The Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale and intelligence.

The literature relating anxiety, as revealed by the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale, and intelligence is reviewed. It is suggested that while there appears to be some correlation between anxiety score and intelligence in groups with a relatively wide spread of intelligence, little or no relationship between anxiety and IQ scores is revealed in more homogeneous groups such as college students. The intelligence spread of the group to be investigated with the true-false Anxiety Scale must be taken into account. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Manifest Anxiety Scale as a measure of drive.

"A group of Ss was given the Taylor MAS and 6 weeks later the Heinman forced-choice version of the scale. Skin conductance measures were obtained for each S under 2 conditions: A rest period; and a task period involving shock threat for some Ss, and no shock threat for others. The results indicated that the forced-choice scale was positively related to the readings taken under rest condition, and negatively related to changes in conductance obtained under the threat of shock. The MAS did not correlate with any of the conductance readings." 18 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The transparency of the Taylor Scale of Manifest Anxiety in a college population.

"Five groups of students were given 2 administrations of the scale with instructions to appear either well-adjusted, poorly-adjusted, or to take the scale honestly." Set affected the total score. Mean score decreased on the second administration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Manifest" anxiety, neurotic anxiety, and the rate of conditioning.

"The validity of the Taylor Scale of Manifest Anxiety was examined with a view to reconciling the contradictory results of the studies of the relation between anxiety and the rate of conditioning… . The results indicated that different scores on the scale do not represent different degrees of manifest anxiety, though the scores within a limited range (19 to 33) are more likely to be associated with a clinical diagnosis of "anxious" than are scores above and below this range." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reliability and Validity of the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale in a French-Canadian Sample.

The aim of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of a French version of the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS). A sample of 2,666 school-age French-Canadian children completed the questionnaire. With regard to factor structure, the 5-factor model found in U.S. normative samples was confirmed. The internal consistency of the 5 scales and of the 2 global scales was good to excellent. Test-retest reliabilities after a 6-month period were also similar to those of the original version. Finally, the concurrent validity, assessed by a correlation with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children, was also found to be good. Results of the present study show that the French version of the RCMAS is a good instrument to assess anxiety in children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A paradigm for determining the clinical relevance of hypnotically induced psychopathology.

4 principles, or criteria, are suggested for the hypnotic induction of psychopathology: the induced process must not include cues as to how E expects the S to respond in any other respect; (b) the induced process must be response-producing, (c) some of the produced responses must fit the criteria for inclusion in some classification of psychopathology; and (c) some of the Ss must be asked by a co-experimenter, unknown to the E, to fake hypnosis in order to determine the demand characteristics of the research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comment on "a paradigm for determining the clinical relevance of hypnotically induced psychopathology."

A critique of the paper by Reyher in which he sets forth a model for experiments in the hypnotic induction of emotional states, and attacks all earlier research which fails to conform to this model. It is pointed out that Reyher's approach assumes that various psychoanalytic hypotheses of the origins of emotional states are empirically verified. He supposes erroneously that hypnotically suggesting a state directly always specifies the behavior which should follow from that state. He assumes, without empirical evidence, that suggesting a state in a "pure" form renders consequent experimental results inapplicable to clinical practice. Reyher's rejection of the earlier work, as well as much of his claim for his model, is found to be without adequate basis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The repression hypothesis studied in a situation of hypnotically induced conflict.

"Through hypnotic induction and control of conflict and degree of awareness, five experimental conditions were produced: (a) preconflict control; (b) conflict with posthypnotic amnesia for the situation; (c) conflict with partial posthypnotic amnesia; (d) conflict with full awareness; and (e) postconflict control. Eight measures of response to a word-association test administered by the Luria method were obtained for six Ss. Each S was tested in the waking state under the five experimental conditions. For the Ss as a group it was demonstrated that (a) there was a conflict; (b) there was a progressive increase in degree of awareness; and (c) most of the measures of behavior reflected emotional disturbance with some validity." (25 ref.) From Psyc Abstracts 36:01:1HJ04B. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Structure of anxiety symptoms in urban children: Competing factor models of Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale.

The Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS; C. R. Reynolds & B. 0. Richmond, 1985) is among the most widely used self-report measures of children's anxiety. The authors compared its current empirically derived factor structure with theory-driven models derived from 8 experts on child anxiety using concept mapping. Confirmatory factor analyses compared models using data from 898 seventh graders in an urban public school system serving a high percentage of African Americans. The most parsimonious best-fitting model was an expert-derived model with factors reflecting anxious arousal, social evaluation–oversensitivity, worry, and a higher order factor. This model was theoretically meaningful, excluded items less relevant to anxiety, and was invariant across gender. Future research with the RCMAS should consider use of these dimensions. The combination of qualitative and quantitative methodology used in this study appeared to have considerable utility for refining measures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Taylor Scale characteristics of volunteers and non-volunteers for psychological experiments.

The hypothesis that there are no differences on the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale between volunteers and non-volunteers in a classroom setting was tested by requesting students in introductory classes in psychology and education to volunteer for a psychological experiment, then testing those who volunteered and those who did not. The results give no basis for rejecting the null hypothesis. It would appear that level of anxiety as measured by the MAS is not a factor in the act of volunteering for psychological experiments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Construct validity and the Taylor Anxiety Scale.

"The intent of this paper has been to emphasize the directive role of theory in the construction of psychological tests." The several methodological issues arising from the use of theory in test construction are illustrated through a critical examination of the Taylor Anxiety Scale. "Our conclusion was that the A scale has only a tenuous, theoretical and empirical coordination to the Hullian construct of drive." 31 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Robust dimensions of anxiety sensitivity: Development and initial validation of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3.

Accumulating evidence suggests that anxiety sensitivity (fear of arousal-related sensations) plays an important role in many clinical conditions, particularly anxiety disorders. Research has increasingly focused on how the basic dimensions of anxiety sensitivity are related to various forms of psychopathology. Such work has been hampered because the original measure--the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI)--was not designed to be multidimensional. Subsequently developed multidimensional measures have unstable factor structures or measure only a subset of the most widely replicated factors. Therefore, the authors developed, via factor analysis of responses from U.S. and Canadian nonclinical participants (n = 2,361), an 18-item measure, the ASI-3, which assesses the 3 factors best replicated in previous research: Physical, Cognitive, and Social Concerns. Factorial validity of the ASI-3 was supported by confirmatory factor analyses of 6 replication samples, including nonclinical samples from the United States and Canada, France, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Spain (n = 4,494) and a clinical sample from the United States and Canada (n = 390). The ASI-3 displayed generally good performance on other indices of reliability and validity, along with evidence of improved psychometric properties over the original ASI. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some effects of experimentally induced anxiety upon discrimination behavior.

"The present experiment compared the discrimination behavior of anxious and non-anxious S's. Anxiety was introduced in one group of S's by strong random electric shocks, the occurrence of which the S's knew to be unrelated to their discrimination performance. Discrimination accuracy for a series of 11 different-sized squares was determined by the method of absolute judgment… . There was no difference in discrimination accuracy between the anxious and non-anxious groups… . The results suggest that the effects of anxiety upon discrimination are mainly due to the effects of anxiety upon response thresholds rather than any impairment of the sensory process involved." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Factor structure and psychometric properties of the Injection Phobia Scale–Anxiety.

The present investigation examined the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Injection Phobia Scale–Anxiety (IPS-Anx). Principal components analysis of IPS-Anx items in Study 1 (n = 498) revealed a 2-factor structure consisting of Distal Fear and Contact Fear. However, CFA results in Study 2 (n = 567) suggest that a 1-factor structure may be more parsimonious. IPS-Anx scores demonstrated excellent reliability including test–retest over a 12-week period in Study 3 (n = 195). Supportive evidence for convergent and divergent validity of IPS-Anx scores was also found in Study 4 (n = 319), with strong associations with disgust propensity and sensitivity and weak associations with positive affect. Further evidence of validity was found in Study 5 (n = 1,674) because IPS-Anx scores discriminated those who have experienced fainting symptoms or avoided medical procedures from those without a history of such symptoms. In Study 6, data from Studies 2 through 5 were pooled, and the findings of Study 2 were replicated. The 1-factor model also fit the data well for men and women in Study 6. Lastly, IPS-Anx scores differentiated those with blood-injection-injury phobia (n = 39) from those without this phobia (n = 43) in Study 7. These findings suggest that the IPS-Anx has excellent psychometric properties, making it suitable for use in programmatic research on injection phobia. However, future research examining the validity of a short form of the scale with only the Contact Fear items may further improve the efficiency and utility of the IPS-Anx. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An approach to the validity of the Taylor Anxiety Scale: scores of medical and psychiatric patients.

