The Anxiety Response: Concordance Among Components

Under social-evaluative stress, self-reported distress (cognitive and somatic symptoms), behavioral anxiety (motor, facial, verbal, and social), physiological arousal (heart rate and skin resistance), and task performance (cognitive and motor) were recorded. Concordance was selective and consistent across response systems. There were significant relationships among measures of cognitive aspects, and among those concerned with somatic aspects, but not between these two areas. Furthermore, concordance was much higher in high-than in low-trait/test-anxiety participants, who even exhibited reversed concordance. These differences are explained in terms of stronger physiological signals in high trait/test anxiety. Alternative interpretations involving perceiving and/or reporting internal threat-related information in low trait/test anxiety are discussed.