Participants were recruited from the general community and various local therapy centers in the area. They were screened for anxiety disorders using the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for DSM-IV (ADIS; DiNardo, Brown, & Barlow, 1994). The ADIS assesses anxiety disorders, as well as psychosis and other diagnoses that are often comorbid with anxiety disorders, such as major depression. The inclusion criteria for recruitment required that patients have primary diagnoses of DSM-IV anxiety disorders, but excluding those with specific phobias and public-speaking anxiety. They have to have had …show more content…
Patients’ depressive symptoms were measured using Hamilton’s Rating Scale for Depression. HAM-D consists of 17 items and a semi-structured interview to determine whether patients met diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder, as well as the severity of their depressive symptoms.
Perceived Criticism Measure (PCM; Hooley & Teasdale, 1989). The PCM is administered to patients to rate how much criticism they perceive from their spouse. This measure consists of the two questions “How critical is your spouse of you?” and “When your spouse criticizes you, how upset do you get?” on a scale of 1 (not at all) to 10 (very critical indeed). PCM has been shown to have discriminant validity (Hooley & Teasdale, 1989).
Expressed Criticism. Spouses’ expressed criticisms are measured using questions “How much critical are you of your spouse?” and “When you criticize your spouse how upset does he or she get?” on a scale of 1 (not at all) to 10 (very much