STATE TRAIT ANGER EXPRESSION INVENTORY
PURPOSE OF THE TEST
To assess the state anger, trait anger, anger expression using STAXI-2 (State Trait Anger
Expressio n Inventory)
INTORDUCTION
It was developed by psychologists Charles Spiclberger, R.L. Gorsuch, and R.E. Lushene. Their
goal in creating the inventory was to create a set of questions that could be applied towards
assessing different types of anxiety. This was a new development because all other
questionn aires focused on one type of anxiety at the time.
Spielberg er also created other questionnai res, li ke the STAI , that assessed other emotions. These
are the State-Trait Anger Scale (ST AS), State-Trai t Ange r Expression Inventory (STAXI), and
the State-Trai t Anxiety Inventory for Chi ldren (ST AIC).
• The STAI can be utilized across a range of socio-economic statuses and requires a sixth
grade reading level. It is used in diagnoses, in both clinical and other medical settings, as
weH as in research and di ffe rentiatin g between anxiety and depression.
There is also a State Trait Anxiety In vento ry fo r chi ldren, or the STA IC. The STAIC
distingu1shes between how prone a ch ild is to anxio us behavior and emotional anxiety. It is very
similar to the STAI, and is based on the same concept as the adult measure. This measure is used
for children in the upper elementary and j unior hi gh school ages, between the ages of 9-12. It
includes two sets of20 questions, 20 questions for A-State anxiety and 20 questions for A-Trait
anxiety, that is easily read, and if needed can be verbally read to younger chi ldren.
• Spielberger also developed a few other scales, the State-Trait Anger Scale, the State-Trait
Personality Inventory, and the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory.
State-Tra it Anger Scale {STAS)
Anger is an emotional state when feelings can vary in intensity, from irritation, to annoyance, to
the extremes of fury or rage. This differs from hostility and aggression in that anger is much less
complex than hostility or aggression, while both of these states can include feelings of anger.
• The STAS is very similar in format to the STAl. However, this scale was formed instead
to measure anger as an emotional state and how prone to anger people are.
• This scale measures both state and trait anger, it is similar to the STAI in assessing state
and trait emotions. State anger (S-Anger) is a psychobiological state or conditi . This
state consists of varying intensities of anger. It is assumed that S-Anger d change
over time, based on the situations of the person. Trait anger (T-An 1s defined by
the individual differences in how often that S-Anger was e · ced over time.
State-Tra1·t Anger Expression Inventory (STAXD
The
d STAXI prov·d
I es o b.~ect1ve
·
· and shortly scored measures of a person's expenence, •
[Link]! IISIOll,
an control of anger. It consists of 44 items, which make up 7 scales. These scales measures six
components of anger:
1. S-Anger: IO questions
2. T-Anger: IO questions
3. AX/In: 8 questions; This measures individual differences in how often feelings of anger
are experienced and are held in and not acted on.
4. AX/Out: 8 questions; This measures individual differences in how often feelings of anger
are acted upon towards people or objects.
5. AX/Con: 8 questions; This measures individual differences in how often a person tries to
control their outward expression of anger.
6. AX/Ex: 24 questions; This provides a general view of how often anger is being
experienced and expressed.
Six-item State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAl-6)
There is a short-form version of the state scale, consisting of six items chos or reliability and
validity. It is designed to be administered in circumstances that prohib" e use of the full-form,
and produces scores that are comparable to using the full version.
DESCRIPTION OF THE TEST
The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (ST Al) is a psychological inventory based on a 4-
point Likert scale and consists of 40 questions on a self-report basis. The ST AI measures two
types of anxiety- state anxiety, or anxiety about an event, and trait anxiety, or anxiety level as a
personal characteristic. Higher scores are positively correlated with higher levels of anxiety. Its
most current revision is Form Y and it is offered in 12 languages.
The State Trait Anxiety Inventory is a test/questionnaire given to adults that shows how
strong a person's feelings of anxiety are. It is offered and translated in twelve languages:
English, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese,
4
Spanish, Swedish, and Thai. [ ] It was developed to provide both short and reliable scales
based on a person's answers to access state and trait anxiety.
F elings of unease, worry, tension, and stress can be defined as anxiety [Link] usually
ecompanied by a situation that causes these feelings for example, a big test or interview. It can
a~ be caused by anxiety disorders such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) or
~!~eralized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). The STAI tests two different types of anxiety, state and
trait anxiety.
State anxiety (S-anxiety) can be defined as fear, nervousness, discomfort, etc. and the
arousal of the autonomic nervous system induced by different situations that are
perceived as dangerous. This type of anxiety refers more to how a person is
time of a perceived threat and is considered temporary.
~xie ty (T-an xiety ) can be defined as feelings of stress, worry
,
~!e nce s on a day to day basis . This is usual ly perceived
as how people
Sttua tions that every one exper ience s on a daily basis.
• Weaknesses:
Only a few studi es have assessed the test-retest reliability of
the STAX I scale s (altho ugh these
data sugge st that the scales are reasonably stable over time;
Bisho p & Quah , 1998; Jacob s,
Latha m, & Brow n, 1988).
Ther e is little available information on the retest reliability of
these scale s, espec ially over longe r
perio ds. This would appea r to be critical as a test of the assum
ption that some of these
chara cteris tics (for example, the propensity to hold anger in)
are stable traits.
