Understanding emotional responses to breast/ovarian cancer genetic risk assessment: an applied test of a cognitive theory of emotion

This study explored whether Smith and Lazarus' (1990, 1993) cognitive theory of emotion could predict emotional responses to an emotionally ambiguous real-life situation. Questionnaire data were collected from 145 women upon referral for cancer genetic risk assessment. These indicated a mixed emotional reaction of both positive and negative emotions to the assessment. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the hypothesised models explained between 20% and 33% of the variance of anxiety, hope and gratitude scores, but only 10% of the variance for challenge scores. For the previously unmodelled emotion of relief, 31% of the variance was explained by appraisals and core relational themes. The findings help explain why emotional responses to cancer genetic risk assessment vary and suggest that improving the accuracy of individuals' beliefs and expectations about the assessment process may help subsequent adaptation to risk information.     

Adjective ratings and dimension analyses of auditory rhythm patterns

Gabrielsson, A. Adjective ratings and dimension analyses of auditory rhythm patterns. Scand. J. psychol., 1973, 14, 244–260.-Rhythm experience for three classes of auditory rhythm stimuli, including music, was investigated by a variant of semantic differential technique in six experiments. The rating scales were chosen by means of questionnaires to musicians. The subjects rated the rhythms in a number of the scales and the ratings were subjected to factor analysis. The factors were interpreted as "uniformity-variation" or "simplicity-complexity", "accentuated first beat", "meter", "basic pattern", "rapidity", "movement characters" (floating-stuttering, dancing-walking and others), "vital-dull", "excited-calm", and "rigid-flexible".     

Similarities between retrospective and actual anxiety states

The purpose of the study was to examine the fit and calibration of the items in Spielberger, Gorsuch, and Lushene's (1970) State-Trait Anxiety Inventory during measurement of actual and retrospective anxiety. Subjects in the actual anxiety situation (n = 113) and in the retrospective anxiety situation (n = 55) were administered the inventory, and 20 scale items were analyzed individually by the probabilistic Rasch Model (Wright & Masters, 1982). Comparisons between the items' values in both situations revealed that 17 of the 20 items were rated similarly. In the retrospective anxiety state, 9 items (misfits) failed to discriminate between high- and low-anxious subjects, but only 6 failed to do so in the actual anxiety state. Despite the similarities, we recommend that the scales be modified to yield a more reliable measure of anxiety and to discriminate more accurately among subjects with varying levels of anxiety.     

Hassles, health, and personality

College undergraduates (N = 211) responded to a "decontaminated" hassles scale plus measures of trait anxiety, reactivity, perceived stress, psychiatric symptomatology, and minor physical ailments. All but the anxiety and reactivity scales were time referenced to the past month. Major findings were as follows: (a) Hassles and trait anxiety both contributed positively to perceived stress, jointly accounting for 58% of the variance; (b) hassles and reactivity both had a significant positive impact on minor ailments, together explaining 23% of the variance; and (c) hassles and trait anxiety had a significant interactive effect on psychiatric symptomatology, which along with the nonsignificant marginal main effects accounted for 67% of the variance. The positive impact of hassles on psychiatric symptomatology increased as trait anxiety rose; likewise, the pathogenic effect of trait anxiety increased with greater exposure to hassles.     

Development and evaluation of an inventory to assess adult stutterers'' communication attitudes

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a procedure to assess adult stutterers' communication attitudes. To this end, the investigation was divided into two phases. In Phase I, an assessment inventory based on a tripartite attitudinal model was developed and administered to 107 adult stutterers. Reliability and validity of these procedures were examined, and the inventory was refined. In Phase II, reliability and validity of the attitude assessment procedures were reassessed, and the attitudes of 26 stutterers and 56 nonstutterers were examined. Assessment procedures involved a self-report inventory, which obtained ratings of items in 13 situational subscales representing different speaking situations. These situations were rated using four response scales reflecting behavioral, affective, and cognitive aspects of attitude. Situational responding, response scale scores, and response scale interrelationships are examined. Findings are discussed in terms of the potential value of the inventory and future investigations.     

