Conceptualization and Measurement of Anxious Freezing

Abstract

Studies of passive freeze behavior, an innate reaction to perceived or actual threat, have largely been concerned with its physical manifestations in the face of imminent danger (e.g., tonic immobility). Relatively little work has examined psychological aspects of the freezing phenomenon (e.g., cognitive freezing and threat evaluation) that may contribute significantly to the freezing episode. The present research considers dimensions of freezing, a set of contexts that may elicit freezing, and ways freezing relates to other internalizing symptoms or previous experiences of traumatic life events. The Anxious Freezing Questionnaire (AFQ) was developed using university samples (N = 653, N = 447, N = 590). Scale development best practices characterized a three-factor solution yielding physical freezing, cognitive freezing, and threat evaluation factors with good reliability and validity that were moderately correlated with, yet distinguishable from, other anxiety scales. Findings indicate that social-evaluative and performance contexts are relevant for freezing episodes. Results showed that previous experiences of traumatic events were significantly associated with higher levels of anxious freezing across all factors. This instrument has promise for identifying individual differences in profiles of anxiety-related freezing, with consideration of dimensional symptoms and a range of freezing-related contexts that may occur in everyday life.