Ther e is little information available on the construct validity
of the STAX I using behav ioral or
obser vatio nal measures of anger expression or aggressive respo
nding, and some of the exist ing
data on these questions are inconsistent.
• Stren gths:
All of the ST AXI subscales have been extensively characteriz
ed on large norm ative samp les, and
their internal factor structure has been well desc rib~ There
is some information abou t the
assoc iation between these measures and other ~epo rt scale
s.
Accu mula ting evidence links these m sures with cardiovasc
ular risk; findings with the Trait
Ange r scale tend to be mar✓ t than those involving
Ange r Expression measures.
PSYC HOM ETR IC PROPERTIES
State -Trait Ange r Scale Psychometrics
Two ten-it em subscales, the State Anger and Trait Anger
scales, were originally designed using a
ration al-em pirica l approach in a manner similar to that which
had guided the devel opme nt of the state-
trait anxie ty inven tory (Spielberger et al., 1983). Items were
selected to characterize the curre nt
exper ience of angry feelings or, in the case of trait anger
, assess the frequ ency with which anger is
typica lly experienced over a range of situations.
• Construct Validity
In each of two samples, Trait Anger was found to be highly
correlated with the BussDurkee total score
(0.66 - 0.73) and the ~ook-Medle~ scale (0.43 - 0.59). As
suggested by the overlap betwe en anger and
anxie ty, mode rately high corr~lations were reported betwe
en Trait Anger and Neuroticism in both men
and wome n (0.49 - o. 5o) ~Spei!be~ger et al., 1983). State
anger scores have been shown to change
reliab ly in the expected direction m response to acute behav
ioral challenges (Kamarck, Manuck, &
Jennings, 1990).
• A a sis
Internal co s.
(o. 93 °
•stency (alpha coefficients) of each of these two scales has beet\ shown to be quite hfli:
Trait A·
0 86
for State Anger, Trait Anger, respectively, (Spielberger, 1988), although factor analyses of
an _nger scale suggest that it may consist of two subscales, one involving the tendency to experience
Whger in general ("Angry Temperament") and the other involving the tendency to experience anger
al en pr~v~ked ("Angry Reaction"). Several factor analyses have shown thatthe State Anger scale may
so be divided into two coherent subscales, one describing angry feelings (e.g., "feel angry'') and
anoth er involving descriptions of verbal or motor responses (e.g., "feel like hitting someone," "feel like
Yelling") (Forgays, Forgays, & Spielberger, 1997).
FORMS
This inventory is made up of 40 questions, and distinguishes between a person's state anxiety
a~d their trait anxiety. The two forms of anxiety are separated in the inventory, and both are
given their own 20 separate questions. When participants rate themselves on these questions,
they are given a 4-point frequency scale. The frequency scales differ between the two types of
anxiety. There are two main forms of the Inventory, Form X and Form Y.
Form X of the STAI was revised from the original STAI to ·develop a better way of measuring
both state and trait anxieties. This was done in order to better differentiate between patients
suffering from anxiety and depressive disorders when being diagnosed. By revising the ST Al,
many questions from the original inventory we re replaced.
Form Y of the STAI was constructed by rep lac in g items from Form X. By doing so, Form Y in
turn has better defined state and trait anxiety f; ctors. The major difference between Foi·m X and
Form Y is that Form Y has a better simpl ructure, as well as the anxiety factors being better
differentiated and stable than Form X his form of the ST Al is currently being used more otlen
than the original Form X.
SCORING for Anxiety
The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory is one of the first tests to assess both state and trait anxiety
separately. Each type of anxiety has its own scale of 20 different questions that are scored.
Scores range from 20 to 80, with higher scores correlating with greater anxiety. The creators of
this test separated the different anxieties so both scales would be reliable. This means the S-
anxiety scale would only measure S-anxiety and the T-anxiety scale would only measure T-
anxiety, the ultimate goal in creating this test. They found they could not achieve this if the
questions were the same to examine both types of anxiety. Each scale asks twenty questions each
and are rated on a 4-point scale.
Low scores indicate a mild form of anxiety whereas median scores indicate a moderate form of
anxiety and high [Link] indicate a severe form of anxiety. Both scales have anxiety absent and
anxiety present questions.
Anxiety present questions represent the presence of anxiety in a statement like
• "I feel worried."
More examples from the STAl on anxiety absent and present questions are listed below. Each
measure has a different rating scale.
• The 4-point scale for S-anxiety is as follows:
I .) not at all,
2.) somewhat,
3.) moderately so,
4.) very much so.
• The 4-point scale for T-anxiety is as follows:
1.) almost never,
2.) sometimes,
3.) often,
4.) almost always
USES
The various State-Trait tests each evaluate different emotions. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory
measures anxiety by assessing someone's state and trait anxiety. The STAI was one of the first
tests to examine state and trait anxiety at the same time.
There are two forms of the STAI, one for children, and for adults. The scale is useful for many
different socio-economic backgrounds and groups and anyone that has the equivalence of a sixth
grade reading level, it therefore can be utilized for many people.
Clinicians use this in diagnosing patients in a clinical setting. It is also used to diagnose clinical
anxiety in surgical and other medical patients as well as in mental health patients. The STAl,
itself, assesses anxiety but also can be used to make a discrimination when wondering whether a
patient is experiencing anxiety or depression.
This inventory is used in research projects. 10us journal articles have used the STAI in
conducting research and comparing di rent ethnic groups, age groups, etc. regarding anxiety.