Concordance and discordance in speech anxiety assessment: the effects of demand characteristics on the tripartite assessment method

The tripartite assessment method has been useful in describing the multiple-response systems of emotional behavior. Previous studies have demonstrated that behavioral, cognitive and physiological response systems of anxiety often do not covary. Forty speech-anxious Ss were assessed for physiological arousal, self-report of anxiety and behavioral avoidance within the context of a behavioral avoidance test requiring the presentation of an unprepared speech before a live audience. These data were used to test the Hodgson and Rachman hypothesis that response concordance varies as a function of the level of demand present during the assessment. The results indicate that high demand produced response discordance, however, low demand did not result in the response concordance hypothesized to occur under this condition. The results are discussed in terms of the effects of level of demand on response indices of anxiety, and the utility of the tripartite assessment method.