Validating self-report measures of state and trait anxiety against a physiological measure

Abstract

While anxiety research frequently uses only self-report measures to assess dimensions of state and trait anxiety, the present study sought to corroborate these self-report measures using a physiological measure, namely heart rate. Another aim of the present study was to test the multidimensional interaction model of anxiety in a social evalua-tion situation (i.e., a seminar presentation), using a physiological measure of state anxiety. Graduate psychology students completed a state anxiety questionnaire and were attached to a heart rate recorder prior to a class seminar presentation. One week later, students completed trait and state anxiety questionnaires and were again at-tached to a heart rate recorder prior to seminar observation by others. Heart rate was elevated during seminar presentation relative to seminar observation, reached maxi-mum values during the first 15 minutes of seminar presentation and then decreased over time. State anxiety scores indicate that participants were experiencing consider-ably more anxiety just before presenting the seminar than just before observing a seminar. Heart rate during seminar presentation was significantly correlated with self-report state anxiety and self-report social evaluation trait anxiety, but not with seminar grade. Support was found for the multidimensional interaction model of anxiety using the physiological measure (i.e., heart rate).