Subjective definitions of tension

To examine the type of proprioceptive information which subjects include in the definition of tension, 52 subjects were asked to indicate the location of where they felt tension while engaging in a simple motor task. Responses indicated that tendon stretch, muscle tension, and other cues are utilized in the subject's definition of tension.

Normative data on the Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale in a developing country

The study was designed to provide normative data for Ugandan sample of third through seventh grade children ( n = 711) on Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale. Girls ( n = 352) scored significantly higher than boys ( n — 359) on the anxiety scale. Significant differences on the Lie scale were associated with grade. Comparison of the present mean scores of Ugandan school children with those reported by various American authors underlines the importance of considering ecological differences in future cross-cultural studies with this scale. The collection of further normative data is also suggested.

Pregnant women's ratings of different factors influencing psychological stress during pregnancy

A group of predominantly white and low-income women answered questionnaires including (a) rating adjustment required by various life events, (b) listing events occurring during pregnancy or the preceding year, (c) personal and social resources for coping with life events, (d) the Manifest Anxiety Scale, and (e) the Lie Scale of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). Results indicate that making life-event scales more sensitive as measures of stress will require specifying the emotional significance that life events have for a person, either by obtaining the person's own ratings, or by using mean life adjustment ratings from appropriate samples. Mean adjustment ratings given 69 different life events are listed for the present sample. Women who were more candid (as judged by the Lie Scale scores) reported significantly more stressful life events and had higher Manifest Anxiety Scale scores, indicating the need to control for subject denial in stress research. However, the amount of stressful life change and the resources for coping with such change also made significant independent contributions to the variance in anxiety scale scores, suggesting the feasibility of measuring different factors influencing psychological stress in pregnant women.

Psychopathology and defensive style of alcoholics as a function of congruence-incongruence between psychological differentiation and locus of control

Witkin's psychological differentiation construct and Rotter's locus of control construct were studied independently and in interaction to assess their ability to predict psychopathology and defensive style in a sample of 160 adult, male alcoholics. As predicted, locus of control was significantly correlated with both psychopathology and defensive style and field articulation was significantly correlated with defensive style. However, the congruent and incongruent construct was not significantly related to either psychopathology or defensive style.

Exercise-produced arousal, film-induced arousal and attribution of internal state

Respiration rates were monitored on 20 high-anxious and 20 low-anxious female Ss while they were watching an anxiety-provoking film on industrial accidents. Half of the Ss exercised on a bicycle while half remained seated throughout their viewing of the film. Exercised Ss reported feeling less anxious while viewing the accidents compared with the inactive controls. All groups recalled similiar amounts of the film content, and respiration rates did not increase while viewing the accidents. Results of self-report of anxiety are consistent with a recently advanced theory of objective self-awareness.

Crohn's disease: a psychosomatic illness?

We investigated the psychological status of Crohn's disease patients because 10 such patients had been referred to our psychiatric out-patient department over a period of six years, whereas if there were no association between the disease and psychiatric morbidity, the expected referral rate would be one case in 20 to 100 years. We found an association between episodes of psychiatric and physical symptoms in the case histories. We administered the Eysenck Personality Inventory and the Manifest Anxiety Scale to 28 out-patients with Crohn's disease (8 psychiatrically and 20 non-psychiatrically referred), 17 with chronic non-psychosomatic medical diseases, 43 with psychosomatic diseases and 100 with neurosis. Crohn's disease patients were significantly more anxious, neurotic and introverted than both the test norms and the non-psychosomatic medical out-patients and did not differ appreciably from the psychosomatic patients in these respect.

