#Pathological fear or dread series#

However, results from the Index of Attitudes toward Homosexuals was positively correlated with results from the Sexual Attitude Scale, the Disgust Emotion Scale and the Padua Inventory. Statistical analysis of the results showed a negative correlation between attitudes about homosexuals and measures of fear or anxiety. These included the Index of Attitudes toward Homosexuals (IAH), the Sexual Attitude Scale, the Disgust Emotion Scale, the Padua Inventory - which assesses contamination obsessions - and three questionnaires that measured levels of fear and anxiety.

#Pathological fear or dread series#

To assess the emotional constructs behind homophobia, the UA researchers asked 138 participants to complete a series of surveys. On Sunday, June 9, Olatunji will present the findings of their study at the American Psychological Society convention in New Orleans. The study on homophobia - conducted by Olatunji and doctoral student Suzanne Meunier - represents the latest chapter in that program of research. With the help of various graduate students, UA professor of psychology Jeffrey Lohr has spent the past several years attempting to identify the emotional mediators behind a variety of phobias, including blood injection/injury phobias and spider or insect phobias. In this case, homophobia shouldn’t be pathologized.' 'That has implications for treatment, but it also enables you to consider a condition in the proper context. 'If you can identify the underlying emotions of certain attitudes and behaviors, you can better understand how those attitudes formed,' explained Bunmi Olatunji, a UA doctoral student and lead author of the study. Their findings suggest a social, attitudinal basis for homophobia rather than a psychopathological one, as the term itself implies.

The UA researchers also found close associations between homophobic tendencies and concerns about contamination as well as conservative views about sexuality in general. In a recent study, these researchers showed that homophobia originates not out of fear or anxiety - as true phobias do - but from feelings of disgust. NEW ORLEANS - Homophobia is not an actual phobia, according to three University of Arkansas psychologists.