COGNITIVE BIASES FOR FUTURE NEGATIVE EVENTS AS A FUNCTION OF TRAIT ANXIETY AND SOCIAL DESIRABILITY

Predicted and actual examination performance, beliefs in various possi ble examination outcomes and events, and worrying about examinations w ere assessed in four groups of students (low-anxious, repressor, high- anxious, and defensive high-anxious). The evidence indicated that the high-anxious and defensive high-anxious groups were unrealistically pe ssimistic about some examination-related events (they possessed an int erpretive bias for such events), whereas the repressor groups were unr ealistically optimistic about some examination related events, showing an opposite interpretive bias. The findings were interpreted in the l ight of a new theory of trait anxiety proposed by Eysenck (Anxiety and cognition: A unified theory. Hove: Psychology Press, 1977). (C) 1977 Elsevier Science Ltd.