Stuttering and social anxiety

The aim of the present study was to investigate the presence of social anxiety in adults who stutter. This was done by administering the Inventory of Interpersonal Situations (IIS) (Van Dam-Baggen & Kraaimaat, 1999), a social anxiety inventory, to a group of 89 people who stuttered and 131 people who did not stutter. Two components of social anxiety were measured by the ISS, the extent to which emotional tension or discomfort is perceived in social situations and the frequency with which social responses are executed. The people who stuttered displayed significantly higher levels of emotional tension or discomfort in social situations. They also reported a significantly lower frequency of social responses compared to their nonstuttering peers. In addition, about 50% of the scores of the people who stuttered fell within the range of a group of highly socially anxious psychiatric patients. The results of the study suggest that the measurement of social anxiety is an important element in the assessment of adults who stutter. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: The reader will learn about and be able to describe (1) the IIS as an assessment procedure for evaluating social anxiety, (2) the level of discomfort expressed by adult stutterers in social situations, and (3) the effect of social anxiety on stutterers' responsiveness in social situations.     

幼儿自我调控的中日比较及其跨文化分析

实验以中日166名4、5岁幼儿为被试(其中中国幼儿84名,日本幼儿82名),采用故事法比较了中日幼儿在故事情境中的自我调控反应。结果表明:(1)中日幼儿自我调控的反应方式因交往对象的不同表现出了差异。在幼儿与成人的矛盾情境中,日本幼儿比中国幼儿表现出了更多的自我抑制反应,在幼儿与同伴的矛盾情境中,日本幼儿比中国幼儿表现出了更多的自我主张反应;不论在幼儿与成人的矛盾情境中还是在幼儿与同伴的矛盾情境中,中国幼儿都比日本幼儿表现出了更多的依赖成人反应。(2)中日幼儿自我调控的反应方式因情境类型的不同没有表现出差异。不论在幼儿与同伴的矛盾情境中,还是在幼儿与同伴的非矛盾情境中,日本幼儿比中国幼儿表现出了更多的自我主张反应,中国幼儿比日本幼儿表现出了更多的依赖成人和冲动行为反应。     

Heritabilities of Common and Measure-Specific Components of the Big Five Personality Factors

Three different measures of the Big Five personality dimensions were developed from the battery of questionnaires used in the National Merit Twin Study: one from trait self-rating scales, one from personality inventory items, and one from an adjective check list. Behavior-genetic models were fit to what the three measures had in common, and to the variance distinctive to each. The results of the model fitting agreed with other recent studies in showing the Big Five dimensions to be substantially and about equally heritable, with little or no contribution of shared family environment. Heritabilities for males and females did not differ significantly. For Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, some effect of shared environment was found for measure-specific variance on the personality inventory, and for Extraversion and Neuroticism, models involving nonadditive genetic variance or twin contrast effects provided slightly better fits.     

An assessment of appraisal,anxiety, coping,and procrastination during an examination period

High School students responded to an inventory which included dispositional measures of procrastination and social evaluation trait anxiety. Subsequently, and 7 days prior to their first examination (Stage 1), each of the 40 female and 23 male students completed measures of state anxiety, perception of the stressor situation, and ways of coping, all with regard to their approaching exam period. These judgments were repeated 1 day prior to their first examination (Stage 2), and again 5 days after their last examination (Stage 3). Correlational analyses indicated that threat and harm perceptions were highly positively related to state anxiety, whereas challenge and gain were moderately and negatively related. State anxiety was linked to emotion-focused coping, but was independent of problem-focused coping. In an analysis of variance, high procrastination, high trait anxious subjects felt the least challenged at Stage 1. In a ‘maverick’, post hoc analysis, high procrastinators were more likely than low procrastinators at each stage to promise themselves ‘that things will be different next time’. Discussion included an assessment of the need for specificity when using the Ways of Coping (Folkman and Lazarus, 1985) scale.     

Impact of situational legitimacy and assertiveness-related anxiety/discomfort on motivation and ability to generate effective criticism responses

This study compares the motivation and the quality of criticism responses of 697 undergraduates who were divided into three levels of situation legitimacy (high, moderate, and low) and two levels (top versus bottom 40 percent) of anxiety related to previous generalized assertiveness behaviours. The impact of gender was also studied. The results showed the legitimacy of the situation for a critical response (preassessed with peer hold-out groups) significantly affected participants' motivation to criticize as well as the quality of their critical responses, notwithstanding the poor quality of all criticism responses. Anxiety related to previous global assertiveness was related to high motivation but not to quality of criticism responses. There were no gender effects. Results are interpreted within an avoidance learning paradigm wherein the connotative meaning of criticism is incongruent with harmonious long-term relationships so that it is suppressed until virtually forced by the specifics of highly legitimate situations.     

