Treatment of Test Anxiety by Group Implosive Therapy

Abstract

36 test anxious Ss were randomly assigned to 3 groups. One group served as the no-treatment control, while the other two groups received either placebo-attention or implosive therapy. Implosive therapy consisted of 5 30-min. sessions of treatment in which Ss were asked to imagine highly anxiety-evoking scenes pertaining to test anxiety while concentrating on experiencing the accompanying sensations as intensely as possible. The placebo group imagined non-relevant scenes while concentrating on experiencing the accompanying sensations as intensely as possible. The results indicated a significant difference in terms of anxiety reduction between the no-treatment control group and the implosive-therapy group. No significant difference was obtained between the placebo group and the implosive-therapy group, or between the placebo group and the no-treatment group. The importance of a placebo group in behavior therapy research was noted.