Feeling of anxiety is the most common among people. You can name hundreds, if not thousands, of reasons that make a person nervous and worried. Feeling anxious is normal. But if this feeling does not go away and, moreover, is aggravated, then you should seek help.
Studies show that too high levels of anxiety can adversely affect health. To avoid negative consequences and timely determine the personal level of anxiety, there is a Spielberger-Khanin technique.
Basic concepts
The Spielberger-Hanin methodology is based on concepts such as “anxiety” and “anxiety”. By anxiety, it is customary to mean a certain emotional state in which there is strong excitement, causelessness or anxiety caused by certain factors. Quite often, these symptoms can be observed in a person without any reason. Such a state is natural only if it does not disorganize vital activity.
The second concept of the Spielberger-Hanin technique is considered anxiety. It is customary to consider it as a process of experiencing anxiety, which has a low threshold for the manifestation of a reaction. Looking at what caused the occurrence of anxiety, two of its subspecies are distinguished: situational and personal.
From the names it is already clear that situational anxiety is a change in the emotional background due to a changed situation (a quarrel with a friend, a wedding, the death of a relative, etc.). Personal anxiety can arise, so to speak, from scratch. This is a stable personality trait. There are people who can suppress their emotions, and there are those whose mood changes from the slightest blow of the wind.
Psychodiagnostic Methods
In psychodiagnostics, there are not so few methods to assess the degree of anxiety of the patient. As a rule, they are used when working with children, in particular if the child is from a dysfunctional family, as well as in clinical psychiatry and advisory psychology. The most popular methods for determining the degree of anxiety are the Taylor technique and the Spielberger-Hanin technique.
In addition to them, the following are in demand:
- Tests of depressive moods (Zhmurov, Zunge).
- Methods of studying the level of stress resistance and adaptation in society (Rage, Holmes).
- Tests for determining social frustration (Wasserman).
- Method for diagnosing the degree of subjective control (Rotter).
For a more detailed study of the patient's condition, a complex consisting of several techniques can be used.
Anxiety scale
Despite the abundance of methods of psychological diagnosis, only the methodology of C. Spielberger and Yu. Khanin can simultaneously measure anxiety as well-being and as a personality characteristic. The technique was developed by the American clinical psychologist Charles Spielberger, adapted to domestic realities by Yuri Hanin, which is why it got its name.
It is believed that this is one of the best diagnostics. The Spielberger-Hanin methodology consists of a questionnaire in which there are 40 statements. Paragraphs 1 to 20 are focused on determining the level of situational anxiety. Positions numbered 21-41 will characterize personal anxiety.
By the way, this questionnaire is adapted to 52 foreign languages ​​and is recognized as an international method for determining the degree of anxiety and anxiety.
Situational anxiety
The Spielberger-Hanin methodology is a questionnaire-table in which statements are written on the left. In front of each of them there is a series of numbers from 1 to 4. They show the patient's level of agreement with the statement. The higher the number, the greater the level of agreement. In a particular test, there are such evaluation criteria:
- Very rarely (almost never) - 1 point.
- Rarely - 2.
- Often - 3.
- Very often (almost always) - 4.
This claims scale places special emphasis on determining a patient’s condition at a particular moment. This helps the psychologist quickly understand how these or other changes affect the person.
Personal anxiety
This can not be said about the scale of personal anxiety, which is focused on the knowledge of the human inner world. The second block of questions of the Spielberger-Hanin methodology consists of the following statements:
- I can be in high spirits.
- At times I feel irritable.
- It's easy to upset me.
- I want to be as lucky as the rest.
- For a long time I worry about troubles.
- I feel full of energy.
- Always impartial and calm.
- Worrying about future difficulties.
- Even trifles make me nervous.
- Sometimes I feel a surge of happiness.
- I take all events too seriously.
- I want to have more confidence.
- I feel my defenselessness.
- I try not to get involved in difficult situations.
- At times a spleen.
- Sometimes I feel satisfied.
- Small things distract and disturb.
- At times I feel like a failure.
- I worry every time I think about my business.
Data processing
Questions must be answered without hesitation. To get the result, you need to summarize all the numbers obtained on each of the scales. Within one stage of diagnosis, a person can score from 20 to 80 points. Accordingly, the higher the total number, the higher the degree of anxiety.
So, it can be determined that patients with a score of 20 to 30 have a low level of anxiety. Those who received from 31 to 43 points have anxiety at the average level. Those whose indicators exceed the mark of 65 points may experience psychosomatic disorders amid increased anxiety. Very often they will require psychological (and often medical) help.
But practicing psychologists working with the methods of I. Spilberger and Yu. Hanin, pay attention to one more nuance - this is a low level of ratings. After all, one cannot exclude the fact that the patient simply wanted to present himself in a more favorable light. In addition, complete emotional immunity and passivity may indicate prolonged depression, apathy, burnout, or overwork.
Thus, the Spielberger-Hanin test can perfectly diagnose a person’s level of anxiety. In addition, it can be used independently to determine your emotional state in a specific period of time.