Predictive validity of an Implicit Association Test for assessing anxiety.
The Implicit Association Test (IAT) was adapted to measure anxiety by assessing associations of self (vs. other) with anxiety-related (vs. calmness-related) words. Study 1 showed that the IAT-Anxiety exhibited good internal consistency and adequate stability. Study 2 revealed that the IAT-Anxiety was unaffected by a faking instruction. Study 3 examined the predictive validity of implicit and explicit measures and showed that the IAT-Anxiety was related to changes in experimenter-rated anxiety and performance decrements after failure. Study 4 found that several behavioral indicators of anxiety during a stressful speech were predicted by the IAT. Taken together, these studies show that the IAT-Anxiety is a reliable measure that is able to predict criterion variables above questionnaire measures of anxiety and social desirability.
Egloff
Boris
B
Department of Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Germany. egloff@mail.uni-mainz.de
Schmukle
Stefan C
SC
D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005607:Fraud / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012650:Self Disclosure; D012928:Social Desirability; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D014936:Word Association Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*