Specificity in Somatic Responses to Anxiety

Abstract

The paper presented an anxiety scale composed of items pertaining to striated muscle tension, to autonomic arousal, and to feelings of insecurity and fear. Results included reliability coefficients for each scale, as well as scores of normal and neurotic male and female Ss. In a factor analysis neurotic Ss manifested more specificity in factor loadings associated with the three scales than normals. Some personality correlates to specific somatic complaints were noted.