Impact of situational legitimacy and assertiveness-related anxiety/discomfort on motivation and ability to generate effective criticism responses

This study compares the motivation and the quality of criticism responses of 697 undergraduates who were divided into three levels of situation legitimacy (high, moderate, and low) and two levels (top versus bottom 40 percent) of anxiety related to previous generalized assertiveness behaviours. The impact of gender was also studied. The results showed the legitimacy of the situation for a critical response (preassessed with peer hold-out groups) significantly affected participants' motivation to criticize as well as the quality of their critical responses, notwithstanding the poor quality of all criticism responses. Anxiety related to previous global assertiveness was related to high motivation but not to quality of criticism responses. There were no gender effects. Results are interpreted within an avoidance learning paradigm wherein the connotative meaning of criticism is incongruent with harmonious long-term relationships so that it is suppressed until virtually forced by the specifics of highly legitimate situations.     

Sex differences in self-reported anxiety for different situations and modes of response

Abstract.— A review was made of recent studies employing different S-R inventories of anxiety and fear. The review pointed to the need for studies of sex differences for inventories where both situations and modes of response are selected separately. Such an analysis was made in the present study with regard to sex differences in both level and variability of self-reported anxiety for both total scores, factor scores, and single situation and response scales. The Ss were 116 adolescents, about 16 years of age. The inventory comprised 17 situations and 18 modes of response. With a few minor exceptions the analyses showed consistent sex differences throughout, with girls scoring higher than boys and showing greater interindividual variability in reported anxiety. Among other things, the results are discussed in relation to sex differences reported for physiological variables.     

Anxiety,coping and academic performance

Anxiety is a frequent response to stressful evaluation situations and may be correlated with the performance being evaluated. The present study investigated individual differences in social evaluation trait anxiety and coping dimensions as predictors of state anxiety and performance on a university examination. Separate multiple regressions were computed for coping assessed as a style, an individual difference measure, and as situational specific responses. Emotion-oriented coping predicted state anxiety in the evaluation situation. Social evaluation trait anxiety and task-oriented and emotionoriented coping responses predicted exam performance. The regression models predicted approximately a quarter of the variance in course grades. When coping was measured as a response, task-oriented coping response was a significant predictor of course grade. When coping was measured as a style or individual difference, avoidance-oriented coping style predicted aggregated course grade. It was suggested that different coping dimensions predict different outcomes and that coping be assessed over time to better understand its relation to performance.     

Intensity and Interpretation of Competitive State Anxiety: Relationship to Performance and Repressive Coping

Abstract

This study examined (a) the predictions of multidimensional anxiety theory, (b) the effect of interpreting anxiety responses as having a debilitative or facilitative effect on performance, and (c) the influence of a repressive coping style on the relationship of anxiety to performance in recreational and semi-professional bowlers (N = 158). Regression analyses indicated cognitive intensity had an inverted-U relationship to performance that explained 4.1% of the variance (p < .05). The somatic direction subscale had a positive linear relationship to performance that explained 3.0% of the variance (p < .05). Removing bowlers with a repressive coping style resulted in a stronger and different anxiety-performance relationship. Cognitive intensity kept an inverted-U relationship, but increased the performance variance explained to 12.6%. Somatic intensity became significant, but with a negative linear relationship that explained 6.1% of performance variance. The findings did not support multi-dimensional anxiety theory and offered only limited support for inclusion of directional interpretation scales.     

Value of the interactional anger model: studies in management and competitive sports

This study focuses on testing the interactional approach underlying the anger models of Novaco (1978) and Spielberger (1988). An additional goal was to demonstrate different types of situations that give rise to anger and different dimensions of anger response in two samples of 97 managers and 74 athletes. Results showed that an anger response could be differentiated into a physiological, a cognitive, and two behavioral components. For the latter, it was confirmed that the expression of anger could be categorized into two independent components, anger in and anger out. Classifying anger situations revealed only a limited situation specificity of the tendency toward anger. The results on the validity of the interactional approach depended on the methods of analysis chosen. If the percentage of variance components were interpreted in the direction of an interactional approach, the external validity coefficients in at least one sample could not be interpreted unequivocally in this direction.     

