Physiological hyperarousal: Construct validity of a central aspect of the tripartite model of depression and anxiety

Physiological hyperarousal (PH) is an understudied component of the tripart ite model of depression and anxiety. This study contributes to the literatu re on PH, the tripartite model, and anxiety and its disorders, using data f rom psychotherapy outpatients (n = 2,448), air force cadets (n = 1,335), an d undergraduates (n = 284). Psychometrics and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses showed that PH is a reliable, cohesive, discriminable, and valid construct. Compared with subjective anxiety, PH was more associated t o panic versus mood disordered status, and to panic versus generalized anxi ety disordered status. As hypothesized, an aspect of anxiety sensitivity (i .e., fear of body sensations) was particularly related to subjective anxiet y in the presence of PH. Results support the PH construct as replicable, va lid, and clinically important ana support the utility of the tripartite and related models for understanding the relation of depressive and anxious sy ndromes.