Fear of spiders’ questionnaire
Abstract
The Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ), an 18-item self-report questionnaire assessing spider phobia, was developed in an attempt to complement the information provided by the Spider Phobia Questionnaire (SPQ). Data obtained from 338 undergraduates revealed that the FSQ was able to discriminate phobics from nonphobics, and indicated decrements in phobic responding from pretest to posttest following cognitive therapy. Test-retest data, obtained from non-treatment control groups, indicated that scores on the FSQ are stable over a one month period. The FSQ also demonstrated adequate convergent validity due to its significant correlations with the SPQ and a behavioral avoidance test. Finally, a factor analysis revealed two factors accounting for 55% of the variance. It is argued that, compared to the SPQ, items on the FSQ are more explicit regarding the time period to be assessed, and may be more sensitive to differences between phobics and nonphobics and decrements in phobic responding following treatment.
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Seven RCTs identified phobic participants with a validated fear questionnaire and approach behavior toward a tarantula (N=344).
“Seven RCTs identified phobic participants with a validated fear questionnaire (Muris & Merckelbach, 1996; Szymanski & O’Donoghue, 1995) and by assessing their approach behavior towards the tarantula (N=344; Siegel, Anderson & Han, 2011; Siegel, Cohen & Warren, 2022; Siegel & Gallagher, 2015; Siegel, Warren, Jacobson & Merritt, 2018; Siegel & Weinberger, 2009, 2012; Weinberger, unpublishedf).”
From Advancing the treatment of anxiety disorders in transition‐age youth: a review of the therapeutic effects of unconscious exposure. (2025) · cites this paper as Szymanski & O’Donoghue, 1995
The Fear of Spiders Questionnaire has excellent psychometric properties.
“The FSQ has excellent psychometric properties.”
From In Vivo versus augmented reality exposure in the treatment of small animal phobia: A randomized controlled trial (2016) · cites this paper as [55]
The Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ) has good internal consistency (Cronbach alpha=.92) and split-half reliability (.89) according to the authors.
“According to the authors, the FSQ has good internal consistency (Cronbach alpha=.92) and split-half reliability (.89).”
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“The Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ; Szymanski & O’Donohue, 1995) is an 18-item endorsement measure that assesses avoidance and fear of harm from spiders, such as degree of agreement with the statement, “If I came across a spider now, I would leave the room.””
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“Then, they completed the German version of the Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FAS; Rinck et al, 2002 ; Szymanski & Odonohue, 1995 ) as well as the Fear of Spiders Screening (SAS; Rinck et al, 2002 ).”
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“Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ; adapted from Szymanski & O'Donohue, 1995) This questionnaire assesses the severity of spider phobia and consists of 18 items rated on an 8-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (“I totally disagree”) to 8 (“I totally agree”) for situations related to the fear of…”
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“The Fear of Spiders Questionnaire has 18 items that measure the severity of spider phobia and avoidance behaviors on a 7 degrees Likert scale [12].”
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“In order to assess the intensity of the phobia, the behaviour avoidance test (BAT) [42], degree of belief in catastrophic thought (assessed daily on scale from 0% to 100%), Fear and Avoidance Scales [45],Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ) [46], Spider Phobia Beliefs Questionnaire (SPBQ) [47], and Subjective Units of…”
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“In addition to the BAT, subjects will complete two selfreport measures of fear toward spiders: the Spider Phobia Questionnaire (SPQ) [37] and the Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ) [38].”
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“Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (Szymanski & O’Donohue, 1995), reduced version.”
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“At each time point, participants were administered two questionnaires: the Fear of Spider Questionnaire [FSQ, (Szymanski, 1995)], selected for its high test-retest stability and internal consistency (Muris and Merckelbach, 1996), and the Spider Belief Questionnaire [SBQ, (Arntz et al., 1993)],…”
MethodVariation in the serotonin transporter gene modulates selective attention to threat.
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Safety behaviour does not necessarily interfere with exposure therapy
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An examination of the decline in fear and disgust during exposure-based treatment
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“During the first stage, 2630 potential participants completed a computerized version of the Fear of Spider Questionnaire (FSQ) (Szymanski & O’Donohue, 1995) and an author-constructed one-item scale assessing perceived self-efficacy to touch a tarantula.”
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“The fear of spiders questionnaire (FSQ; Szymanski & O’Donohue, 1995) is an 18-item self-report measure of specific anxiety related to spiders.”
