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Description
Researchers have developed methods of measuring interpretation of ambiguous situations in anxious individuals. However, to our knowledge, no measure exists that would allow the examination of benign (i.e., non-threatening) and threat interpretations in individuals with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The present study outlines the development and validation of such a measure. Using a word-sentence association paradigm (e.g., WSAP,) 202 individuals provided ratings of how well they felt benign and threat words relate to thirteen ambiguous scenarios. Results revealed that individuals with high PTSD symptoms (n = 64) rated threat words as significantly more related to ambiguous sentences than did worry/dysphoric (n = 68) or non-worry/non-dysphoric (n = 70) individuals. We also calculated an interpretation bias by subtracting the relatedness rating for threat words from the relatedness rating for benign words. Thus larger scores revealed a benign bias, or a tendency to endorse that benign words are more related to ambiguous scenarios than threat words. Due to the increased endorsement of threat words in the PTSD group, they displayed a significantly smaller benign bias benign bias than did the other two groups. Our results provide additional evidence for an interpretation bias in individuals experiencing PTSD symptoms, as well as suggest possible implications for the distinction of benign and threat components in cognitive models of PTSD. Furthermore, the current study serves as preliminary evidence of the usefulness of the Word-Sentence Association Paradigm for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (WSAPTSD) as a brief symptom measure for PTSD.
