State vs trait anxiety: A case study in confirmatory factor analysis

The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI; Spielberger et al., 1970) originally divided anxiety into two factors: state anxiety, reflecting how an individual currently feels, and trait anxiety, reflecting how an individual generally feels. Recently, however, Spielberger revised his position to separate the presence and absence of anxiety symptoms within state and trait factors, yielding a hypothetical correlated 4-factor structure (Spielberger et al., 1980). Endler and Magnusson (1965) and Endler et al. (1976) have challenged the state vs trait distinction based upon their own factor analytical results. Since both sets of investigations used exploratory approaches, which do not postulate a particular factor structure, these studies do not provide an explicit test of the state vs trait distinction. A confirmatory factor analytic approach was used in the present study to evaluate Spielberger's 4-factor hypothesis. The subjects were large samples of male air force trainees and high school students for whom STAI data were available. The results of these confirmatory analyses indicated that the factors identified in exploratory analysis by Spielberger and his colleagues accounted for the data quite well.     

Temporal ordering deficits following anterior temporal lobectomy

Subjects were required to report the pitch sequence of two 10-msec tones of different frequency presented monaurally while the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between the two tones was varied. The value of the SOA at which the subjects achieved an 80% correct sequence report was determined by an adaptive procedure without feedback. This measure was compared in the right and left ears, on subjects with a right or left anterior temporal lobectomy and on a normal control group. The results reveal an elevated threshold for performing temporal order judgments in the ear contralateral to the surgical lesion.     

An on-line laboratory in cognition and perception

The design of a computer-based laboratory system requires the coordination of pedagogical and technical goals. The development of our on-line laboratory in cognition and perception is described. The laboratory consists of 11 on-line experiments in which the student participates as both experimenter and subject. The software was designed for maximum transportability: Programs were written in a low-level BASIC, with thorough documentation; flexibility is provided both within and across experiments to suit local constraints; and the experiments are supported by a student manual, instructor’s manual, and implementation notes. Criteria for selecting experiments, implementation of the experiments, and preliminary evaluation of the laboratory are discussed.     

About the Contributors

Biography

About the Contributors     

Alcohol,Fear, and Woman Abuse

Although there is ample evidence that alcoholusage is associated with greater frequency, incidenceand severity of spouse battering, there is alsoconsiderable evidence which does not support a direct linkage. This research investigates aheretofore neglected area, the role of substance use ininducing fear in victims. As part of a larger study ofthe police response to battering, 419 female victims of male offenders participated in intensiveinterviews; the sample consisted of 69.9% Black and28.9% White women. All the women had been victims of atleast one occurrence of misdemeanor-level abuse, and many were in chronically abusive relationships.The women participating in this study were moderatelyeducated and relatively young, with a mean age of 30years old. Relationship status was bimodal with roughly equal numbers of married and cohabitingcouples; there were relatively few who were divorced orseparated from their assailants, or were ex-cohabitants.The male partners of women represented in this sample were extremely heavy drinkerscompared to a national sample. The quantity andfrequency of alcohol use was less predictive ofthreatening or physically battering behavior than wasmale drunkenness. Frequent drunkenness was highly correlated withboth threats and with battering. Similarly, victims'fear of their partners was much more strongly associatedwith how frequently they were drunk than with drinking itself.