Stress and anxiety: Conceptual and assessment issues

Abstract There is considerable confusion and disagreement in the psychological and psychiatric literature regarding the meaning of stress and anxiety. The present discussion offers several important distinctions between the two constructs, and outlines some causal relationships between them. Special emphasis is placed on the methodological issues involved in assessing anxiety. The usefulness of distinguishing between state and trait anxiety is discussed, along with treating both of these constructs as multidimensional. The interactional model of anxiety is examined and some recent empirical support for this approach is reviewed. The discussion concludes with a brief summary of an interaction process model of anxiety, stress and coping.