title: The Role of Modern Technology in Enhancing the External Validity of Experimental Psychopathology Research: Investigations of Spider Fear and Beyond
title: Die Rolle moderner Technologien in der Verbesserung externaler Validität von experimenteller Psychopathologie: Untersuchungen anhand von Spinnenangst und darüber hinaus
titleType: AlternativeTitle
Creators: name: Grill, Markus
Publisher: name: Philipps-Universität Marburg
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Externe Validität
subject: Technologie
subject: Spinnenphobie
subject: Spinnenangst
subject: Experimentelle Psychopathologie
subject: Psychology
subject: FOS: Psychology
subject: Psychologie

description: Within the realm of experimental psychopathology, experiments constitute the main method of conducting research. In this line of research, external validity has been frequently sacrificed in favor of internal validity. Historically, these two concepts have often been viewed as opposing forces, and it has been argued that increasing external validity is not feasible when also aiming for sufficient internal validity. This resulted in issues regarding the generalizability of experimental psychopathological studies to real-life therapeutic scenarios. As translational science experienced a new surge of interest in clinical psychology in recent years, these concerns have received more attention again. 
One potential solution for these matters is the use of modern technology in experimental designs, as it offers the possibility to develop experimental designs with increased external validity while keeping internal validity high, enabling robust scientific conclusions. The overall aim of this dissertation was to use modern technology in scenarios where virtual environments, following the systematic representative design approach, can be applied to fill research gaps and offer innovative ways to investigate research questions within experimental psychopathology. The studies in this dissertation all had different research scopes, offering insights into how different areas of experimental psychopathology can profit from modern technology. 
Study 1 experimentally investigated disorder-specific etiological and maintaining influences of spider movement patterns on aversive responding as well as the role of intolerance of uncertainty (IU) in spider fear. 3D-animated spiders were developed to achieve realistic movement while maintaining precise experimental control over the spider’s movements. The study found that spider-fearful individuals perceive spiders as moving disproportionately unpredictable and uncontrollable. They further responded with more fear and disgust when spiders move more randomly. Additionally, spider-fearful individuals displayed higher IU than non-fearful ones. This study provided first experimental evidence of the effects of spider movement on cognition and emotion in spider fear.
In study 2, we developed a software-based, openly accessible alternative to real-life behavioral avoidance tests (BATs) called vBATon. In BATs for spider fear, individuals are tasked with approaching a spider as closely as possible, but can chose to abort the test at any time, i.e. display avoidance. vBATon was evaluated in regards to whether it could (a) discriminate between spider-fearful and non-fearful individuals, (b) induced avoidance behavior equally well as the real-life BAT and (c) displayed convergent validity. vBATon managed to successfully discriminate between spider-fearful and non-fearful individuals and also performed equally well in inducing avoidance behavior. Additionally, vBATon displayed good convergent validity. Thus, vBATon can be regarded as an easy-to-use, efficient alternative to real-life BATs.
 Study 3 then investigated learning patterns in extinction learning, using a virtual reality conditioning paradigm with improved generalizability, a spider-fearful sample and 3D-animated spiders as the unconditioned stimulus (US). Specifically, it was tested whether trial-by-trial extinction learning could be better explained by a non-linear than a linear statistical model and if high IU negatively influences trial-by-trial extinction learning. US expectancies served as the main outcome. They are regarded as the laboratory analogue to threat expectancies in real-life exposure. Additionally, the association of IU with US expectancies in extinction still needs more clarification. US expectancies in extinction were better explained by a non-linear than a linear statistical model, suggesting that fear extinction might happen non-linearly and that non-linear models are more appropriate when analyzing trial-by-trial extinction data. However, IU did not meaningfully influence US expectancies in fear extinction in any way, leaving the question of its influence on overt measures of fear extinction open. 
In sum, this dissertation provides new insights in different areas relevant to experimental psychopathology through the use of modern technology to create more externally valid research designs.