The role of personality factors in differentiating the severity of panic-related avoidance.

Several factors believed to be associated with the development and degree of agoraphobic avoidance were assessed in 80 panic disorder participants (59 female, 21 male) and 80 university students (48 female, 32 male). The two groups differed significantly on measures of perfectionism, self-efficacy, panic coping and stimulus intensity modulation. The panic disorder participants were divided into four groups, based on the various levels of DSM III-R-defined agoraphobia: none, mild, moderate, or severe. The DSM III-R, rather than the DSM IV was used because the DSM IV does not give sufficient detail to adequately classify agoraphobia according to various levels of severity. These four groups did not significantly differ on any of the measures. Therefore, no conclusions could be drawn on the relationship between severity of agoraphobic avoidance and degree of perfectionism, self-efficacy, panic coping capability and stimulus augmenting-reducing behavior. When subsequently collapsed into two groups, according to degree of avoidance, significant differences were found in panic coping, and the other-oriented subscale of the perfectionism measure. No medication or gender effects were found to be significant. These results support previous findings that indicate ineffective coping styles, as well as other personality factors, are associated with panic disorder and agoraphobic individuals. In particular, further research is warranted in the area of perfectionism.Dept. of Psychology. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1996 .B87. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 34-06, page: 2491. Adviser: Kathy Lafreniere. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1996