Perception of threatening consequences of anxiety-provoking situations

Three studies are presented, addressing the issue of classifying and measuring situational anxiety in terms of threatening consequences. A classification system for categorizing free descriptions of anxiety-provoking situations is presented in Study 1. The underlying theoretical rationale for the scheme is a situation-outcome contingency model of anxiety appraisal which stresses the nature of the expected consequences in threat-provoking situations. The classification system covers the major types of physical-bodily, personal-interpersonal, and societal consequences that may be expected to emanate from confrontation with anxiety-provoking situations. The psychometric properties of the classification are examined. A cross-validation of the classification system, using another method for data collection as well as for data treatment, is reported in Study 2. Study 3 analyses the usefulness of the classification system for predicting subjects' self-reported anxiety for a variety of verbally described situations. The utilization of consequence analyses of situations for measuring anxiety appraisal is discussed.