| Popis: |
Behavioral Avoidance Tests (BATs) are the gold standard measuring avoidance behavior e.g. in spider fearful individuals (Öst et al., 1991). BATs are sensitive to behavioral changes in spider phobia due to psychotherapeutic interventions (e.g. Ginat-Frolich et al., 2019; Öst et al., 1997). However, BATs seem to be rarely used by practitioners as an assessment tool. It can be argued that setting up a BAT may be cumbersome for many practitioners, as it entails having a live spider at hand as well as a suitable container for safekeeping. In the present project, we aim to develop an openly accessible, realistic software-based online version of a BAT for spider phobia (a virtual BAT which can be conducted online - vBATon) to provide an easy-to-use diagnostic tool for researcher and practitioner. Special emphasis lies on the ability of vBATon to capture avoidance behavior, as this has been proven difficult in previous research (Meng et al., 2004). Thus, the goal of our study is to determine if vBATon can measure avoidance behavior as accurately as a real-life BAT (rl-BAT) and whether it can accurately differentiate between spider-fearful and non-fearful individuals. |
