Smith C W, Snyder D R, Handelsman M M
J Pers Soc Psychol. 1982 Feb;42(2):314-21. doi: 10.1037//0022-3514.42.2.314.
The present study investigated the hypothesis that psychological symptoms may serve a self-protective function by providing an alternative explanation for potential failure in evaluating situations. It was hypothesized that highly test-anxious subjects would report anxiety symptoms in a pattern that reflected strategic presentation of symptoms; more specifically, it was predicted that greater reported anxiety should result when anxiety was a viable explanation for poor performance on an intelligence test and that lower reported anxiety should result when anxiety was not a viable explanation for poor performance. Analysis of state measures of self-reported anxiety supported these predictions. Further analysis indicated that when anxiety was not a viable explanation for poor test performance, high test-anxiety subjects reported reduced effort as an alternative self-protective strategy. These results are discussed in terms of traditional models of symptoms as self-protective strategies, current social psychological models of symptoms, and in reference to recent theory and research about the nature and treatment of test anxiety.
本研究探讨了这样一种假设，即心理症状可能通过为评估情境中的潜在失败提供另一种解释来发挥自我保护功能。研究假设，高度考试焦虑的受试者会以反映症状策略性呈现的模式报告焦虑症状；更具体地说，预测当焦虑是智力测试成绩不佳的可行解释时，报告的焦虑程度会更高，而当焦虑不是成绩不佳的可行解释时，报告的焦虑程度会更低。对自我报告焦虑的状态测量分析支持了这些预测。进一步分析表明，当焦虑不是考试成绩不佳的可行解释时，高考试焦虑的受试者会报告减少努力作为另一种自我保护策略。本文将根据症状作为自我保护策略的传统模型、当前症状的社会心理学模型，并参考最近关于考试焦虑的性质和治疗的理论及研究来讨论这些结果。
