An interactionist approach to the study of anxiety An analysis of an S‐R inventory applied to an adolescent sample

Abstract

Abstract.— An inventory of anxiety was constructed according to the “S‐R format”, i.e., with situations and responses selected separately. The inventory employed 17 situation scales, supposed to induce different degrees of anxiety, and 18 response scales, supposed to represent different reactions to anxiety evoking stimuli. The Ss were a group of 128 pupils, 16years of age. The main purpose was to estimate the relative proportions of variance from the different variance sources. The results showed that individuals and situations contributed only about 6% each of the total variation, responses about 19%, the simple interactions about 30%, and the residual about 40%. Factor analyses of the situation and responsescales showed that these scales were multidimensional. For the response scales two main factors were isolated, interpreted as “Psychic anxiety”, and “Somatic anxiety”. For the situation scales three main factors were isolated, interpreted as “Threat of punishment”, “Anticipation fear”, and “Inanimate threat”.