I N 1951, Taylor used a paper-and-pencil test to determine the presence or absence of manifest anxiety (8). According to Taylor (9) the use of the scale is based on two assumptions: that variation in drive level is related to the level of internal anxiety or emotionality, and that the intensity of this anxiety can be ascertained by a test consisting of items describing overt or manifest symptoms of this state.Because of the widespread use of the Taylor scale, some correlates of this test should be of interest for their theoretical significance, as an aid to interpreting existing studies, and as an aid to planning new ones.
METHODAir Force trainees (N = 128) at Sampson Air Force Base, New York, were given the Taylor Scale of Manifest Anxiety, the Winne Scale of Neuroticism, and the L and K subscales of the MMFI. In addition, they were given four standard Air Force tests: the AFQT, Arithmetic Reasoning, Word Knowledge, and Mechanical Aptitude. They were also required to read a 3200word article entitled "Air Force Plan of Supply," and to take a multiple-choice comprehension test after reading the article.
Sixteen brief sounds (music, vehicle sounds, and artificial sounds) were judged on each of 15 bipolar scales by 20 subjects. Without instructions, subjects use the descriptors “loud” and “noisy” as synonomous. On the other hand, subjects do not equate either loudness or noisiness with acceptability, although there appears to be a moderate relationship when only vehicle or aircraft sounds are rated by subjects. The implications of these findings for instructions in psychoacoustic research are discussed.
Students who disagreed with a hypothetical editorial policy leaned over backwards in writing news stories and editorials. Their stories were the most one-sided and their editorials the most partisan.
An earlier study by the senior author showed that headlines have a significant effect upon the interpretation of newspaper stories. An experiment with newscast “leads” produced similar results. Dr. Tannenbaum is director of research in television at Michigan State; Mrs. Kerrick is a research assistant at Illinois.
E XPERIMENTAL evidence indicates that both intelligence and manifest anxiety are significantly related to precision of judgment or discrimination. However, seemingly conflicting evidence has been reported concerning the nature of the relationship of manifest anxiety to conditioned discrimination.Two experiments, both differentiating subjects (5s) on the Taylor Scale of Manifest Anxiety (7), have been concerned with simple and then with discriminatory conditioning. Hilgard, Jones, and Kaplan (2), report correlations approaching significance between anxiety scores and lack of discrimination (the ratio of negative to positive CR's and the frequency of negative R's). On the other hand, Spence and Beecroft (6), considering reaction time, found excitatory strength of the positive CS was significantly greater for highly anxious 5s. The experiments both used college students as 5s.Hilgard, Jones, and Kaplan suggest that highly anxious 5s show a lack of discrimination. We would expect, then, that from a graduated series of responses, they would be more likely to utilize the extreme positions rather than to make finer distinctions among stimuli.Osgood (4) has established that, in discrimination along a series, a shorter reaction time is associated with extreme judgments. Precision of judgment, rather than an "all-or-none" response, should therefore be associated with longer reaction-time.Spence and Beecroft, measuring reaction time, indicate that highly anxious 5s are more discriminative. The shorter latency period indicates that anxious 5s are more readily able to make "either-or" distinctions. This, according to Osgood's data, would suggest that they would make less fine distinctions when presented with a gradient. The conflict between the two sets of data, then, may be explained by the differences in the measure of discrimination and by Osgood's
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.