[Interaction of differential anxiety states with analytic cognitive style]

Interactions of anxiety states with modes of cognitive processing are investigated. It is assumed that the analytic thinking style of negative feeling states consists of probabilistic reasoning in the case of self-relevant anxiety states and of simple bipolar (yes-or-no) decisions in the case of physically threatening anxiety states. Sixty-six female student teachers (M = 23 years of age, SD = 2.7) served as subjects in a 3 x 2 x 4 mixed design. The subjects were divided into three groups of equal size. In each group a self-threatening or physically threatening anxiety state or a neutral feeling state was generated. Half of the subjects in each of the three groups were provided with either a probabilistic or yes-or-no answering format for a list of life events to induce a different style of cognitive processing. Repeated measurements of affect provided a pre-induction baseline, a manipulation check, and an assessment of affect change during task completion. The feeling states were assessed by means of scales for longitudinal studies of mood (Becker, 1988). The results show that the combination of self-threatening anxiety states with probabilistic judgments and--to a lesser degree--of physically threatening anxiety states with simple yes-or-no judgments caused the maintenance of the respective feeling states. Neither the inverse combinations nor the processing styles alone led to similarly stable affective states. Anxiety states seem to be inherently connected with modes of cognitive processing that should be considered relevant for understanding affect-task interactions and processes of mood repair.