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Effects of anxiety on attitudes ‐ A semantic differential study
Author(s) -
Gentil Maria L. Felix,
Lader Malcolm
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
british journal of medical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.102
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 2044-8341
pISSN - 0007-1129
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8341.1979.tb02504.x
Subject(s) - psychology , semantic differential , anxiety , differential (mechanical device) , cognitive psychology , clinical psychology , social psychology , psychiatry , engineering , aerospace engineering
Eighteen female out‐patients suffering from chronic anxiety states and 25 normal women matched for age filled in an anxiety inventory and completed semantic differential forms on 21 concepts grouped into four areas: characters, locations, human interactions and abstractions. Each concept was rated on 15 scales grouped into four types: evaluation, activity‐potency, sex evaluation and danger. The normal subjects were divided into high anxiety and low anxiety subgroups on the basis of their trait anxiety scores. Anxious patients rated themselves with lower self‐esteem and confidence. They reacted with apprehension to unfamiliar locations and perceived danger in other people. Sexual activity and the human body were viewed negatively. Anxious patients' apprehensions were particularly raised by vague abstractions.