Similar situations—Similar behaviors?: A study of the intraindividual congruence between situation perception and situation reactions

A basic assumption in an interactional model of behavior is that individual behavior is more similar across situations which are perceived and interpreted as similar by the individual than across situations which are perceived as less similar or not similar at all. This proposition was investigated using a psychophysical scaling method for the study of perceived similarity between situations and measures of similarity between reaction profiles as expressions of cross-situational similarity in reactions. Individual data from 39 adolescents were analyzed. Hypothetical anxiety-evoking situations, and self-reported anxiety reactions, were used. The overall outcome of the comparison was in the predicted direction. For about 77% of the subjects the relationship was in the expected direction and for about 40% the relationship was statistically significant.     

The gulf war: Distressful reactions to scud missiles attacks

This study investigated the relationships among coping strategies, trait anxiety and distressful reactions (State anxiety and fears and symptoms) of Israeli civilians under missile attack during the 1991 Gulf war. During the war sixty-six subjects (46 females and 20 males) completed a questionnaire that measured their distressful reactions and included fears in various situations (e.g., during the night, in the sealed room) and various symptoms (e.g., sleep disturbances, sensitivity to noise). In addition each subject completed the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS, Endler & Parker, 1990a), a multidimensional self-report measure of coping which measures three major coping strategies: task-oriented, emotion-oriented and avoidance-oriented. Subjects also completed the State and Trait anxiety scales of the Endler Multidimensional Anxiety Scales (EMAS, Endler, Edwards, & Vitelli, 1991). The state anxiety scales measure two components of the individual's state anxiety, cognitive worry and autonomic emotional reactions. The trait anxiety scales measure the individual's predisposition to experience anxiety in four different situations: social evaluation, physical danger, ambiguous situations and daily routines. The results showed that individuals who used emotion-oriented coping more frequently, experienced more state anxiety and symptoms and fears, (i.e., experienced greater distress) during the war. Task-oriented and avoidance-oriented coping were not related to the distressful reactions. It was further found that subjects high on physical danger trait anxiety and social evaluation trait anxiety experienced greater fears and more symptoms (i.e., experienced greater distress) during the war. Persons high on social evaluation trait anxiety also experienced great cognitive-worry state anxiety. The results are discussed within the framework of the multidimensional model of stress, anxiety and coping (Endler, 1988; Endler & Parker, 1990a, 1990b) and the special characteristics of the Gulf war situation.     

Depressive Tendencies and Susceptibility to Anxiety: Differential Personality Correlates

Although the constructs of depression and anxiety are conceptually and clinically separable, they have been difficult to separate psychometrically. The present study is an attempt to statistically disentangle the two constructs and to evaluate their differential correlates. A common factor analysis of the items in a depression and an anxiety inventory was conducted using data collected from two samples—208 college students and eighty-seven 18-year-olds participating in the Block Longitudinal Study. In both samples two factors, interpreted as depressive tendencies and susceptibility to anxiety, were found; the factor loadings on each factor were highly correlated across the two samples. No sex differences were found in these factor structures. Factor-based scores comprised of well-differentiating items were computed for participants in the Block sample. Using partial correlation analyses, observer-measured as well as self-report-based personality correlates of the specific variance associated with depressive tendencies and with susceptibility to anxiety, respectively, were contrasted. The results indicated that a strong interpersonal component discernible in depression was less noticeable in anxiety.     

An S-R inventory of dominance for research on the nature of person-situation interactions1

The development and validation of an S-R inventory of dominance is described. The inventory was found to have high reliability, adequate convergent and discriminant validity, and a meaningful factor structure. In samples of 18 and 164 college students the interaction between persons and situations contributed more to total score variance than did either persons or situations taken separately. Moreover, the percentage of variance due to the person-situation interaction for dominance was found to be substantially larger than those obtained for other personality characteristics that have been studied with S-R inventories. These considerations suggest that this new S-R inventory is particularly appropriate for future research on dominance and the nature of person-situation interactions.