Neurotic anxiety, pronoun usage and stress

The use of the pronoun "I" when a speaker refers to his own actions, thoughts, or emotions is appropriate. Omission of the pronoun or the use of "you" or "it" may be taken as an indicant of psychological distantiation. This study examines the effects of stress and neurotic anxiety on pronoun usage. Forty-five male and female undergraduate Ss enrolled at Virginia Commonwealth University were selected randomly from 172 volunteers assessed for neurotic anxiety level as measured by the Maudsley Personality Inventory and Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale. Treatment consisted of asking 20 emotionally charged questions, 10 of which were neutral baseline questions and the other 10 were either negative, neutral, or positive in stress. Responses were tape recorded and transcribed. It was found that negative stress interacting with medium level anxiety neurotics significantly increased distantiation above baseline levels. A hypothesis to explain the results was offered.

Rating scales as predictors of response to tricyclic antidepressants

Fifty-three patients suffering from depressive illness were classified as 'responders' or 'non-responders' on the basis of an "amelioration score" of the Hamilton Rating Scale for depression after six weeks treatment with nortriptyline hydrochloride at 150 mgs. daily. A multivariate analysis of variance was performed on the four psychological rating scale scores used, to determine whether rating scales could predict treatment response to tricyclis antidepressants was found to be at 75% probability.ic anti-depressants was found to be at 757. probability.ic antidepressants. There was a significant difference between the two groups after adjustment for age. Subjects were then classified as 'non-responders' and 'responders' on the basis of their discriminant scores. The prediction of response to tricycl

Personal concerns and manifest anxiety in black students

The areas and magnitude of personal problems and their relationships with manifest anxiety were investigated in 154 male and 202 female black undergraduate students in a predominantly black state university in the South. Both males and females were highly concerned over problems in college work, finance, living conditions, and employment, social and recreational activities, and curriculum and teaching procedure. A significant sex difference at the .05 level was evidenced by the Mann-Whitney U test. Significant positive correlations were found between the number of problems and anxiety scores in 9 areas for males and in all 11 areas for females. Two problem areas that did not correlate significantly with anxiety scores for males were social and recreational activities and home and family.

Relationship between distortions in self-perception of depression and psychopathology

The present study investigated the relationship between distortions in self-perceived depression and generalized psychopathology. Alcoholic inpatients were asked to choose the more depressed patient in each pair of a paired-comparison rating task. Patients also were administered the Beck Depression Inventory as an objective measure of depression and the MMPI as a measure of overall psychopathology. Individuals who had a marked discrepancy between their self-perceived and objectively measured level of depression had significant elevations (T-score greater than 70) on 5 of the 10 MMPI clinical scales. The High Distortion group, whose mean MMPI profile was categorized as psychiatric, appeared to be more depressed, anxious, socially immature and alienated and to have increased difficulties in thinking and communication than Ss in the Low Distortion group. These findings substantiate the hypothesis that an individual's inability to perceive accurately the level of his depression is related to a greater degree of overall psychopathology.

Patients' opinions of the therapeutic relationship in rational behavior psychotherapy

Very few psychotherapists can give a simple objective description of therapeutic relationship. Yet there are few concepts in traditional psychotherapy that are as widely accepted as being important and as actively pursued as the therapeutic relationship. Like many behavior therapists, however, rational behavior therapists neither actively pursue nor even hypothesize a therapeutic relationship. For that reason, many traditional psychotherapists look at behaviorists with suspicion and are reluctant to use behavioral techniques. This study tried to resolve this difference in professional opinions by consulting patients, the only legitimate experts on the issue. The two main implications are: first, if a therapeutic relationship is a distinct entity, it's probably an incidental result of effective psychotherapy. Secondly, friendly concern is probably all any therapists need to achieve therapeutic success.

Manifest anxiety and self-concept: further investigation

Manifest Anxiety Scale (MAS), Actual-Self, Ideal-Self, and Self-Ideal Discrepancy results from 134 first-year female nursing students were studied by the multivariate methods of factor analysis and multiple regression. Ideal-Self was less variant than Actual-Self, and correlated significantly with it. Factorial compositions of the three self-conceptual indices uncovered three overlapping factors: a tension-steadiness-worry factor, a well-being factor, and superficial social assets factor. The correlation of MAS with the discrepancy scores was overwhelmingly due to its relationship to Actual-Self, since it was only scarcely related to Ideal-Self, MAS was mainly associated with traits loading on the tension factor and secondarily with the well-being factor. Traits touching upon intellectual efficiency, physical attractiveness, and methodicalness were unrelated to MAS.

