Abstract
The purpose of this article is to demonstrate whether subjects (Ss) differing in the Manifest Anxiety Scale (MAS) score would also differ in their peripheral skin temperature controllability. The ease of control of skin temperature might have a functional relationship with anxiety since peripheral vasomotor responses are among the more reliable physiological correlates of anxiety. Method Subjects. The MAS was administered to over 70 female students at Sophia University. The 28 Ss were selected on the basis of their scores of MAS (Table 1). Apparatus. Digital temperature was measured with two therministors taped one centimeter from the interphalangeal joint of the index finger on the left and right hands. The feedback which the S was given consisted of lights and a needle on a meter changing in rate with the temperature. Procedure. Ss of four experimental groups were instructed that their task was to increase the left digital temperature more than the right, and that the increases would deflect the needle on a feedback meter to the left and would turn on turn on the red light. A control group was instructed simply to sit down. All Ss received three daily 20-min. training sessions for 3 consecutive days. Results As can be seen in Figure 1,the results indicated that anxiety had a significant influence on the control of hand temperature, with the middle MAS group reaching higher finishing temperatures than either of the other groups. An analysis of variance performed on the group and the day-digital temperature yielded significant results (Table 2). Discussion It suggests that the middle MAS Ss performed more successful control of digital temperature, whereas, the highest and lowest MAS Ss failed to produce significant operant changes of control. With respect to this finding, the middle MAS Ss have better ability than either the highest or lowest MAS Ss to correctly perceive and control proprioceptive information from various viscera, including the peripheral vasomotor.
