Performance Anxiety

Abstract

Severe anxiety may impair functioning in diverse endeavors such as public speaking, athletics, test-taking, sexual relations, and artistic performance. We extend previous research on performance anxiety to explore the role of higher-order and primary personality traits and years of training on performance anxiety in musicians, prospectively and over repeated observations. Personality was assessed with the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire, and experience sampling was used to collect repeated measures of anxiety just prior to musical performances of varying type and importance. Multilevel analysis, controlling for known covariates, indicated that Negative Emotionality predicted more than 50% of individual differences in music performance anxiety. An interaction showed that performance anxiety associated with personality disposition was offset by years of formal training. Performance anxiety decreased over successive performances under varying circumstances, suggesting that the diary format of self-monitoring may have therapeutic potential.