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The current study describes the creation and validation of the Anger Cognitions Inventory (ACI) to assess the cognitive appraisals associated with resentful and reflective anger. The ACI was created based on a content analysis of self-reports of participants' thoughts and feelings following anger provocation in the laboratory. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses on two separate college student samples (N = 267 and N = 276, respectively) revealed five subscales which could validly be grouped into resentful and reflective anger. Convergent and divergent validity data showed that resentful anger correlated positively with anger-out/trait anger and reflective anger correlated positively with anger-in/brooding. A second study showed positive correlations between rumination and delayed cardiovascular recovery following anger provocation. Limitations of both studies include restricted samples which limit generalizability of results and cardiovascular recovery data collected in Study II which does not include assessment of autonomic balance between vagal and sympathetic responsivity.

This study followed an unsuccessful attempt to confirm-for college women-Spielberger's finding that high scores on the Taylor Manifest Anxiety (MA) scale are related to impaired grade-point average (GPA) in men of average scholastic aptitude. While a forced-choice form of the MA scale was also unrelated to GPA, it was found that women scoring at the extreme ends of the Alpert-Haber scales of debilitating and facilitating academic anxiety showed significant differences in GPA. Differences in level of academic anxiety were also related to differences in study habits, and these were, in turn, related to GPA. The results recommend the use of specific rather than general scales of anxiety as predictors of academic performance and implicate study habits as a possible mediating process.

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