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“A new measure of technophobia was created by adapting existing specific phobia scales such as the fear of spiders questionnaire (Szymanski & O’Donohue, 1995) and the phobic beliefs scale (Chambless, Caputo, Bright, & Gallagher, 1984; Thorpe & Brosnan, 2007), such that the referent object was…”
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The Fear of Pain Questionnaire (FPQ): Further psychometric examination in a non-clinical sample
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“…spider actually imposed a perceived threat, after the tactile detection task all participants completed the Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ, Szymanski and O’Donohue 1995) and a second questionnaire in which we used the same questions, but replaced all instances of ‘spider’ with ‘butterfly’…”
MethodPhobia Exposure Therapy Using Virtual and Augmented Reality: A Systematic Review
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“Each patient score in the Fear of Spider Questionnaire (FSQ) will determine the appropriate one of the four stages.”
MethodInfluentialDisgust and disgust sensitivity in spider phobia:
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Disgust as a motivator of avoidance of spiders
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“Thorpe and Salkovskis (1998), in contrast, found no differences in disgust sensitivity between groups of participants with spider phobia, other phobias, and no clinical disorders.”
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“Teachman and Woody (2003) used the Implicit Association Test (IAT) before and after an exposure-based treatment.”
MethodWhen spiders appear suddenly: Spider-phobic patients are distracted by task-irrelevant spiders
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GLUCOCORTICOIDS ENHANCE IN VIVO EXPOSURE-BASED THERAPY OF SPIDER PHOBIA
Soravia, L. M., Heinrichs, M., Winzeler, L., Fisler, M. S., Schmitt, W. J., Horn, H., Dierks, T., Strik, W. K., Hofmann, S. G., & de Quervain, D. J. ‐. (2013) · Depression and Anxiety · doi:10.1002/da.22219 · Cited by 98 · see citing works
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“, cockroaches).(30) Two of the studies used the full version of the FSQ,(26,28) which consists of 18 items, whereas Hoffman et al.”
Granado, L. C., Ranvaud, R., & Peláez, J. R. (2007) · Journal of Neural Transplantation and Plasticity · doi:10.1155/2007/10241 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
“The FSQ was able to discriminate between phobics and nonphobics, F(1.111) = 5.99, P .01, F(1.76) = 13.28, P .01, respectively (Szymanski and O’Donohue [20]).”
BackgroundInfluentialMichaliszyn, D., Marchand, A., Bouchard, S., Martel, M.-O., & Poirier-Bisson, J. (2010) · Cyberpsychology Behavior and Social Networking · doi:10.1089/cyber.2009.0277 · Cited by 90 · see citing works
“16,19 The FSQ-F is composed of 18 items about fear and avoidance of spiders to be rated on a scale from 1 to 7 (1 ¼ does not apply to me ; 7 ¼ very much applies to me ).”
Effects of safety behaviors on fear reduction during exposure
Hood, H. K., Antony, M. M., Koerner, N., & Monson, C. M. (2010) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2010.08.006 · Cited by 84 · see citing works
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Temporal dynamics in the relation between presence and fear in virtual reality
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Fear Extinction Retention: Is It What We Think It Is?
Lonsdorf, T. B., Merz, C. J., & Fullana, M. A. (2019) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2019.02.011 · Cited by 83 · see citing works
“Correlations between ERIs and FSQ ranged between (2).03 and (2).26 (again, ignoring the negative algebraic sign), and all correlations between the FSQ and any of the ERIs were nonsignificant (see Figure 1D).”
InfluentialCaseras, X., Murphy, K., Mataix‐Cols, D., López‐Solà, M., Soriano‐Mas, C., Ortriz, H., Pujol, J., & Torrúbia, R. (2011) · Human Brain Mapping · doi:10.1002/hbm.21503 · Cited by 81 · see citing works
“Participants were recruited among undergraduate students from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, who completed an online version of the Fear of Spiders Questionnaire [FSQ; Szymanski and O’Donohue, 1995] and the Mutilation Questionnaire [MQ; Kleinknecht and Thorndike, 1990].”
MethodJones, C., Vilensky, M. R., Vasey, M. W., & Fázio, R. H. (2013) · Emotion · doi:10.1037/a0033164 · Cited by 80 · see citing works
It was as big as my head, I swear!
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Cisler, J. M., Olatunji, B. O., & Lohr, J. M. (2008) · Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2008.10.002 · Cited by 78 · see citing works
Forcadell, E., Torrents‐Rodas, D., Vervliet, B., Leiva, D., Tortella‐Feliu, M., & Fullana, M. A. (2017) · International Journal of Psychophysiology · doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2017.09.001 · Cited by 78 · see citing works
Lindner, P., Rozental, A., Jurell, A., Reuterskiöld, L., Andersson, G., Hamilton, W., Miloff, A., & Carlbring, P. (2020) · JMIR Serious Games · doi:10.2196/17807 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
“The self-rating scale battery included the Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ) [30], which is an 18-item scale covering different spider phobia symptoms based on a 7-point response format with a theoretical score range of 18-126.”
