Margo C. Watt

St. Francis Xavier University · Department of Psychology

Introduction While sexual assault may have particularly adverse emotional effects compared with other forms of trauma, it remains unclear which emotional outcome dimensions are impacted, whether cannabis outcomes are similarly impacted, and whether gender differences exist in sexual assault’s links with these outcomes. Methods N = 100 cannabis use...

Background/Purpose Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is a transdiagnostic risk factor for mental health disorders. While its lower order factors – social, physical, and cognitive concerns – and their associations with emotional disorders have been examined independently of each other, research has not fully appreciated that these factors might appear to dif...

This paper briefly and preliminarily examines, based on data collected in mid-2020, vicarious traumatization in 154 meteorologists and emergency managers. This topic is of great importance, considering that weather-focused individuals providing disaster and even more routine weather forecast support may take on variations of the stress they witness...

We sought to determine the efficacy of a music intervention in decreasing state anxiety and dental-related anxiety among patients awaiting dental clinic services, particularly those with high AS-physical concerns (i.e., fear of adverse physical consequences of arousal sensations). Forty-six dental patients between the ages of 20 and 78 years (61% f...

Clinical forensic psychology is defined by the application of clinical psychology – assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and consultation – in legal contexts. The term captures the integration of clinical psychology as an applied professional discipline and forensic psychology as an experimental discipline. Cases in Clinical Forensic Psychology offers...

Research at the intersection of meteorology and societal impacts is increasingly important. Still, it is relatively rare for this work to take on a psychological frame. Here, we blend media and positive psychology topics with the judgement and decision-making domain for a multifaceted investigation into psychological and behavioral responses to sev...

Treatment dropout is high among outpatients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and is associated with myriad negative therapeutic and psychosocial outcomes. Identifying predictors of treatment dropout can inform treatment provision for this population. The present study investigated whether symptom profiles of static and dynamic factors cou...

Cognitive models of insomnia posit a role for anxiety sensitivity (AS) in sleep difficulties. While sleep disturbances have been linked to AS, particularly AS cognitive concerns, prior studies have rarely accounted for the correlated construct of depression. We used pre-treatment intervention trial data from 128 high AS, treatment-seeking adults wi...

To meaningfully use the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3 (ASI-3) with athletes, measurement invariance must be established. Thus, we sought to determine appropriate factor structures for the ASI-3 in an athlete sample, assess measurement invariance between an athlete sample and a less active sample, and compare ASI-3 scores between these groups. Two uni...

Background: Previous research suggests that high anxiety sensitivity (AS) - a fear of arousal-related body sensations - may have implications not only for mental health symptoms but also for functional impairment. The aim of the present study was to examine whether elevated AS is associated with functional impairment by way of heightened anxiety s...

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by dysregulated emotion, interpersonal relationships, and impulsivity, and is putatively linked to a known transdiagnostic risk factor, anxiety sensitivity (AS). AS is a dispositional fear of the physical, cognitive, and/or social consequences of arousal-related somatic sensations. Gratz et al....

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by dysregulated emotion, interpersonal relationships, and impulsivity, and is putatively linked to a known transdiagnostic risk factor, anxiety sensitivity (AS). AS is a dispositional fear of the physical, cognitive, and/or social consequences of arousal-related somatic sensations. Gratz et al....

This study, based on 2018 archival data, examined a novel aspect of responses and sensitivities to weather that expands the concept of weather salience beyond Stewart’s (2009) framework of generalized weather-oriented attention. We examined in a majority-Canadian, international sample weather salience’s relationship with the Big Five personality tr...

Anxiety sensitivity (AS; i.e. fear of arousal-related sensations) and impulsivity (i.e. tendency to act quickly without regard for longer-term consequences) represent risks for low physical activity participation. Theoretically, higher impulsivity may exacerbate the negative exercise behaviours of high AS individuals given the tendency of impulsive...

