ANXIETY PRACTICAL

Aim
To assess the Comprehensive Anxiety of an individual using the Sinha's Comprehensive
Anxiety Test (SCAT)

INTRODUCTION
The term anxiety is usually defined as diffuse, vague, very unpleasant feeling of fear and
apprehension.
Anxiety is a very common feeling anyone experience in their lives. It is an emotional state
that can work for us and against us. The key difference is how we perceive these feelings of
arousal and how we respond to them.
Anxious individuals show combinations of the following symptoms:
rapid heart rate, shortness of breath, diarrhea, loss of appetite, fainting, dizziness, sweating,
sleeplessness, frequent urination and tremors.
CAUSES OF ANXIETY
A combination of factors plays a role:
Chemical imbalance: Prolonged/ severe stress can alter the chemical balance that regulates
your mood. Experiencing a lot of stress over a long period can lead to an anxiety disorder.
Environmental stress: This refers to distressing events that you have witnessed or
experienced such as difficulties at work, relationship problems, family issues.
Drug withdrawal or misuse: Certain drugs may be used to mask or reduce certain anxiety
symptoms. Anxiety disorders are frequently associated with alcohol and substance use.
RISK FACTORS
Risk factors impact the severity and duration of your anxiety, like:
History of a mental health disorder: Disorders like depression raise your risk of developing
anxiety.
Childhood sexual abuse: Emotional, physical, and sexual abuse or neglect during childhood
is linked to the development of anxiety disorders later in life.
Trauma: Witnessing a traumatic event increases the risk of posttraumatic stress disorder
(PTSD), which results in panic attacks.
Low self-esteem: Negative self-perceptions can lead to social anxiety disorder.
Substance abuse: The use of alcohol and illegal drugs increases your chances to get an
anxiety disorder. Some people also use these substances to cover or reduce anxiety
symptoms
There are many types of anxiety disorders. Some of them are mentioned below:

Generalized anxiety disorder: it is characterized by excessive, unrealistic worry and tension with little
or no reason. The worry is out of proportion to the situation, impossible to regulate, and has an
impact on how you feel physically.

Panic disorder: it includes feelings of sudden, intense fear that bring on a panic attack. During a
panic attack, you may sweat profusely, experience chest discomfort, and have a racing heart
(palpitations). At times, you may feel are choking or having a heart attack at times.

Social anxiety disorder: Social anxiety disorder (social phobia) is characterized by high levels of
anxiety, fear, and avoidance of social interactions due to feelings of self-consciousness, fear of being
evaluated, or being perceived negatively by others.

Specific phobias: The feeling of intense fear of a specific object or situation, such as heights or flying.
The fear extends to a level beyond what is reasonable and may force you to avoid regular
circumstances.

Agoraphobia: It is characterized by an intense fear of being in a place where it seems hard to escape
or get help if an emergency occurs.

Separation anxiety

Selective mutism

Medication-induced anxiety disorder

Coping with anxiety

Treatment

Treatments will consist of a combination of psychotherapy, behavioral therapy, and medication.

Self-treatment

In some cases, a person can treat an anxiety disorder at home without clinical supervision. However,
this may not be effective for severe or long-term anxiety disorders.

 Stress management: Learning to manage stress can help limit potential triggers. Organize
any upcoming pressures and deadlines, compile lists to make daunting tasks more
manageable, and commit to taking time off from study or work.

 Relaxation techniques: Simple activities can help soothe the mental and physical signs of
anxiety. These techniques include meditation, deep breathing exercises, long baths, resting in
the dark, and yoga.

 Exercise: Physical exertion can improve self-image and release chemicals in the brain that
trigger positive feelings.
Counseling

A standard way of treating anxiety is psychological counseling. This can include cognitive-behavioral
therapy (CBT), psychotherapy, or a combination of therapies.

CBT

This type of psychotherapy aims to recognize and change harmful thought patterns that form the
foundation of anxious and troublesome feelings. In the process, practitioners of CBT hope to limit
distorted thinking and change the way people react to objects or situations that trigger anxiety.

Medications

A person can support anxiety management with several types of medication.

Medicines that might control some of the physical and mental symptoms include antidepressants,
benzodiazepines, tricyclics, and beta-blockers.

Benzodiazepines

A doctor may prescribe these for certain people with anxiety, but they can be highly addictive. These
drugs tend to have few side effects except for drowsiness and possible dependence. Diazepam, or
Valium, is an example of a commonly prescribed benzodiazepine.

Antidepressants

These commonly help with anxiety, even though they also target depression. People often
use serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), which have fewer side effects than older antidepressants but
are likely to cause jitters, nausea, and sexual dysfunction when treatment begins.

Other antidepressants include fluoxetine, or Prozac, and citalopram, or Celexa.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

RUBI VERMA AND MAMTA KUMARI 2014 The study aimed to assess the anxiety level of college
going students across gender. Two colleges namely, Kamla Nehru Institute of Physical and Social
Sciences College and Ganpat Sahay college were selected from Sultanpur city. For the collection of
information, 60 students were selected randomly from that college. These 60 college going students
were divided into two categories in which 30 boys and 30 girls were included. The questionnaire
schedule was used to elicit the general information pertaining to respondents. For specific
information, Sinha’s Comprehensive Anxiety test (1971) developed by A.K.P. Sinha and L.N.K. Sinha
was used in this study. The results were carried out through the frequency and percentage method.
The findings of study concluded that most of the respondents (63.33%) had extremely high anxiety.

