TY - JOUR
T1 - Sex differences are not attenuated by a sex-invariant measure of fear: The situated fear questionnaire
AU - Campbell, Anne C.
AU - Coombes, Claire
AU - David, Raluca
AU - Opre, Adrian
AU - Grayson, Lois
AU - Muncer, Steven
PY - 2016/3/31
Y1 - 2016/3/31
N2 - Widely-used fear questionnaires may exaggerate sex differences because they do not ensure sex invariance of items and conflate anxiety with fear. Beginning with 50 descriptions of fear-eliciting situations, we used Rasch analysis to identify sex-invariant items and Mokken analysis to establish unidimensional scalability. The resulting 27-item Situated Fear Questionnaire (SFQ) correlated highly with the widely-used Fear Survey Schedule, while demonstrating better discrimination between anxiety and fear. Sex differences in three samples were all in excess of d = 1.00 and were not explained by gender role adherence or anxiety levels. The hedonic tone associated with fear situations (ranging from distressing/alarming to thrilling/exhilarating) was rated as more positive by men and this was only partially explained by their lower reported fear.
AB - Widely-used fear questionnaires may exaggerate sex differences because they do not ensure sex invariance of items and conflate anxiety with fear. Beginning with 50 descriptions of fear-eliciting situations, we used Rasch analysis to identify sex-invariant items and Mokken analysis to establish unidimensional scalability. The resulting 27-item Situated Fear Questionnaire (SFQ) correlated highly with the widely-used Fear Survey Schedule, while demonstrating better discrimination between anxiety and fear. Sex differences in three samples were all in excess of d = 1.00 and were not explained by gender role adherence or anxiety levels. The hedonic tone associated with fear situations (ranging from distressing/alarming to thrilling/exhilarating) was rated as more positive by men and this was only partially explained by their lower reported fear.
UR - http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0191886916302033
U2 - 10.1016/j.paid.2016.03.049
DO - 10.1016/j.paid.2016.03.049
M3 - Article
VL - 97
SP - 210
EP - 219
JO - Personality and Individual Differences
JF - Personality and Individual Differences
SN - 0191-8869
ER -