On the relationship between avoidance and anxiety

Avoidance has been recognised as an important factor in the development and maintenance of anxiety at least as far back as Mowrer’s two factor theory (1939). The precise mechanisms and relationship between the two are still an ongoing topic of research today. This thesis focuses on two types of avoidance; experiential avoidance, an unwillingness to experience negative internal experiences (e.g., thoughts, emotions), and deliberate attempts to control these internal experiences (Hayes et al., 1999), and behavioural avoidance, the physical act of avoiding a situation/stimulus.

Chapter One began with a systematic search of literature that reported on the relationship between experiential avoidance and social anxiety. The meta-analysis found a strong positive correlation between self-report measures of experiential avoidance and social anxiety. Chapter One finishes with suggestions for future research, including investigating the proposed causality and direction of effect, and how this strong relationship could be important in therapeutic practice for social anxiety.

In Chapter Two, the thesis addresses behavioural avoidance, seeking to better understand the notion that the more avoidance is repeated, the stronger a habit it becomes. Two experiments using an online avoidance learning paradigm were used to manipulate the amount of avoidance training individuals experienced to determine whether this impacts on their later ability to reduce avoidance behaviour through extinction, or later renewal (relapse), and whether an individual’s anxiety levels, or reported intolerance of uncertainty, influenced this behaviour. Against predictions, the amount of training participants received did not affect the extinction of avoidance, nor later renewal (relapse). There was no evidence of an effect of reported anxiety levels. However, a renewal effect was found for both groups, illustrating the first demonstration of this renewal (AAB) in human instrumental avoidance studies. Chapter Two finishes with suggestions on future research based on the limitations of the experiments conducted.