A partial replication of research by Balshan (1962) was undertaken in order to investigate the existence of a general tension factor operating during rest and during auditory stimulation. Thirty female subjects were each exposed to one 20‐min session consisting of 15 min of quiet rest followed by 5 min of binaural white noise stimulation. A computer‐controlled scanning electromyograph sampled integrated surface EMG activity from a total of eight muscle sites on the head, neck and limbs. Tensional profiles for all eight EMG sites were assembled every 1.84 sec, resulting in an 8×650 data array for each subject. Statistical analyses revealed overall EMG increments at stimulus onset. R‐factor analyses on principal components for group data, as in Balshan (1962), revealed group general factors for both prestimulus and stimulus periods. However, P‐factoring on principal components of the within‐subject data arrays demonstrated that few subjects met minimal loading criteria for a general factor operating in individuals. Such within‐subject EMG‐site covariations as were observed were reduced considerably when startle responses at stimulus onset were excluded from the principal‐component analyses. It is concluded that the group factors obtained in the present experiment and by Balshan (1962) were artifacts of two influences: the erroneous assumption of across‐subject equivalence of EMG‐site levels, and the summation of uncorrelated EMG activity which biased the group component solutions toward artifactual generality.

Electromyographic (EMG) responses of self-reported high-and low-anxious females were recorded during a 15-min anticipation period followed by 5 min of 105-dB binaural white noise stimulation. A computer-controlled scanning electromyograph sampled integrated surface EMG activity from a total of eight muscle sites on the head, neck, and limbs. High-anxious subjects evinced higher mean EMG levels than low-anxious subjects both preceding and during the stimulus period. Microanalysis of the within-subjects data arrays involving P-factoring on principal components provided the first detailed diachronic observations of striate-muscle action in trait-anxious subjects. Little evidence was found for a general tension factor in either low-anxious or high-anxious subjects. Furthermore, no differences were observed in multiple-site covariance structures between the two groups; the EMG elevations in the high-anxious subjects consisted of largely uncorrelated response bursts. The data mitigate prevalent conceptions of increased tonic muscular contraction during arousal and anxiety. Anxiety, we believe, reflects activation more than immobilization or defense.Elevated striate-muscle activity is often presumed to accompany high levels of reported anxiety. This presumption has endured despite little systematic observation of the striate musculature's behavior in anxiety states.William James asserted the importance of visceral and striate-muscle feedback for the perception of strong emotions (James, 1884), and he identified a muscularly tense hyperactive personality type (James, 1890). From a centralist perspective on emotion (cf. Cannon, 1929), anxiety has been interpreted as a sympatheticotonic imbalance (Wenger, Jones, & Jones, 1956) that gives rise to preparatory or defensive muscular responses

No abstract

No abstract