Le malaise que suscitent certaines personnes est un phénomène couramment rapporté, mais il est peu compris et a fait l’objet de peu d’études empiriques. La présente recherche visait à poursuivre le travail précurseur mené par McAndrew et Koehnke (New Ideas in Psychology, 2016, 43, 10) et par Watt et al. (Revue canadienne des sciences du comportemen...

Mass murders, while devastating, are relatively infrequent events. Their intermittence, however, poses a great challenge for researchers to develop accurate tools for risk assessment. While caution must always be exercised in active-shooter situations, the development of tools to predict on-scene outcome has the potential to inform law enforcement...

Anxiety and uncertainty are common during pandemics. The present study extended previous pandemic research by investigating the role of two transdiagnostic risk factors - anxiety sensitivity (AS: fear of physiological anxiety or “fear of fear”; Reiss & McNally, 1985) and intolerance of uncertainty (IU; Buhr & Dugas, 2009) – in explaining relations...

Listening to music aids regulation of emotional arousal and valence (positive versus negative). Anxiety sensitivity (AS; fear of arousal-related sensations) increases risk for emotion dysregulation and associated coping behaviors like substance use and exercise avoidance. The relationship between AS and music listening, however, has received very l...

Forensic psychology students at St. Francis Xavier University have been researching the causes of wrongful convictions in Canada as a group practicum placement. The group is doing so as a way of trying to support the incredible work of Innocence Canada by trying to educate on and bring awareness to this serious issue. Most research on wrongful conv...

Women, relative to men, are at particularly high risk for anxiety and depression, perhaps in part due to their heightened levels of anxiety sensitivity (AS). Physical activity (PA) is an accessible mental health intervention that may be particularly beneficial for women. Using a within-subjects pre-post mixed methods design, this study tested the a...

Our research group employed a vignette-based approach, meaning we asked participants to respond to hypothetical scenarios, through an online survey to address three research questions related to the injury experience of recreational runners. Previous research indicated that recreational runners may attempt to self-treat running injuries, yet may ha...

Mental health literacy (MHL) refers to an individual’s understanding of mental health (positive and negative), mental disorders and their treatments, and ability to effectively seek help (i.e., when, where; ability to use information to seek informed treatment; Kutcher et al., 2016). Most studies of MHL are limited to identifying depression, genera...

The present pilot study was designed to explore interpersonal process (IP) group therapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); a novel and relatively untested treatment approach for PTSD. IP groups seek to normalize patient’s symptoms and enhance functioning by creating a safe environment wherein participants can engage with others who share si...

Assessments of both fitness to stand trial and criminal responsibility are common, complex forensic evaluations with substantial societal implications. Currently in Canada, medical practitioners, in particular psychiatrists, conduct the vast majority of assessments of fitness to stand trial and criminal responsibility. Although the Criminal Code of...

Objective: Female post-secondary students typically engage in less physical activity than their male counterparts. Given that women have greater anxiety sensitivity (ie, fear of arousal-based body sensations) and anxiety sensitivity is inversely related to physical activity participation, this study sought to determine if anxiety sensitivity mediat...

The Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) is the national association for the science, practice and education of psychology in Canada. The assessment of fitness to stand trial and the assessment of criminal responsibility are key activities necessary to the administration of justice at the interface of mental health and the law. Canadian psychol...

The present research examined “creepiness,” a commonly referenced but little understood construct. In Study 1, 185 undergraduates (74% women) provided qualitative data on the defining characteristics of “creepiness.” “Creepiness” was found to reside in the eyes, and was associated with men with ectomorphic-like bodies, with a dishevelled appearance...

Research has found that secure attachment is linked to a high need for achievement and a low fear of failure (Elliot and Reis, 2003). This study examined the link between attachment and achievement motivation within the achievement-oriented context of women's rugby, one of Canada's fastest growing but least researched sports. Eighty-six players fro...