Irfat Ara Khan1 and S.K. Srivastava 2008 The present investigation aims to examine the level of stress
and anxiety among youth smokers and to compare them with non-smokers. The relation ship
between appraised stress and anxiety among the smokers and nonsmokers was also ascertained.
The sample constitutes 100 male subjects (50 smokers & 50 non-smokers) of 18 – 25 years where
taken purposively from different educational institutions of J&K. Peacock and Wong’s stress
appraisal measure and Sinha and Sinha’s comprehensive anxiety scale were used to examine the
level of stress and anxiety, respectively. Results revealed that smokers were significantly high on the
level of stress and anxiety both. The relationship between stress and anxiety was also found to be
positive for both the groups, however it was non significant in case of smokers.

the purpose of the current study was to assess the level of anxiety and its relation with optimism
and academic achievement among medical and engineering students. Since these two courses differ
in many aspects and the gender roles in the society are changing. the secondary objective of the
study was to find differences in anxiety, optimism and academic achievement across genders and
academic majors. A total of 346 students (171 medical and 175 engineering) from 3 medical and 4
engineering colleges of Uttar Pradesh, India participated in the study. Academic results of the latest
two semesters were considered as academic achievement of the students, whereas anxiety and
optimism were tested using Sinha’s Comprehensive Anxiety Test (SCAT, 2007), and Learned
Optimism Scale (LOS, 2000) respectively. Both measures are constructed and standardized on Indian
students. Results revealed that anxiety had a significant negative relationship with optimism and
academic achievement, whereas a significant positive relationship was found between optimism and
academic achievement. Significant differences were revealed between medical and engineering
students, but the gender differences in the variables under study were insignificant. The results of
this study provide insights for faculty members and institutions for better academic performance of
the students

Anxiety is a common phenomenon that constitutes a universal cause of poor academic performance
among students worldwide. It is a common undisputable fact in human life’s that influence an
individual’s accomplishment in numerous situations, an average level of anxiety is useful in
sustaining people hardworking and being responsible of what they have to do. The present research
study is an attempt to assess the level of anxiety in secondary school students of Aurangabad city. A
sample of 100 secondary students (50boys and 50 girls) from Std. VIII were selected from 05 English
medium schools of Aurangabad city by adopting random sampling technique. The tool used for data
collection was Sinha’s Comprehensive Anxiety Test constructed and standardized by A.K.P Sinha and
L.K.P Sinha. The statistical techniques used for the data analysis was mean, S.D and t-test. The
findings revealed that the overall anxiety level in the secondary students was high. Significant
difference was found in the anxiety level of male and female secondary school students

The study was designed to examine whether practice of yoga has a positive effect on the anxiety and
feeling of well-being amongst parents of mentally challenged adolescents. The sample consisted of
20 parents of mentally challenged students drawn purposively from Chandigarh. A Yoga training
programme was designed and the subjects were exposed to it for a period of four weeks. The effects
of yoga on anxiety and feeling of well-being were measured by administering A. K. P. Sinha and L. N.
K. Sinha’s comprehensive anxiety test whereas effects on feeling of well-being were obtained by
applying PGI general well-being measure by Verma and Verma. The data was analyzed in terms of
mean, S.D and t-test. The results indicate significant decrease in the level of anxiety and positive
change in the feeling of well-being after the practice of yoga. Hence, it can be concluded that yoga
puts a positive effect on the anxiety and feeling of well-being amongst the parents of mentally
challenged adolescents. The study has its implications for parents, community leaders, and
rehabilitation workers.

DESCRIPTION OF THE TEST

SCAT is developed by AKP Sinha and LNK Sinha in 1995. The test contains of 90 items which
are to be answered in yes/no.The test contains questions which will make the testee
introspect and invoke a felling of fear in some questions. The ‘yes’ response indicates the
proneness for anxiety. The total score obtained in the scale may vary between 0 - 90. The
maximum possible score of this test is 90 and minimum possible scores is zero. Each item of the
test is scored 01(one) for positive response and 00(zero) for negative response. The obtained raw
scores are converted into percentiles separately for males and females interpretation is carried out.
The sum of all positive or yes responses would be the total anxiety score of the individual.

RELIABILITY

The coefficient of reliability was determined by using the following two methods-

The test retest method(n=100) was employed to determine the temporal sability of the test.
The product moment correlation between the test and retest scores was 0.85.

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PROCEDURE

The participant was recruited on a voluntary basis and they were asked to make sure to give
their consent by signing on consent form.

He was comfortably seated in the controlled setting to make sure no significant variables
extraneous factors may affect the results.

The instructions are delivered clearly and queries cleared. The SCAT questtionnare was now
given t the participant and responses were marked.

Now, the introspective report of the particiapant was taken and after marking sure all
questions were responded to. Scoring and interpretation is done.

The results are then reported and disclosed to the participant.

INSTRUCTIONS

As per the manual

RAPPORT FORMATION

Same as other practicals