Fear Questionnaire (FQ, Marks & Mathews)
Psychology: Mental HealthReliability: alpha 0.833 sample items
About this scale
A 17-item measure of phobic avoidance across three subscales: agoraphobia, blood-injury, and social phobia, plus global anxiety/depression.
Sample item(s)
“I would avoid: Injection or minor surgery (blood-injury)”
“I would avoid: Crowded places (agoraphobia)”
“I would avoid: Speaking in public (social)”
Reliability
Reported internal consistency: alpha 0.83. As a rule of thumb, Cronbach’s α ≥ .70 is considered acceptable, ≥ .80 good, and ≥ .90 excellent for established measures.
Notes
Foundational phobia measure.
Source & citation
Marks, I. M., & Mathews, A. M. (1979): Brief standard self-rating for phobic patients. Behaviour Research and Therapy, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. 263–267.
Source. Scale details are summarised from the publication cited above. Always consult the original source for the full item set, scoring, and permission to use.
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