The present study examined relations among attachment, aggression, and anxiety sensitivity (AS) in a sample of male and female undergraduates. Given that some individuals may use aggression to modulate negative emotional states, it was predicted that AS dimensions would mediate relations between attachment anxiety (vs. attachment avoidance) and cer...

Compulsive buying involves a preoccupation with, or urges to, buy, that are experienced as intrusive and uncontrollable. Compulsive buying is associated with impaired functioning and serves to alleviate negative emotional arousal. Anxiety sensitivity (AS: fear of arousal-related somatic sensations) is a known risk factor for negative emotional arou...

Justice-involved youth have increased rates of disruptive behaviour disorders (e.g., Conduct Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder); as well as depression, substance use and/or past trauma (e.g., Guebert & Olver, 2014). Despite the high prevalence and negative impact of mental health problems among justice-involved youth, and the theor...

A brief group-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), with running as an interoceptive exposure (IE) component, was effective in reducing anxiety sensitivity (AS) levels in undergraduate women (Watt, Stewart, Lefaivre, & Uman, 2006). This study investigated whether the CBT/IE intervention would result in decreases in AS and emotional distress tha...

Partout en Amérique du Nord, les tribunaux de santé mentale (TSM) ont surgi afin d'adresser la criminalisation de personnes souffrant de maladies mentales. Malgré un nombre croissant d'études examinant les TSM, la re-cherche sur le rôle du sexe au sein des TSM demeure rare. Pour cette étude, des données secondaires ont été analysées afin d'examiner...

High anxiety sensitivity (AS) has been associated with elevated pain-related anxiety in anxiety and pain samples. The present study investigated (a) the associations among the lower order dimensions of AS and pain-related anxiety, using a robust measure of AS, and (b) the pain-related anxiety outcomes of a telephone-delivered cognitive behavioural...

High anxiety sensitivity (AS; fear of arousal-related bodily sensations) is a known risk factor for psychopathology and medical pathology. High AS individuals tend to avoid activities that induce feared arousal-related sensations; yet, few studies have examined AS and sexual activity, those that did have produced mixed results, and no study to date...

Background: Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based treatment for anxiety disorders. Many people have difficulty accessing treatment, due to a variety of obstacles. Researchers have therefore explored the possibility of using the Internet to deliver CBT; it is important to ensure the decision to promote such treatment is grounded...

A brief, group cognitive behavioural therapy with running as the interoceptive exposure (IE; exposure to physiological sensations) component was effective in decreasing anxiety sensitivity (AS; fear of arousal sensations) levels in female undergraduates (Watt et al., Anxiety and Substance Use Disorders: The Vicious Cycle of Comorbidity, 201-219, 20...

Mindfulness (tendency to attend to present experience without expectation or judgment) is generally considered to be an adaptive way of responding to emotional experience. Anxiety sensitivity can be conceptualized as a maladaptive response (fear) to arousal-related somatic sensations commonly associated with anxiety. Emotion regulation strategies a...

Objective: High anxiety sensitivity (AS) is associated with the development and maintenance of anxiety and depressive symptoms and is theorized to be a mediator of treatment outcomes for anxiety and depression. The present study tested the efficacy of a telephone-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) intervention in reducing high AS and its...

Anxiety sensitivity (AS: fear of anxiety-related arousal sensations) predicts anxiety psychopathology, notably panic disorder (Olatunji & Wolitzky-Taylor, 2009). High-AS individuals respond to arousal with a pattern of low distress tolerance and acceptance, high avoidance, and catastrophic thinking (Bernstein et al., 2009; Kashdan et al., 2008). Co...

The fear of arousal sensations characterizes some anxiety disorders and is a core feature of an established risk factor for anxiety and related disorders (i.e. anxiety sensitivity; Taylor, 1999). Anxiety sensitivity (AS) refers to a fear of anxiety-related bodily sensations stemming from beliefs that these have catastrophic consequences. Interocept...

