Anxiety Appraisal Research Articles

Cultural considerations for the second language writing anxiety inventory: Saudi Arabian female university students

IntroductionThis study examines the applicability of the Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI) to a population of 857 native Arabic-speaking Saudi Arabian female university students learning English as a foreign language (EFL).MethodsParticipants were divided into two groups. The first of these consisted of 430 students who participated in the testing portion of the study. The second group consisted of 427 students who participated in the replication portion of this study. The instrument used was the Second Language Writing Anxiety Index (SLWAI). Exploratory factor analysis was first conducted on the testing group to determine which items of this instrument applied to this population. A second factor analysis was then used to confirm the results found with the testing group.ResultsSLWAI is typically used to assess the degree of EFL writing anxiety across three dimensions: somatic anxiety, avoidance behavior, and cognitive anxiety. However, factor analysis of the data collected from both groups revealed that these dimensions are not entirely pertinent to the population studied. The three dimensions that emerged are somatic anxiety and two distinct aspects of cognitive anxiety: proficiency anxiety and appraisal anxiety. No evidence of avoidance behavior was found.DiscussionThese results suggest that the dimensions measured by the SLWAI may not be universal across differing sociocultural populations. This highlights the importance of assessing anxiety in individual populations with consideration to the unique circumstances in which they learn to write in English as a foreign language. By determining unique aspects of writing anxiety in differing populations, EFL instructors may be better able to identify and then target the needs of their students as they work through the process of developing English-language writing skills.

An appraisal‐based examination of language teacher emotions in anxiety‐provoking classroom situations using vignette methodology

AbstractDespite emerging evidence for the link between teacher emotions and student outcomes, research on language teachers’ classroom emotions is still scarce. This study adopts a framework rooted in appraisal‐based emotion theory to explore the complexity of teachers’ emotional lives and the nature of language teacher emotions in the classroom, using anxiety as a starting point and drawing on vignette methodology for emotion elicitation. A total of 272 foreign and second language teachers from North America, Asia, and Europe completed an online version of the Foreign Language Teacher Emotion Questionnaire. Each teacher evaluated two vignettes of anxiety‐provoking classroom scenarios along six appraisal dimensions and reported their emotions. Results indicate great levels of emotional complexity, revealing both the frequent presence of multiple positive emotions and the rare experience of anxiety as the sole emotion in anxiety‐provoking classroom scenarios. At the same time, regression analyses found that anxiety's appraisal pattern explains between 16% and 48% of the variance in anxiety across all vignettes. Implications for adopting appraisal‐based emotion theories and vignette methodology in language teachers’ classroom emotion research in second language acquisition are discussed.

Adolescents’ interpersonal cognition and self-appraisal of their own anxiety in an imagined anxiety-provoking classroom presentation scenario: Gender differences

Oral class presentations are regularly assigned to adolescents, but often provoke social anxiety, due to the importance of peer approval and need to appraise oneself as normal. Also, little is known about gender differences in girls’ and boys’ interpersonal cognition and appraisals of anxiety and self in anxiety-provoking speech situations. We examined gender differences in interpersonal cognition and appraisals of anxiety in an imagined class presentation scenario in a normative sample of 687 adolescents, 14-16-years-old, from Southwest Finland. Measures included the Classroom Questionnaire of Social Anxiety and Interpersonal Cognition and the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents. T-tests examined gender differences in interpersonal cognition, and chi-square tests examined adolescents’ appraisals of the likelihood of their own presentation anxiety and self as anxious. Girls more frequently reported positive, and less frequently reported negative, responses toward the depicted, anxious peer than boys. Also, a higher percentage of girls predicted that becoming anxious in the situation was likely, and non-acceptance of self as anxious was more frequent among girls. Boys predicted negative overt classmate reactions (e.g., laughing) towards the depicted, anxious peer, and towards themselves more frequently than did girls. Results are discussed in the context of gender-specific development and procedures for reducing adolescent social anxiety.

Out of my league: Appraisals of anxiety and confidence in others by individuals with and without social anxiety disorder

Forty participants with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and 42 healthy controls (HCs) were randomized to watch a confederate deliver a speech in either a visibly anxious or confident manner. Participants rated their perception of the presenter’s desirability across five attributes and compared themselves to the presenter along these same dimensions. Participants then delivered their own speeches, and were rated in a similar manner by trained research assistants who were naïve to participants’ group status and study objectives. Results demonstrated that all participants, irrespective of group status, judged the visibly anxious presenter as being less desirable and the confident presenter as more desirable. Socially anxious participants tended to view themselves as inferior to confident others. Coders also rated participants with SAD, based on their speeches, as being less interpersonally desirable than HCs. These results suggest that individuals who appear visibly anxious may be objectively disadvantaged in their ability to make a positive first impression on others. We discuss these findings in relation to theoretical models of social anxiety and explore how to address such interpersonal factors in psychological interventions for SAD.

Emotion Appraisal and Anxiety Symptomatology in a University Sample

Current conceptualizations for anxiety disorders focus heavily on cognitive and behavioral aspects of anxiety and address other emotions to a far lesser extent. Studies have demonstrated that negative appraisals of anxiety and fear (e.g., anxiety sensitivity) are elevated in each of the anxiety disorders and depressive disorders. Much less is known about how the appraisal of other emotions is related to anxiety disorder symptom presentation. The current study examines the appraisal of specific aversive emotions in relation to anxiety symptomatology. Undergraduate university students (N = 530) completed measures of specific anxiety and depressive symptoms, as well as a measure of emotional appraisal. A maximum likelihood estimated multivariate regression model was used to examine the unique relationships between emotional appraisal and anxiety and depressive symptoms. Results indicated that anxiety symptoms varied in their relationships with emotional appraisal. Each symptom group was highly related to fear of appraisals of anxiety; however, some anxiety symptoms were also related to fear of other emotional states, including guilt, sadness, disgust, lust, and embarrassment. Understanding the full range of appraisals of emotional experiences in anxiety conditions may help inform conceptualizations, and potentially treatments, by guiding the focus to the feared emotional states of the individual. The present study helps to clarify some of the relationships between emotion appraisal and anxiety symptoms.

Heart Rate Recovery Predicts Memory Performance in Older Adults

The current study examined cardiovascular reactivity and recovery during memory testing in a sample of 28 younger and 28 older adults. Heart rate (HR) levels were measured before, during, and after a memory test (word list recall). Contrary to prediction, older adults did not have a blunted cardiovascular response to memory tasks compared to younger adults. Word list recall performance was predicted by both Age and an Age x HR recovery interaction. As expected, younger adults performed better on the word list task than older adults. In addition, older adults with better posttest HR recovery performed significantly better than older adults with poor posttest HR recovery, whereas HR recovery differences in younger adults were inconsequential. These relationships were not affected by subjective appraisals of anxiety and task difficulty. Overall, cardiac dysregulation, seen here as low HR recovery, represents an important, potentially modifiable, factor in memory performance in older adults. In addition to being beneficial to overall health, interventions designed to help older adults regulate their HR responses may help offset certain memory declines.