Verbal stimuli related to hypochondria

Abstract

One of de most critical issues in cognitive psychopathological research is the accurate selection of the stimuli to be used in order to assess the processes, mechanisms and cognitive structures involved in the psychological functioning. From this perspective, the aim of this work has been to identify a set of verbal stimulus related to somatic sensations and symptoms, which could be relevant to the activation of "hypochocondriacal schemata". With this purpose, an instrument containing 77 words was designed to obtain information on four parameters for each word: subjective frequency to use; emotionality; descriptive power of disease; and imaginability. One hundred and eighty six university students (154 women, 32 men; 20 to 47 years) completed the instrument, using Likert scale responses (from 0 to 10) for each one of the parameters assessed. The results showed two different sets of words: a) highest degree of disease threat (34 words), and b) lowest degree of disease threat (12 words). The internal consistency for both sets in each of the four parameters was satisfactory (Cronbach’ α: 0.84 to 0.94). Differences among age ranges as well as sex were also investigated.