Instance-based clusters of fear and anxiety: is ambiguity an essential dimension?
Students rated instances of fear-like emotions on 34 attributes related to distinctions between fear and anxiety in the literature, and then on relative degree of fear vs anxiety produced. Instances rated most fear-like had been rated as higher than more anxiety-like instances in terms of clarity and reality of causes, but lower in terms of the clarity of understanding the situation and knowing what to do when in it. There were two distinct clusters of fear-like instances and two distinct "anxiety clusters;" the two fear clusters were more different from each other than from the two anxiety clusters in terms of ratings on these clarity-related attributes. Analysis suggested (a) that "pure fear" is less vague than anxiety in some ways but more vague in other ways and (b) that comparisons have to be qualified because emotion-labels usually encompass more than one kind of emotion. However, differences in present-centeredness and other factors may be reliable and general.
Wicker
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FW
Department of Educational Psychology, University of Texas, Austin 78712.
Young
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EL
D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001143:Arousal; D005239:Fear; D006801:Humans; D012931:Social Environment