MethodInfluentialLange, I., Goossens, L., Michielse, S., Bakker, J. M., Vervliet, B., Marcelis, M. C., Wichers, M., van Os, J., van Amelsvoort, T., & Schruers, K. R. J. (2019) · Neuropsychopharmacology · doi:10.1038/s41386-019-0467-8 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
“Psychopathology measures The main outcome of the RCT was spider phobia severity, assessed with the FSQ [35].”
MethodMcLean, C. P., & Hope, D. A. (2010) · Journal of Anxiety Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2010.03.006 · Cited by 72 · see citing works
“The FSQ has excellent internal consistency (Szymanski & O’Donohue, 1995) and test-retest reliability (Muris & Merckelbach, 1996), adequate convergent validity with the spider phobia questionnaire (SPQ; Klorman, Hastings, Weerts, Melamed, & Lang, 1974), and discriminate validity (Szymanski &…”
BackgroundAssessment of trypophobia and an analysis of its visual precipitation
Le, A. T. D., Cole, G. G., & Wilkins, A. J. (2015) · Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology · doi:10.1080/17470218.2015.1013970 · Cited by 72 · see citing works
The Spread of Fear: Symbolic Generalization Mediates Graded Threat-Avoidance in Specific Phobia
Dymond, S., Schlund, M. W., Roche, B. T., & Whelan, R. (2013) · Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology · doi:10.1080/17470218.2013.800124 · Cited by 76 · see citing works
“Participants were recruited from a large sample of undergraduate psychology students administered the Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ; Szymanski & O’Donohue, 1995).”
Caseras, X., Giampietro, V., Lamas, A., Brammer, M., Vilarroya, O., Carmona, S., Rovira, M., Torrubia, R., & Mataix-Cols, D. (2010) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291709005972 · Cited by 69 · see citing works
Evaluating implicit spider fear associations using the Go/No-go Association Task
Teachman, B. A. (2006) · Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2006.10.006 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
Endogenous cortisol levels influence exposure therapy in spider phobia
Lass‐Hennemann, J., & Michael, T. (2014) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2014.06.009 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
“The reduction in fear of spiders was measured with a behavioral approach test (BAT) and with the German version of the Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ, Szymanski & O'Donohue, 1995).”
MethodInfluentialNotzon, S., Deppermann, S., Fallgatter, A. J., Diemer, J., Kroczek, A., Domschke, K., Zwanzger, P., & Ehlis, A. (2015) · Biological Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2015.10.003 · Cited by 69 · see citing works
Lindner, P., Miloff, A., Bergman, C., Andersson, G., Hamilton, W., & Carlbring, P. (2020) · Frontiers in Psychiatry · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00116 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
“The Swedish version of the Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ) (24) served as primary outcome measure and was administered at all measurement occasions.”
BackgroundMethodAn experimental test of the role of control in spider fear
Healey, A., Mansell, W., & Tai, S. (2017) · Journal of Anxiety Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2017.03.005 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
Barke, A., Baudewig, J., Schmidt‐Samoa, C., Dechent, P., & Kröner‐Herwig, B. (2012) · Pain · doi:10.1016/j.pain.2011.11.012 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
“Fear of spiders Fear of spiders was assessed using the Fragebogen zur Angst vor Spinnen (FAS), the German version of the Fear of Spider Questionnaire [31,34].”
MethodThe cost of fear: avoidant decision making in a spider gambling task.
Pittig, A., Brand, M., Pawlikowski, M., & Alpers, G. (2014) · Journal of Anxiety Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2014.03.001 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
The Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) as a Measure of Spider Fear
Nicholson, E., & Barnes-Holmes, D. (2012) · The Psychological Record · doi:10.1007/bf03395801 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
Miloff, A., Carlbring, P., Hamilton, W., Andersson, G., Reuterskiöld, L., & Lindner, P. (2020) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/16660 · Cited by 60 · see citing works
“Of the four covariates, user friendliness, presence, and follow-up FSQ change scores were all significantly associated with the VTAS.”
MethodInfluentialSPIDER OR NO SPIDER? NEURAL CORRELATES OF SUSTAINED AND PHASIC FEAR IN SPIDER PHOBIA
Klahn, A. L., Notzon, S., Redlich, R., Grotegerd, D., Dohm, K., Arolt, V., Kugel, H., Zwanzger, P., & Dannlowski, U. (2015) · Depression and Anxiety · doi:10.1002/da.22382 · Cited by 62 · see citing works
“All participants completed the Spider Phobia Questionnaire (SPQ[38]), the Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ[39]), the Trait version of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-T[40]), and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI[41]).”
MethodShiban, Y., Brütting, J., Pauli, P., & Mühlberger, A. (2015) · Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2014.09.009 · Cited by 60 · see citing works
Buetti, S., & Lleras, A. (2012) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00337 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
“, 2004), short form of the State Anxiety Inventory (s-STAI, Marteau and Bekker, 1992), FSQ (Szymanski and O’Donohue, 1995).”
