The Rating and Self-rating of Anxiety

The principles of measuring anxiety are reviewed. Scales of anxiety differ in their time focus: state-anxiety scales measure the present or recent past, whereas trait-anxiety scales measure the ways the subject generally feels. Commonly used scales have adequate validity, but there is incomplete agr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of psychiatry 1991-09, Vol.159 (S12), p.15-22
Main Authors: Kellner, Robert, Uhlenhuth, Eberhard H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adequacy
Anxiety
Biological and medical sciences
Clinical assessment
Cues
Medical sciences
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychometrics. Diagnostic aid systems
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Ratings & rankings
Techniques and methods
Trait anxiety
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Summary:The principles of measuring anxiety are reviewed. Scales of anxiety differ in their time focus: state-anxiety scales measure the present or recent past, whereas trait-anxiety scales measure the ways the subject generally feels. Commonly used scales have adequate validity, but there is incomplete agreement on the boundaries of the construct of anxiety. There are consistent differences in sensitivity among anxiety scales, and they vary greatly in the number of items, number of cues and in the method of scoring. For self-rating scales a large number of items with only two cues (e.g. ‘yes’ and ‘no’), or only two scores for each item, increases the sensitivity of the scale for screening as well as for detecting differences between drug and placebo. A large number of cues decreases the sensitivity of a self-rating scale; it is unknown whether a large number of cues is advantageous in group research, but a small number of items is adequate both for rating and self-rating scales.
ISSN:0007-1250
1472-1465
DOI:10.1192/S0007125000296207