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Updated: Aug 29, 2026

Reducing State Anxiety Using Working Memory Maintenance
Published on: July 19, 2017
The Spielberger Trait Anxiety Inventory measures more than anxiety
Hervé Caci1, Franck J Baylé, Christelle Dossios
1Service de Pédiatrie, CHU de Nice, Hôpital Archet 2, 151, route de Saint-Antoine de Ginestière, BP 3079, 06202 Nice 3, France. caci.h@chu-nice.fr
Objective:
Researchers tried to explain the overlap between anxiety and depression by suggesting that some items of self-administered questionnaires were badly selected and that both constructs should rather be considered as multidimensional. Thus, we hypothesise that the Spielberger trait anxiety inventory (TAI) includes items related to depression.
Method:
A non-clinical sample of 193 subjects filled out the TAI and the Hospitalised Anxiety-Depression Scale. Factors were postulated on the basis of item content and submitted to confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).
Results:
We found five factors: a 10-item anxiety factor containing three factors, a four-item unsuccessfulness factor correlated with the HADS anhedonia factor, and a six-item happiness factor.
Conclusion:
The TAI scale encompasses measures of anxiety, depression and well-being. Consequently, the overlap with other measures of depression may result from item selection. This work awaits replication in independent normal and pathological samples.
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Individuals with anxiety often experience a range of physical and emotional symptoms, including sweating, trembling, tachycardia, and disturbances in sleep patterns. These symptoms vary in intensity and frequency but are generally disruptive and distressing.
