Development and validation of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire.

The present report describes the development of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire to measure the trait of worry. The 16-item instrument emerged from factor analysis of a large number of items and was found to possess high internal consistency and good test-retest reliability. The questionnaire correlates predictably with several psychological measures reasonably related to worry, and does not correlate with other measures more remote to the construct. Responses to the questionnaire are not influenced by social desirability. The measure was found to significantly discriminate college samples (a) who met all, some, or none of the DSM-III-R diagnostic criteria for generalized anxiety disorder and (b) who met criteria for GAD vs posttraumatic stress disorder. Among 34 GAD-diagnosed clinical subjects, the worry questionnaire was found not to correlate with other measures of anxiety or depression, indicating that it is tapping an independent construct with severely anxious individuals, and coping desensitization plus cognitive therapy was found to produce significantly greater reductions in the measure than did a nondirective therapy condition.

[1]  M. Rosenberg.  Conceiving the self , 1979 .

[2]  M. Hamilton.  A RATING SCALE FOR DEPRESSION , 1960, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[3]  D. Marlowe,et al.  The Approval Motive: Studies in Evaluative Dependence , 1980 .

[4]  S. Hu,et al.  The effect of worry on cardiovascular response to phobic imagery. , 1990, Behaviour research and therapy.

[5]  M. Zuckerman.  Sensation Seeking : Beyond the Optimal Level of Arousal , 1979 .

[6]  R. Davidson,et al.  Patterning of Cognitive and Somatic Processes in the Self‐Regulation of Anxiety: Effects of Meditation versus Exercise , 1978, Psychosomatic medicine.

[7]  C. R. Snyder,et al.  The role of uncertain self-esteem in self-handicapping. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[8]  Jacob Cohen,et al.  Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences , 1979 .

[9]  E. Diener,et al.  The independence of positive and negative affect. , 1984, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[10]  C. F. Kao,et al.  The efficient assessment of need for cognition. , 1984, Journal of personality assessment.

[11]  Richard Gallagher,et al.  Assessment of fear of fear in agoraphobics: the body sensations questionnaire and the agoraphobic cognitions questionnaire , 1984 .

[12]  W. R. Carter,et al.  Worry: An electrocortical analysis , 1986 .

[13]  Richard L. Metzger,et al.  Worry changes decision making: the effect of negative thoughts on cognitive processing. , 1990, Journal of clinical psychology.

[14]  D. Watson,et al.  Toward a consensual structure of mood. , 1985, Psychological bulletin.

[15]  E. Blanchard,et al.  Reliability of DSM-III anxiety disorder categories using a new structured interview. , 1983, Archives of general psychiatry.

[16]  Delroy L. Paulhus,et al.  Functional flexibility: A new conception of interpersonal flexibility. , 1988 .

[17]  T. Borkovec,et al.  The differential effects of inductions of worry, somatic anxiety, and depression on emotional experience. , 1988, Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry.

[18]  Dd. Burns.  THE PERFECTIONIST'S SCRIPT FOR SELF-DEFEAT , 1980 .

[19]  T. Borkovec,et al.  The nature of worry in generalized anxiety disorder: a predominance of thought activity. , 1990, Behaviour research and therapy.

[20]  M. Scheier,et al.  Public and private self-consciousness: Assessment and theory. , 1975 .

[21]  J. Rotter.  Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. , 1966, Psychological monographs.

[22]  S. Folkman,et al.  Coping as a mediator of emotion. , 1988, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[23]  A. Beck,et al.  An inventory for measuring depression. , 1961, Archives of general psychiatry.

[24]  S. Folkman,et al.  Stress, appraisal, and coping , 1974 .

[25]  T. Pruzinsky,et al.  Preliminary exploration of worry: some characteristics and processes. , 1983, Behaviour research and therapy.

[26]  Irwin G. Sarason.  Stress, anxiety, and cognitive interference: Reactions to tests. , 1984 .

[27]  P. Costa,et al.  Personality, coping, and coping effectiveness in an adult sample , 1986 .

[28]  H. Cooper,et al.  The desirability of control , 1979 .

[29]  M. Hamilton.  The assessment of anxiety states by rating. , 1959, The British journal of medical psychology.

[30]  A. Mathews,et al.  Treatment of nonphobic anxiety disorders: a comparison of nondirective, cognitive, and coping desensitization therapy. , 1988, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[31]  W W Zung,et al.  A rating instrument for anxiety disorders. , 1971, Psychosomatics.

[32]  Peter Hallinan,et al.  Psychological Testing (5th edn) - Anne Anastasi. MacMillan. New York. 1982. xiii & 784. $33.95 , 1985 .

[33]  M. Leary,et al.  Objectivism in information utilization: theory and measurement. , 1986, Journal of personality assessment.

[34]  C. Spielberger,et al.  Manual for the state-trait anxiety inventory (form Y) : "self-evaluation questionnaire" , 1983 .

[35]  M. Vasey,et al.  Effects of worry and somatic anxiety induction on thoughts, emotion and physiological activity. , 1987, Behaviour research and therapy.