FOUR-FACTOR THEORY
Eysenck put forward a four-factor theory of trait anxiety which incorporated some of the theoretical ideas and empirical research discussed in the previous section. However, the theory is intended to be much more comprehensive in scope than previous theoretical models, and some of the assumptions on which it is based differ from those of other theories in the area. The four-factor theory of trait anxiety is based on the assumption that the following question is of fundamental importance to an understanding of trait anxiety: What are the major sources of information which jointly determine an individual’s level of experienced anxiety? In other words, it is assumed that we need to have a theory of anxiety as an emotional state as a prerequisite for developing an adequate theory of trait anxiety as a personality dimension. The theory is called the four-factor theory because it is assumed within the theory that there are four main sources of information which influence experienced anxiety. First, and most important, is the external environment. As Lazarus (1991) has emphasized, the experience of most emotional states is heavily dependent on the cognitive appraisal of the immediate situation. Second, there is attention to, and interpretation of, one’s own physiological activity. The importance of this source of information in producing the experience of anxiety is revealed most clearly in patients suffering from panic disorder. Such patients are far more likely than normal controls to experience extreme anxiety and a panic attack under biological challenge (e.g. lactate infusion), even though the physiological responses of both groups are typically rather similar .The third source of information is one’s own behaviour. At an anecdotal level, it is often reported by public speakers that they experience much more anxiety when they become self-conscious and start attending to their own behaviour. More direct evidence was reported by Derakshan and Eysenck (2001a). In their study, the participant remained silent while a confederate of the experimenters either spoke about his own behaviour in the situation, or he spoke about the behaviour of the participant. The key finding was that the participants’ level of experienced anxiety was substantially higher when their behaviour was the focus of discussion than when it was not.The fourth source of information consists of negative cognitions about possible threatening future events (e.g. worries). the effects of worrying on emotional state. Generalized anxiety disorder patients and normal controls relaxed for some time and then engaged in worrying. Both groups exhibited large increases in rated anxiousness and unpleasantness between the relaxation and worry time periods. Similar findings were reported subsequently by East and Watts (1994) in a study on normal individuals who rated themselves as chronic worriers and by Wells (2002) in research on patients with generalized anxiety disorder.
Eysenck put forward a four-factor theory of trait anxiety which incorporated some of the theoretical ideas and empirical research discussed in the previous section. However, the theory is intended to be much more comprehensive in scope than previous theoretical models, and some of the assumptions on which it is based differ from those of other theories in the area. The four-factor theory of trait anxiety is based on the assumption that the following question is of fundamental importance to an understanding of trait anxiety: What are the major sources of information which jointly determine an individual’s level of experienced anxiety? In other words, it is assumed that we need to have a theory of anxiety as an emotional state as a prerequisite for developing an adequate theory of trait anxiety as a personality dimension. The theory is called the four-factor theory because it is assumed within the theory that there are four main sources of information which influence experienced anxiety. First, and most important, is the external environment. As Lazarus (1991) has emphasized, the experience of most emotional states is heavily dependent on the cognitive appraisal of the immediate situation. Second, there is attention to, and interpretation of, one’s own physiological activity. The importance of this source of information in producing the experience of anxiety is revealed most clearly in patients suffering from panic disorder. Such patients are far more likely than normal controls to experience extreme anxiety and a panic attack under biological challenge (e.g. lactate infusion), even though the physiological responses of both groups are typically rather similar .The third source of information is one’s own behaviour. At an anecdotal level, it is often reported by public speakers that they experience much more anxiety when they become self-conscious and start attending to their own behaviour. More direct evidence was reported by Derakshan and Eysenck (2001a). In their study, the participant remained silent while a confederate of the experimenters either spoke about his own behaviour in the situation, or he spoke about the behaviour of the participant. The key finding was that the participants’ level of experienced anxiety was substantially higher when their behaviour was the focus of discussion than when it was not.The fourth source of information consists of negative cognitions about possible threatening future events (e.g. worries). the effects of worrying on emotional state. Generalized anxiety disorder patients and normal controls relaxed for some time and then engaged in worrying. Both groups exhibited large increases in rated anxiousness and unpleasantness between the relaxation and worry time periods. Similar findings were reported subsequently by East and Watts (1994) in a study on normal individuals who rated themselves as chronic worriers and by Wells (2002) in research on patients with generalized anxiety disorder.
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