Terrifying Movie Stimuli: A New Design for Investigating Precursors for Posttraumatic Stress

Necessarily retrospective experimental investigations of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms make determinations of vulnerability factors difficult. Terrifying movies can and do produce anxiety and significant posttrauma distress symptoms like those associated with PTSD, but have not been explored as modalities for understanding vulnerability factors (i.e., diatheses) for PTSD. The current investigation sought to determine whether 1) significant posttrauma distress symptoms could be experimentally elicited by fictional events, and 2) which, if any, of several vulnerability factors (i.e., state anxiety, trait anxiety, anxiety sensitivity, depression, peritraumatic dissociation) predicted significant posttrauma distress symptoms. Undergraduate women participants ( n = 62; M age = 21.2) completed prestimulus, poststimulus, 1-week follow-up, and 4-week follow-up questionnaires, wherein the stimulus was a terrifying movie. Significant and substantive increases occurred in state anxiety immediately after the movie ( p < .01); however, only state anxiety and peritraumatic dissociation were statistically significant predictors of symptom endorsement 4 weeks postmovie. Comprehensive results, implications, and directions for future research are discussed.