DISCOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT OF MEASUREMENT SCALES FOR THE DIMENSIONS OF ANXIETY.

A total of 172 different objective, questionnaire, rating, and environmental-condition variables, measuring anxiety, and related aspects of personality, were administered to 86 male college students. Factor analyses were performed on measurements a at occasion 1, b at occasion 2, four weeks later, and c on changes in score between occasions, for the 72 variables common to a and b. A single major conscious anxiety factor was confirmed in these three analyses, and further defined by cross-comparisons of loadings with six other factor analytic studies. This factor is primarily characterized by lack of self assurance and symptoms of tension, and is reliably distinguishable from neuroticism and all other known personality factor-dimensions. Assessments of overall anxiety level, made independently by two psychiatrists, agree in loading this factor but disagree generally in loading pattern elsewhere, and correlate only 24. What is essentially common to the majority of alleged physiological and psychological tests of anxiety, and to psychiatrists ratings is therefore a dependable, reproducible unitary factor, labeled U.I. 24 in the universal index series of thirty psychological factors. Tests loading highly or consistently on U. I. 24, with various newly constructed anxiety measures, were readministered to 187 male college students and intercorrelations computed. Analysis of all the above data yields proposals for two anxiety test batteries. Test copies, scoring keys and administration instructions are provided. Author