Greater Degree Of Anxiety Research Articles

Factbait: Emotionality of Fact-Checking Tweets and Users’ Engagement during the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Given the importance of fact-checking in reducing the spread of false information on social media, prior research has examined effective fact-checking strategies. The current study addresses this question by conducting a computational analysis of actual fact-checking tweets of three representative fact-checking organizations in the United States (Factcheck.org, PolitiFact, Snopes), replies, and retweets (N = 166,526) on Twitter made from September 29 to November 3, 2020, when the 2020 U.S. presidential election and the COVID-19 crisis co-occurred. The results show that fact-checking tweets with a greater degree of anxiety and anger generally receive more replies, but those exhibiting sadness are retweeted less. Additionally, fact-checking tweets with heightened levels of anxiety, anger, sadness, or negativity, in general, tend to elicit replies featuring a degree of anxiety, anger, sadness, or negativity, respectively. Our findings suggest that emotions can be utilized as drivers of engagement in fact-checking tweets, meaning that the emotional impetus can potentially serve as an important strategy to make fact-checking efforts more impactful in uncertain situations. However, fact-checking organizations should be aware that emotional appeals in fact-checking posts catalyze correspondingly emotional responses from their audiences, which reflects the emotional contagion process.

Strategies for reducing anxiety in language learning: Measuring the effective techniques for managing anxiety in the language learning process

Abstract—Education is often regarded as an effective means of guiding students in the process of altering their behavior to conform to the requirements of both themselves and the expectations of society. Both students' anxiety and their attitudes toward learning are seen as essential elements of the educational process; as a consequence, these factors play an important part in the development of second language skills. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the factors that contribute to the anxious feelings experienced by students attending private institutions in Erbil while they are studying a foreign language. A quantitative study approach was used to measure the students' anxiety, and the factors that were taken into consideration were fear of receiving an unfavorable evaluation, communication apprehension, and exam anxiety. The researcher was successful in collecting the necessary data after adapting and modifying a survey that had been established by previous academics. The researcher was successful in collecting 108 surveys that had all of the required fields filled out. The use of multiple regression analysis allowed for the evaluation of each of the research hypotheses. The findings of this research showed that a student's fear of experiencing negative anxiety was associated with a greater degree of anxiety when it came to the process of learning a new language, whereas a student's fear of performing poorly on a test was associated with a lower value among a number of other variables.

Prospective study of anxiety in patients undergoing an outpatient colonoscopy.

Undergoing a colonoscopy can cause anxiety in patients and this is something which has not been closely studied. To determine the frequency and intensity of anxiety prior to a colonoscopy and the factors which are related to the procedure. This is a prospective study of patients undergoing outpatient colonoscopy in our hospital. Anxiety was assessed using a visual analogue scale of 0 to 100. The severity of anxiety was rated as mild (1-29), moderate (30-79) or severe (80-100). Three hundred and twenty-seven patients completed the study, of whom 154 (47.1%) were men with a median age of 54 years (p25-75: 45-65). Three hundred and nine (94.5%) patients were found to suffer a certain degree of anxiety. The median value on the visual analogue scale was 31 (p25-75: 10-53). Anxiety levels were mild in 136 patients (44%), moderate in 141 (45.6%) and severe in 32 (10.4%). Greater anxiety was associated with female patients (mean 40.38 vs 31.99, p = 0.01) and a poorly tolerated previous colonoscopy (mean 50.67 vs 28.44, p = 0.01) and correlated inversely with age (r = -0.170, p = 0.02). Colonoscopy causes some degree of anxiety in most patients. Being female, younger and having experienced poor tolerance to a previous scan are associated with greater degrees of anxiety. These findings should be taken into account in the implementation of measures to improve the quality and tolerance of colonoscopy.

Seizures in the Developing Brain Cause Adverse Long‐term Effects on Spatial Learning and Anxiety

Seizures in the developing brain cause less macroscopic structural damage than do seizures in adulthood, but accumulating evidence shows that seizures early in life can be associated with persistent behavioral and cognitive impairments. We previously showed that long-term spatial memory in the eight-arm radial-arm maze was impaired in rats that experienced a single episode of kainic acid (KA)-induced status epilepticus during early development (postnatal days (P) 1-14). Here we extend those findings by using a set of behavioral paradigms that are sensitive to additional aspects of learning and behavior. On P1, P7, P14, or P24, rats underwent status epilepticus induced by intraperitoneal injections of age-specific doses of KA. In adulthood (P90-P100), the behavioral performance of these rats was compared with that of control rats that did not receive KA. A modified version of the radial-arm maze was used to assess short-term spatial memory; the Morris water maze was used to evaluate long-term spatial memory and retrieval; and the elevated plus maze was used to determine anxiety. Compared with controls, rats with KA seizures at each tested age had impaired short-term spatial memory in the radial-arm maze (longer latency to criterion and more reference errors), deficient long-term spatial learning and retrieval in the water maze (longer escape latencies and memory for platform location), and a greater degree of anxiety in the elevated plus maze (greater time spent in open arms). These findings provide additional support for the concept that seizures early in life may be followed by life-long impairment of certain cognitive and behavioral functions. These results may have clinical implications, favoring early and aggressive control of seizures during development.

