Test anxiety and intellectual performance.

High school students were administered 2 anxiety scales, the Test Anxiety Scale and a Need for Achievement scale. Scores on these tests were related to scores on the School and College Ability Test (SCAT). Test anxiety was found to be negatively correlated with SCAT scores. The negative correlations obtained tended to be larger for female than for male Ss. The Need for Achievement scale showed only a slight tendency to correlate negatively with SCAT scores. The results were interpreted as being consistent with the conception of anxiety as an interfering nonintellectual influence on intellectual performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Patients' anxiety as a function of expectation and degree of initial interview ambiguity.

Each of 9 psychiatric residents administered 5 structured and 5 unstructured initial interviews to patients of an adult outpatient clinic. Patients' expectations about psychotherapy were obtained before the interviews. As predicted, when patients experienced interviews compatible with their expectations, they tended to rate their anxiety significantly lower than did patients experiencing interviews incompatible with their expectations. The kind of interview alone did not make a significant difference. Residents rated those interviews incompatible with the patients' expectations as most difficult. The implications for psychotherapy of these and related findings are discussed. (18 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological and related characteristics of smokers and nonsmokers.

The relatively few (44) studies available comparing smokers and nonsmokers on a variety of variables (e.g., age, sex, anxiety, alcohol consumption) reveal many statistically significant differences along with considerable overlap between the 2 groups. Variables such as divorce, anxiety, neuroticism, and high consumption of coffee or alcohol are a few of the factors found to be more characteristic of smokers. Variables such as race (white vs. negro), education, and IQ do not differentiate between smokers and nonsmokers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anxiety and semantic differential responses.

50 words were rated on a 9-scale form of the semantic differential by 50 Ss. For each S the following scores were obtained: (a) response bias on the differential defined as the use of "very" and "neutral" categories, (b) discrimination on the differential defined as the tendency to use all categories equally often, (c) Scholastic Aptitude Test scores, and (d) Manifest Anxiety and Lie scores. It was hypothesized that there would be a positive correlation between anxiety and discrimination and 0 correlation between aptitude and discrimination. The results supported these hypotheses. In addition, a positive correlation between Lie score and response bias was found. It was argued that the nature of a high Lie score would tend to produce this type of correlation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship of ego disjunction and manifest anxiety to conflict resolution.

The purpose of this study was to discover the influence of 2 determinants, ego disjunction (ED) and manifest anxiety (MA), on conflict resolution. ED, defined as antagonistic response tendencies within an individual, was measured by the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule, and MA by the Taylor MA scale. From a sample of 56 college Ss, it was found that Ss high in both ED and MA required significantly more time to resolve approach-approach and avoidance-avoidance conflicts than Ss high in only one determinant but low in the other and Ss low in both determinants. No significant differences in conflict scores were found when Ss low in both determinants were compared with Ss high in only one determinant but low in the other. The results were interpreted as indicating that ED and MA interact, producing interfering responses which hinder efficient resolution of conflicts when ED and MA are both high within an individual High MA and high ED scores, when taken alone, did not yield any conclusive results. It is only when both determinants are taken into consideration that greater confidence can be invested in those measures to predict conflict performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The assessment of anxiety in psychological experimentation: A theoretical reformulation and test.

The paper begins with an extensive formulation of anxiety from the psychoanalytic frame of reference and 2 traditional methods of investigating the phenomenon, viz., questionnaire method on level of experienced anxiety and attempts to create anxiety regarding fictitious reports of inadequate performance on certain tasks. Limitations of this methodology were discussed in the light of psychoanalytic theory. It was assumed that experienced or not, anxiety will be consequent when a drive is aroused which is perceived as being dangerous, and that the effects of such anxiety can be demonstrated in terms of interference with a complex problem solving task. Ss were exposed to a situation designed to arouse anxiety and their general level of defensiveness was measured. High and low defensive Ss performed differentially in the problem solving situation (anagrams). From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4HK66R. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A factorial study of dogmatism and related concepts.

Using scales of 10 personality variables, 3 hypotheses were tested: (1) dogmatism is factorially discriminable from authoritarianism, ethnocentrism, and rigidity; (2) dogmatism, paranoia, and self-rejection are factorially similar; and (3) dogmatism, paranoia, and self-rejection would emerge, together with anxiety, on a single factor. Ss were 207 New York college students. The data permit the conclusion that these 3 hypotheses are confirmed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of meprobamate on fear and palmar sweating.

With a ride on a ferris wheel as an anxiety-provoking situation, Ss were given meprobamate (1600 mg.) and placebo in an a-b, b-a administration. Measures of anxiety were obtained, viz., a direct measure of automatic activity (palmar sweat), an indirect measure of autonomic N.S. activity (reports re: upset stomach, increased heart rate, nervousness, hand tremulation, dizziness, cold sweat), and reports of degree of fear experienced. Meprobamate apparently did not lead to a significant reduction in the symptoms of anxiety. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A test of the Taylor-Spence theory of anxiety.

"The present studies tested the Taylor-Spence theory under 2 conditions: (a) Competing and noncompeting materials were equated in difficulty for a nonanxious group. The prediction from the Taylor-Spence theory that the anxious Ss would perform more poorly on the competing than on the noncompeting material was not sustained. (b) Anxious and nonanxious Ss were tested on easy competing and difficult noncompeting materials. The prediction from the Taylor-Spence theory was that anxious Ss would do more poorly (relative to nonanxious Ss) on the easy competing than on the difficult noncompeting material. The results were opposite from those predicted and significant at beyond the .05 level." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)