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An Experimental Study to Operationally Define and Measure Spatial Orientation in Panic Agoraphobic Subjects, Generalized Anxiety and Healthy Control Groups

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2009

János Kállai ,
György Kóczán ,
István Szabó ,
Péter Molnár  and
József Varga
János Kállai
Affiliation:
University Medical School, Pécs, Hungary
György Kóczán
Affiliation:
University Medical School, Pécs, Hungary
István Szabó
Affiliation:
University Medical School, Pécs, Hungary
Péter Molnár
Affiliation:
University Medical School, Pécs, Hungary
József Varga
Affiliation:
University Medical School, Pécs, Hungary
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Abstract

In an experimental study with panic agoraphobic patients, generalized anxiety patients and normals we operationally defined and measured spatial orientation of the three research groups. The observation, that patients suffering from agoraphobia have a very narrow exploratory activity range, is as important from the point of view of therapy as theory. Our study observed panic agoraphobic patients through their exploratory abilities. We examine panic agoraphobic, generalized anxiety and normal subjects, as they utilized their exploration skills in a complicated maze. We determined that the cognitive maps drawn by the panic agoraphobic patients are inaccurate. They got lost more often and utilized far fewer navigation points during their walk in the maze, compared to the generalized anxiety or normal subjects. The frame of the conceptualization was based on personal attentional strategies, spatial orientation deficit, and exploratory activity abnormalities.

Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , April 1995 , pp. 145 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 1995

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