["2017-09-29T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Emerging evidence suggests that in addition to fear, traumatic event-related disgust reactions may be integral to understanding the sequelae of sexual traumatization. Importantly, evidence broadly suggests compared to fear, disgust may be resistant to extinction. As such, conditioned disgust reactions may not evidence the same pattern of extinction observed with fear-based reactions. This may have important implications for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As such, the current study sought to fill an important gap in the existing literature by examining specific processes and mechanisms that are likely to affect outcomes of exposure-based interventions following sexual traumatization. Specifically, 72 women with a history of sexual victimization completed a laboratory-based assessment of disgust- and fear-based emotional reactivity in response to repeated exposures to disgust- and fear-focused idiographic scripts of their traumatic event. Results demonstrated that initial disgust responding was significantly greater than anxiety responding. Anxiety declined significantly across the course of exposure while disgust did not. However, comparison of slopes in disgust and anxiety did not result in significant differences. Theoretical and practical implications as well as directions for future research are discussed.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/830"],"dc:subject":["Psychology","Anxiety","Disgust","Posttraumatic stress disorder","Sexual trauma","Clinical Psychology","Social Psychology"],"dc:title":["Differential Extinction of Disgust and Anxiety Among Victims of Sexual Traumatization"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T00:59:15Z"}