Relationships among locus of control, self-concept, and anxiety

Sixty male alcoholic inpatients were administered the Locus of Control scale (IE), the Activity Preference Questionnaire (APQ), the Manifest Anxiety scale (MAS), and the Tennessee Self Concept scale (TSCS). Ss defined as having an external locus of control appeared significantly more anxious than internal Ss on the MAS; however, no differences were found between groups on the APQ or TSCS scales. The self-report (MAS) and nonobtrusive (APQ) measures of anxiety were not correlated significantly. A differential pattern of correlations was found between the MAS and APQ and TCSC subscale scores. The obtained correlations support the contention that the MAS may measure more accurately a dimension of neuroticism and/or negative self-concept rather than anxiety. Further research appears necessary to investigate the internal consistency and dimensionality of the MAS.

EPI and IPAT anxiety scale performance in young women as related to breast feeding during infancy

Performance of female first-year psychology students on the EPI and IPAT anxiety scale were examined in relation to length of breast-feeding during infancy. Ss who never were breast fed scored significantly higher on the IPAT scale and the EPI neuroticism dimension than breast-fed Ss irrespective of duration. The results were discussed in the light of future investigations of mother-child relationships.

Compulsivity, manifest anxiety, and gullibility

This study investigated the correlations among compulsivity, as measured by the Breskin Rigidity Test, anxiety, as measured by the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale, and gullibility, measured by Forer's technique. Anxiety scores of 44 undergraduate men and 54 women correlated .52 with gullibility scores, replicating previous findings. Compulsivity scores correlated −.23 with anxiety scores and were not related to gullibility scores ( r = −.15). These results were contrary to expectation, since previous research had suggested that compulsivity indexed by other tests should be positively related to both anxiety and gullibility.

Factors influencing demand for primary medical care in women aged 20-44 years: a preliminary report

This paper reports on a study designed to relate certain social and psychological variables to demand for medical care in a random sample of female patients aged between 20 and 44 years, in a National Health Service General Practice in the United Kingdom. Women selected for study completed questionnaires on anxiety and on their social characteristics. They also completed a health diary for four weeks, and over 12 months their demand for general practitioner care was recorded. This paper summarizes some of the literature on the subject of utilization behaviour, describes the objectives and methodology, and gives some preliminary results suggesting associations between anxiety, perception of symptoms and demand for primary care.

Psychological preparation for surgery pediatric patients: the effects on children's and parents' stress responses and adjustment

This clinical experiment tested variations of psychological preparation and supportive care designed to increase the adjustment of children (and their parents) hospitalized for elective surgery. Eighty-four children, aged 3 to 12, admitted for tonsillectomies were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions or to a control group: (1) a combination of systematic preparation, rehearsal, and supportive care conducted prior to each stressful procedure; (2) a single-session preparation conducted after admission, and (3) consistent supportive care given by one nurse at the same points as in the first condition, but including no systematic preparation or rehearsal. The children's hospital adjustment was measured by blind ratings of behavioral upset and cooperation during the blood test, medication injection, transport to surgery, induction, and postoperative fluid intake and by recovery room medications and pulse rates and time to first voiding. Post-hospital adjustment was assessed with Vernon et al.'s Post Hospital Behavior Inventory. Parent outcome measures included self-ratings for anxiety and satisfaction with information and care. As hypothesized, the results demonstrated that children who received condition one showed significantly less upset and more cooperation and their parents reported significantly greater satisfaction and less anxiety than did children or parents in the other groups. Younger children were significantly more upset and less cooperative than older children.