BackgroundMethodA Pictorial Version of the Extrinsic Affective Simon Task
Huijding, J., & de Jong, P. J. (2005) · Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) · doi:10.1027/1618-3169.52.4.289 · Cited by 60 · see citing works
“Since indirect measures may be especially good predictors of uncontrollable fear responses, spider fear seems well suited to explore the predictive validity of the EAST (see Huijding & de Jong, in press ).”
BackgroundMethodResultInfluentialStoyanova, M., & Hope, D. A. (2012) · Journal of Anxiety Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2011.11.006 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
“Self-report measures The Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ; Szymanski & O’Donohue, 1995) is an 18-item questionnaire that asks respondents to indicate their fear and avoidance of spiders, using an 8-point scale that ranges from 0 (totally disagree) to 7 (totally agree).”
BackgroundInfluentialMarković, V., Vicario, C. M., Yavari, F., Salehinejad, M. A., & Nitsche, M. A. (2021) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2021.655947 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
Telepsychology and self-help: the treatment of phobias using the internet
Botella, C., Quero, S., Banos, R. M., Garcia-Palacios, A., Breton-Lopez, J., Alcaniz, M., & Fabregat, S. (2008) · CyberPsychology & Behavior · doi:10.1089/cpb.2008.0012 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
“Adapted from Szy-manski and O’Donohue, 18 the FSQ is composed of 18 items concerning situations related to the fear of these animals, which are rated in a 9-point Likert scale.”
InfluentialRe-examining psychological mechanisms underlying virtual reality-based exposure for spider phobia
Tardif, N., Therrien, C.-É., & Bouchard, S. (2019) · Cyberpsychology Behavior and Social Networking · doi:10.1089/cyber.2017.0711 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
“8,27 The BAT was also used to address the second objective of the study and is similar to Coˆte´ and Bouchard.”
Van Bockstaele, B., Verschuere, B., Koster, E. H. W., Tibboel, H., De Houwer, J., & Crombez, G. (2011) · Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2010.12.004 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
“We used the Dutch translation of the Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ; Szymanski & O’Donohue, 1995; Muris & Merckelbach, 1996) as a measure of participants’ self-reported fear of spiders.”
MethodIMAGERY AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS IN PEOPLE WHO ARE ANXIOUS ABOUT SPIDERS
Pratt, D., Cooper, M. J., & Hackmann, A. (2004) · Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy · doi:10.1017/s1352465804001158 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
“Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ: Szymanski & O’Donohue, 1995).”
BackgroundMethodVirtual Reality as a Tool for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: A Review
Scozzari, S., & Gamberini, L. (2011) · Studies in computational intelligence · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-17824-5_5 · Cited by 52 · see citing works
“The clinically phobic patients in the control condition showed no pre- to post-test improvement in any outcome measure (distance reached from spider and anxiety ratings during BAT; Fear of Spiders Questionnaire [25]).”
BackgroundInfluentialCognitive mechanisms underlying virtual reality exposure
Côté, S., & Bouchard, S. (2009) · CyberPsychology & Behavior · doi:10.1089/cpb.2008.0008 · Cited by 52 · see citing works
“This hypothesis was tested with a hierarchical multiple regression with age and pretreatment scores being included in a first block or set of variables and posttreatment scores being included in the second block or set of variables (i.e., the residualized change scores), all predicting posttreatment scores on the FSQ.…”
InfluentialPittig, A., Hengen, K. M., Bublatzky, F., & Alpers, G. W. (2018) · Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2018.04.002 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
Three Indirect Tasks Assessing Implicit Threat Associations and Behavioral Response Tendencies
Reinecke, A., Becker, E. S., & Rinck, M. (2010) · Zeitschrift für Psychologie · doi:10.1027/0044-3409/a000002 · Cited by 48 · see citing works
Milosevic, I., & Radomsky, A. S. (2012) · Cognitive Therapy and Research · doi:10.1007/s10608-012-9483-2 · Cited by 48 · see citing works
- Authors
- Szymanski, J., & O'Donohue, W.
- Affiliations
- Northern Illinois University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Szymanski, Jeff
- Venue
- Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1995-03
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 31-34
- ISSN
- 0005-7916 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1995533212
- Cited by
- 450
- References
- 8
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 25 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 29 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 24 · 2015: 24 · 2014: 22 · 2013: 19 · 2012: 19
- FWCI
- 1.92
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Spider Taxonomy and Behavior Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychological Treatments and Assessments
- Keywords
- spider phobia, phobia assessment, cognitive therapy, test-retest reliability, convergent validity, behavioral avoidance, questionnaire development
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Animals, Arousal, Fear, Female, Humans, Male, Personality Inventory, Phobic Disorders, Psychometrics, Spiders, Reproducibility of Results, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
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