Anxiety in Response to the Unfamiliar

A report on experiments and observations of human reactions to unfamiliar situations. Findings are tied in with relevant psychol'cal research with rats and chimpanzees. In a lecturer-group situation involving a threatening stimulus, the leader becomes an important factor in the development or non-development of anxiety in group members. The higher the anxiety, the greater the likelihood that the individual will perceive anxiety in the group. For 61 S's, the r = .63. In addition, the more anxious the S, the more likely he is to perceive events as being in support of his anxiety. The greater the inability at acceptably interpreting the situation, the greater the tendency for anxiety arousal. Anxiety is also aroused by situations in which the stimulus is an unusual combination of familiar stimuli. Situations implying a threat lying in the future or the repetition of a stimulus carrying that implication arouses anxiety,but undergoes a progressive decline in intensity. Activity during subjection to an unstructured situation appears to have the function of helping in the reduction of anxiety. Fire drills and the like are of this sort. They provide structure to what would otherwise be an unstructured and anxiety producing situation. (See SA 1919, 1924, 1942, 1975, 1979, 2046). S. R. Sherwood.