Natural Environment phobia include fears cued by events such as severe weather. Given the limited research in this area, the present study sought to assess the prevalence and learning history origins of these fears, as well as their relation to anxiety sensitivity (AS). Study One participants included 533 (66%F) undergraduates who completed the Wea...

Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is a psychological risk factor for anxiety disorders. Negative interpretation biases are a maladaptive form of information-processing also associated with anxiety disorders. The present study explored whether AS and negative interpretation biases make independent contributions to variance in panic and generalized anxiety sy...

Anxiety sensitivity (AS; fear of arousal sensations) is a risk factor for mental and physical health problems, including physical inactivity. Because of the many mental and physical health benefits of exercise, it is important to better understand why high-AS individuals may be less likely to exercise. The present study's aim was to understand the...

To examine the effectiveness of therapist-delivered distance CBT for the treatment of anxiety disorders in adults. This is a protocol.

Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is a cognitive individual difference actor involving an enduring fear of anxiety-related arousal sensations (e.g., increased heart rate) that arises from the tendency to catastrophize about these sensations, believing they will have serious psychological, physiological, and/or social consequences. AS may have particular rel...

Pain anxiety refers to a range of cognitive (catastrophic thinking), behavioral (escape and avoidance), and physiological (heightened arousal) responses to pain (McCracken & Gross). Greater pain anxiety is associated with greater pain severity, disability, and distress. This retrospective study investigated learning history experiences related to t...

Health anxiety (HA) involves persistent worry about one’s health and beliefs one has an illness or may contract a disease. In the present study, gender differences in Noyes et al.’s (2003) interpersonal model of health anxiety (IMHA) were examined. Using a sample of 950 undergraduates (674 women; 276 men), multigroup confirmatory factor analyses su...

Behavioural conceptualizations of chronic pain posit that solicitous responses to pain behaviours are positively reinforcing and play a role in the development of chronic pain and disability. Recent research suggests that studies investigating this model were likely limited by the use of only a few narrowly defined categories of responses to pain b...

Individual differences in Gray’s Behavioral Approach System (BAS) and Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) have been associated with young adults’ substance misuse and gambling. To clarify the distinct and common etiology of these behaviors, the current study examined the unique influence of BAS sub-components (Reward Responsiveness, Drive, Fun Seeki...

Interoceptive exposure (IE) involves having an individual repeatedly induce and experience feared arousal-related sensations (e.g., shortness or breath, heart palpitations, dizziness) as a means of reducing the fear of those sensations. IE exercises such as hyperventilation, chair spinning, and breathing through a straw have been demonstrated effec...

A brief cognitive-behavioral treatment intervention that included an interoceptive exposure (IE) component was previously demonstrated effective in decreasing fear of anxiety-related sensations in high anxiety-sensitive (AS) women (see Watt, Stewart, Birch, & Bernier, 2006). The present process-based study explored the specific role of the IE compo...

Health anxiety refers to the preoccupation with and fear of bodily sensations arising from catastrophic misinterpretations about the significance of these sensations (Hadjistavropoulos, Asmundson, & Kowalyk, 2004). Constructs theoretically relevant to the development of both health anxiety and chronic pain are two of the putative "fundamental fears...

The Multidimensional Inventory of Hypochondriacal Traits (MIHT; Longley, Watson, & Noyes, 2005) appears to address shortcomings of other common measures of health anxiety, but further research is required prior to using this measure in treatment planning and outcome assessment. This study was designed to explore the hierarchical structure of this h...

Co-morbidity is defined as the presence of any co-occurring condition in a patient with an index disease (Kranzler & Rosenthal, 2003). Epidemiologic surveys of psychopathology in the United States have found that while approximately half of the general population will experience a major psychiatric illness at some point over their lifetime, the maj...

Anxiety isn't all in your head. When you feel nervous, symptoms such as chills, sweating, heart palpitations, and shaking can affect your whole body. If you worry that others notice these anxiety symptoms or fear that they could be harmful to your health, you may have anxiety sensitivity. Anxiety sensitivity is the fear of anxiety-related sensation...

