Are emotions frightening? An extension of the fear of fear construct.

Proposed in this paper is an expansion of the concept of fear of fear to include fear of other emotions (anger, depression, and positive emotions). In Study 1, initial evidence of the reliability and validity of a questionnaire designed to measure this construct, the Affective Control Scale, is provided. In Study 2, an analogue experiment of susceptibility to panic disorder was conducted. The ability of fear of anger, depression, and positive emotions to predict fear of laboratory-induced bodily sensations in a population with no history of panic attacks was demonstrated.