The Relationship of Emotionality and Worry Components of Anxiety to Motor Skills Performance

Abstract

Three studies investigating the relationship between components of evaluation anxiety and typing performance are reported. Subjects represented business college students enrolled in typing (N=49) and English (N = 39) classes, applicants for clerical positions (N=50), and college students (N=11). State-trait anxiety inventory A-trait scores (Study I only) and scores on a 10-item questionnaire designed to assess both the cognitive (worry) and emotional components of state anxiety were correlated with performance measures reflecting both typing speed and accuracy. Contrary to expectations, self-reported physiological and affective arousal (emotionality) was consistently shown to have little debilitative effect on performance. This finding was consistent across groups differing in degree of typing skill and across situations differing in amount of anxiety induced. Rather, worry scores were correlated negatively with performance as in studies of other types of academic performance.