The Taylor scale is administered individually to a clinic sample of medical and psychiatric outpatients with the result that significant differences in mean scores, distributions, and the point biserial r of .57 indicate that this questionnaire can distinguish a psychiatric population from a normal one with reasonable efficiency. Sampson and Bindra's suggestion that Taylor scores within a limited range (19-33) are more likely to be associated with a clinical diagnosis of "anxious" than scores outside this range, are not borne out. Both findings were confirmed in a cross-validation study utilizing hospitalized VA medical and psychiatric patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Empirical Validation and Psychometric Evaluation of the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale in Patients With Social Anxiety Disorder.

The Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (BFNE; M. R. Leary, 1983a) is often used to assess fear of negative evaluation, the core feature of social anxiety disorder. However, few studies have examined its psychometric properties in large samples of socially anxious patients. Although the BFNE yields a single total score, confirmatory factor analysis indicated a 2-factor solution to be more appropriate, with the 1st factor consisting of all straightforwardly worded items (BFNE-S) and the 2nd of all reverse-scored items (BFNE-R). Support was obtained for the convergent and discriminant validity of the BFNE and BFNE-S, but not the BFNE-R. These results suggest that standard scoring of the BFNE may not be optimal for patients with social anxiety disorder. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of frustration and anxiety on overt aggression.

A study of the frustration-aggression hypotheses. Ss were required to count backwards from 100 by 3. A high and low level of frustration situation was constructed, with the "high" being characterized by a threat of electric shock if E was dissatisfied with Ss performance, and E interrupting S by making sarcastic and insulting comments. Following this, E made predictions on what might be S's response on a questionnaire assessing attitudes towards driving, and S was allowed to administer shock to E when S felt E was in error. Measures of frequency and duration of shock and pressure exerted in depressing a shock plunger were obtained as well as GSR and answers to an anxiety questionnaire. The findings generally confirmed the frustration-aggression thesis. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4HK46H. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of manifest anxiety and IQ on discrimination.

20 Ss were selected from a population of 400 high school students who had been given the Otis IQ test and the Taylor Scale of Manifest Anxiety so that five of them fell into each of the following groups: (a) high IQ, high anxiety, (b) high IQ low anxiety, (c) low IQ, low anxiety, and (d) low IQ, high anxiety. The Ss were asked to rate 10 attitudinal concepts on each of 10 scales. The results were tabulated to determine the frequency with which each S used each step in the scale. It was found that intelligence, as measured by the Otis IQ test, does significantly relate to scale discrimination. High IQ Ss made more use of the whole scale. High and low anxiety Ss make equally fine discriminations along a graduated series. However, IQ and anxiety do appear to interact with regard to discrimination. In general, the effect of increased anxiety on high IQ Ss is to make them less discriminating. The reverse effect is found for low IQ Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The facets of anxiety sensitivity represented in the Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index: Confirmatory analyses of factor models from past studies.

Results of past factor analytic studies of the Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index and Anxiety Sensitivity Index were used to formulate hypotheses about factor models of anxiety sensitivity. Using a nonclinical sample of 767 children and adolescents and confirmatory factor analysis, hypothesized models with 2, 3, and 4 lower order factors (facets) were tested. Goodness-of-fit criteria indicated that a model with 4 facets fits these data well. Support was found for factorial invariance of the 4 facets across age and gender, using nonclinical and clinical samples. Results support a hierarchical factor model in that there was a strong general factor, explaining 71% of the variance. Findings are discussed in the context of anxiety sensitivity theory and research with children and adolescents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of anxiety and threat on the solution of a difficult task.

"Two variables were manipulated in this research, anxiety and experimental instructions administered prior to the subjects' performance on a series of anagrams high in difficulty level. Three measures of anxiety were used: the Test Anxiety Scale (TAS) [Sarason, 1958], the Lack of Protection Scale (LP) [Sarason, 1958], and Bendig's version of the Manifest Anxiety Scale (MAS) [Bendig, 1956]. The two sets of instructions differed in that one set was designed to pose a personal threat to the subject and the other set was designed to reassure the subject. The results showed that TAS and LP, but not MAS, significantly interacted with the instructions." From Psyc Abstracts 36:01:3HK65S. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)