On the Unidimensionality of the Alpert-Haber Achievement Anxiety Test
Herron ( 2 ) concluded that the Alpert-Haber facilitating (AAT+) and debilitating (AAT-) anxiety questionnaires are not measuring different characteristics in that they are affected in the same way by achievement stress and do not contribute separately to a multiple R predicting grade point average when scholastic aptitude is previously taken into account. While the covariance indicated by the reported AAT+/AATcorrelation of .46 may reflect, as Herron suggests, a common sensitivity to sirnational stress cues, considerable reliable variance remains unaccounted for and the scales may not appear to be unidimensional by other criteria. If Herron's conclusions have some generality, an inverse pattern of correlations among other personality scales should be found for AAT+ and AAT-, and the factor loadings of both scales should be similar in magnitude. Scores on the anxiety questionnaires and 4 6 other personality scales (California Psychological Inventory, 1 6 PF, FIRO-B, the K, A, R, and Es scales of the MMPI, and measures of self-esteem and psychosomatic anxiety were obtained for 536 young men selected for high scientific aptirnde.' The correlations and loadings on Factor I (principal components analysis, varimax rotation) of the anxiety questionnaire scores and the other personality measures were considered. Only 4 of the 18 correlations between AAT+ and the 46 other scales were significant at both the .05 level ( r = .09) and the .001 level (+ = .15), and 2 of these 4 were with dominance scales. Twenty-four of the AATcorrelations were significant at the ,001 level, the highest being with the MMPI A (anxiety) scale, the 16 PF 0 (worrying) scale, the 16 P F Q4 (unchannelled tension) scale, and the psychosomatic anxiety (PSA) scale. The intercorrelations among the A, 0, Q4 and PSA scales ranged from .46 (Q4/PSA) to .69 ( A / O ) . These scales and AATall loaded below -.40 on Factor I, which seemed to be measuring reported psychological well-being. AATf loaded only +.05 on this factor and no higher on any other except Factor VIII, which was defined only by the common variance on the achievement anxiety questionnaires. In this sample, then, Ss with high AATscores tended to have high scores also on measures o€ general anxiety, a result consistenr with the moderate to high correlations of AATand 3 out of 4 other anxiety scales reported by Alpert and Haber (1). The reverse was not, however, found. Alpert and Haber obtained only slightly lower and still significant negative correlations between AAT+ and 2 of the anxiety scales. In the young scientist sample, the correlations of AAT+ and the 4 anxiety measures were significantly lower than were the AATcorrelations, accounting at the most for 3% vs 28% of the anxiety scale variance. In terms of the factor structure indicated for the personality traits sampled, there appears to be little reason to consider AAT+ and AATas measuring opposite ends of a single dimension.