Essay On Overgeneralization

The purpose of the study chosen, “Fear conditioning and stimulus generalization in patients with social anxiety disorder”, was to determine if overgeneralization (a common facet of disorders such as PTSD and OCD as found by previous research) is present in Social Anxiety disorder. In the article, it is claimed that “surprisingly little” is known about fear generalization in humans--specifically clinical populations, as research on the topic has slowed since its first discovery. In similar research done previous to this study, it was shown that those with PTSD showed heightened anxiety not only in response to threats, but also to generalized stimuli. Patients with OCD also had similar results to those with PTSD. However, in similar studies of patients with Generalized Anxiety …show more content…
This is consistent with the findings from a similar study on participants with generalized anxiety disorder. The researchers explain this finding as potentially pointing to overgeneralization as a trait of certain anxiety disorders (such as panic disorder and phobic disorders) other than these specific ones (generalized anxiety disorder and social anxiety disorder). Another possible explanation provided by the researchers is the lack of a specific context in the experimental study. Perhaps, they postulated, the lack of overgeneralization could be due to the very nature of social anxiety disorder: it requires a social context, not just specific stimuli in a controlled environment. In future research, the authors suggested looking into social anxiety disorder in a more social context, in order to better tease out the nature of the disorder itself--they admit that their experimental design may not have been design specific enough to bring about significant