The Expression and Recognition of Anxiety

Harrigan, Jinni

Abstract

Anxiety has powerful psychologically and physiologically negative effects contributing to a variety of emotional difficulties and psychosomatic illnesses. Determining when anxiety is present is essential because of the pervasive nature of this basic human affect and it potential for causing personal and interpersonal damage. Self-report anxiety measures exist but these are intrusive in interactional settings. Expressive behaviors (face/body/vocal cues) are primary channels for expressing emotion, particularly negative affect. Expressive behaviors usually occur without deliberation and are capable of relaying information that is difficult to inhibit or simulate. Nonverbal and vocal behaviors have been shown to strongly influence the process of person perception. At present there is only limited and somewhat contradictory research about how anxious feelings are expressed in nonverbal/vocal behaviors. Little is known about how anxious behaviors relate to one another as patterns of expressed anxiety, or how behavioral patterns are associated with degrees of anxiety. There may be several patterns for displaying anxiety which reflect individual differences in expressive style, personality structure, and communicative skills. Individual differences in expressed anxiety have not been investigated. Prior to analyzing behaviors in clinical or disturbed populations, specific information is needed about how anxious feelings are experienced by normal individuals to determine basic processes of how anxiety is expressed nonverbally/vocally and how anxious feelings are recognized by others. The goal of this project is to expand knowledge and resolve inconsistencies about expression and recognition of anxiety by normal individuals and by those who observe these individuals. Long term effects of this research will be applicable: in understanding a common basic human affect; in recognizing anxiety in psychotherapy and medical patients; in educational settings where anxiety impedes learning; and in training individuals to interpret anxiety expressed by others. This study will enhance our knowledge of individual responses to anxiety as both experiencer and observer. Information will benefit us in understanding individual response styles for managing anxious feelings and characteristics observers focus on in interpreting anxious feelings. These developments also will increase comprehension of affect states which are thought to be components of anxiety: hostility, distress, guilt, and physiological arousal.