Nature and Incidence of Manifest Anxiety Responses among College Students

Abstract

This study was undertaken to provide normative data needed for further studies in this setting. A modified version of the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (Taylor, 1953) was administered to 128 sophomore college students ( 7 4 female, 54 male) at the first session of a course in Fundamentals of Psychology. Ss were between 1 9 and 21 yr. and presumably representative of the college. This scale consisted of 50 statements. The number of Ss giving anxiety responses was tabulated for each question, as well as the number of anxiety responses for each of the 128 Ss. The average number of anxiety responses per student was 10.45, with a standard deviation of 6.78 and range of 36 to 0. The 7 4 females gave an average of 12.18 anxiety responses and the 54 males, an average of 7.89 anxiety responses. The average anxiety response per question was 24.4% in the female group, with a standard deviation of 15.3%. In the male group the mean anxiery response was 15.8%. with a standard deviation of 12.4%. The difference between these means for males and females was statistically significant at the 1 % level ( C R = 3.03). In both males and females the most frequently given anxiety responses touched upon feelings of inadequacy or inferiority in academic or social situations, and frustration at delay or postponement of bio-social gratifications. I t is interesting to confirm earlier reports that females as a group express a greater degree of anxiety than d o males (Bendig, 1 9 5 9 ) . While the difference was statistically significant, it most probably reflected greater willingness on the part of females to disclose themselves to others (Jourard, 1958) . It was hypothesized that those statements to which statistically significantly fewer Ss responded in the anxiety direction may be of diagnostic significance.