Comparison of alcohol-preferring (P) and nonpreferring (NP) rats on tests of anxiety and for the anxiolytic effects of ethanol

Rats of the selectively bred alcohol-preferring P and alcohol-nonpreferring NP lines were evaluated using three different behavioral measures of anxiety. Compared with NP rats, P rats (1) showed greater footshock-induced suppression of operant responding in an approach-avoidance conflict test; (2) spent less time in the open arms of an elevated plus maze; and (3) took longer in a passive avoidance test to step down from a platform to a grid floor where footshock was received 24 hours earlier. These findings indicate a greater degree of anxiety in the P than in the NP line of rats in these situations. Pretreatment with intraperitoneal (IP) ethanol (0.5–1.0 g/kg) injections produced anticonflict or anxiolytic effects in P but not in NP rats. However, the anticonflict effects of ethanol were small relative to those produced by chlordiazepoxide (CDP, 7.5 mg/kg) in both lines. The results demonstrate that selective breeding for divergent oral ethanol preference has produced associated differences between the P and NP lines of rats in behavioral tests of anxiety and in the anxiolytic effects of ethanol.

Health perceptions of primary care patients and the influence on health care utilization.

This prospective study was conducted to determine the influence of primary care patients' health perceptions on their utilization of health care services. Patients' health perceptions were measured using the RAND Corporation's General Health Perceptions Questionnaire. Physicians provided scores of how they thought the patients perceived their health and of actual physical and emotional health. Utilization data (number of office visits, number of telephone calls to the physician, and ambulatory charges) were evaluated for a 12-month period after completion of the questionnaire. Of 208 patients, 62 (30%) patients with health perceptions scores less than 50 had greater degrees of anxiety (P less than .001), depression (P less than .001), health-related worry (P less than .001), and felt less able to resist illness (P less than .001) than patients with higher health perception scores. Analysis of covariance was used to control for differences in physical health among groups of patients with varying health perceptions. These analyses revealed that patients with low health perceptions made more office visits (P = .002), more telephone calls to the physician (P = .01), and had more office charges (P = .05) than patients with higher scores. Physicians accurately predicted the patients' health perceptions in 49% of the cases. In 37%, they thought patients would score their health perceptions higher than they did; in 14% they thought patients would score their health perceptions lower. Health perceptions are an important factor contributing to the use of health care by primary care patients, regardless of the patient's actual physical health. Persons with low health perceptions account for approximately 5% of office visits, a clinically important fraction, especially when compared to the 9% of office visits for hypertension, the most common disease treated in the medical office.

Illness behaviour and general practice utilisation: A prospective study

The Illness Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ) was used to compare general practice patients who presented physical complaints in the absence of objective pathology, with those in whom the presence of pathology was established. Patients without pathology showed a greater conviction as to the presence of disease, and greater degrees of anxiety, depression and irritability. Males and females differed on their IBQ scores: males showing more disease conviction, somatic focusing and hypochondriasis. Utilisation of general practitioner services (as indicated by the number of visits in the six months subsequent to completing the IBQ) was associated with greater age, and for the group as a whole, utilisation was predicted by higher scores on the following IBQ scales: disease conviction, affective disturbance and disease affirmation. This was also the case for males, but in females only affective disturbance correlated with a greater number of visits. Four patterns were delineated in the relationship between age, illness behaviour variables, the presence or absence of objective pathology, and G.P. contacts.

Pain, anxiety, and contingent negative variation: A clinical and pharmacological study

Contingent negative variation (CNV) behavior was studied in 16 volunteers who were suffering from spontaneous recurrent pain syndromes (idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia, classic migraine). The subjects were divided into two groups, “more anxious” and “less anxious,” based on psychometric tests (MMPI and STAI X2). The CNV recordings were carried out, respectively, in basal resting state, during an episode of pain, while under anxiolytic treatment, and lastly, during an episode of pain while under anxiolytic therapy. CNV voltage decrease and frequent appearance of postimperative negative variation (PINV) were observed when pain was present during the recording session. These phenomena were more marked when the pain was accompanied by a greater degree of anxiety. Finally, our results suggest that this slow evoked potential is sensitive to various degrees of anxiety and to pain perception in man, making it useful in the investigation of pain as a complex sensation.

Differential alcohol use patterns and personality traits among three alcoholics anonymous attendance level groups: Further considerations of the affiliation profile

The present study was designed to identify personality and drinking behavior correlates associated with membership in Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) Affiliation profiles were developed on the basis of frequency of A.A. attendance; subtypes were defined as non, low, and high affiliates, respectively. An initial canonical correlation analysis assessed the amount of common variance between personality and drinking characteristics. Subsequent discriminant function analyses on the second-order scales of the drinking and personality variables sets identified those variables differentiating the A.A. affiliation groups. High levels of affiliation were associated with a greater degree of anxiety, a tendency to be more affected by feelings rather than intellect, and more deterioration in the physical, psychological, and social areas of functioning. Regular attenders of A.A. also exhibited significant differences in perceived benefits, style, and consequences of alcohol usage. The potential therapeutic utility of A.A. affiliation profiles was discussed.

Nature and Incidence of Manifest Anxiety Responses among College Students

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.