The Multidimensional Inventory of Hypochondriacal Traits (MIHT; Longley, Watson, & Noyes, 2005) appears to address shortcomings of other common measures of health anxiety, but further research is required prior to using this measure in treatment planning and outcome assessment. This study was designed to explore the hierarchical structure of this h...

A brief cognitive-behavioral treatment intervention that included an interoceptive exposure (IE) component was previously demonstrated effective in decreasing fear of anxiety-related sensations in high anxiety-sensitive (AS) women (see Watt, Stewart, Birch, & Bernier, 2006). The present process-based study explored the specific role of the IE compo...

Anxiety sensitivity refers to the fear of anxiety-related physical sensations arising from beliefs that these sensations have harmful consequences (Reiss & McNally, 1985). The present study examined whether individuals with high (vs. low) anxiety sensitivity show stronger implicit associations in memory between anxiety-related symptoms, as opposed...

Reviews the book, It's Not All In Your Head: How Worrying about Your Health Could Be Making You Sick--and What You Can Do about It by Gordon J. G. Asmundson and Steven Taylor (see record 2005-07983-000). In this book, Drs. Gordon Asmundson and Steven Taylor provide a 14-week, self-help program designed for people who suffer from health anxiety. The...

Background: High anxiety sensitivity (AS; fear of anxiety sensations) is associated with frequent and problem drinking (Stewart, Samoluk, & MacDonald, 1999). Aims: It was hypothesized that a program designed to reduce AS levels in young adult women would also result in a decrease in their dysfunctional drinking behavior. Method: The brief cognitive...

Anxiety sensitivity (AS) has been linked to a variety of disabling chronic health conditions, including pain-related conditions. A recent study has found that healthy women with high AS reported significantly higher levels of sensory and affective pain on an experimental cold pressor task compared to women with low AS. However, this study found no...

Anxiety sensitivity (AS; fear of anxiety-related sensations) is a known risk factor for anxiety disorders and recently has been linked to pain disorders. The present study was guided by the hypothesis that a program designed to reduce AS levels might also result in a decrease in anxiety related to pain sensations. Female undergraduates, selected as...

This study replicated and extended the work of C. F. Weems, S. L. Berman, W. K. Silverman, and E. T. Rodriquez (2002) by investigating relations between anxiety sensitivity (AS) and attachment dimensions in a sample of young adults. Two hundred and twenty-six undergraduate students completed self-report measures including the Anxiety Sensitivity In...

This paper describes development of a retrospective measure of childhood exposure to parental dyscontrol related to specific conditions such as a parent's drinking, anger, or other negative emotional states (e.g., stress, anxiety, depression). A 45-item questionnaire, the Dyscontrol Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ), was designed to assess individual...

This retrospective study investigated the relationship between childhood exposure to parental dyscontrol (i.e., loss of control behaviors) and levels of anxiety sensitivity (AS) components in early adulthood. Four-hundred-and-sixty-five undergraduate students completed self-report measures including the Dyscontrol Experiences Questionnaire. Specifi...

We used structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the hypothesis that childhood instrumental and vicarious learning experiences influence frequency of panic attacks in young adulthood both directly, and indirectly through their effects on anxiety sensitivity (AS). A total of 478 university students participated in a retrospective assessment of the...

Recent years have seen major advances in the understanding and treatment of health anxiety and hypochondriasis, particulary in relation to the cognitive behavioural approach to anxiety. This volume brings together this knowledge of psychological and pharmacological treatments of health anxiety, and relates it to a conceptual framework which provide...

the present study investigated childhood learning experiences potentially associated with the development of elevated hypochondriacal concerns in a non-clinical young adult sample, and examined the possible mediating roles of anxiety sensitivity (i.e., fear of anxiety-related symptoms) and trait anxiety (i.e., frequency of anxiety symptoms) in expl...