Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (TMAS)

Abstract

The Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (TMAS) is a foundational psychological scale developed by Janet A. Taylor to quantify individual differences in chronic, overt anxiety. The instrument is a self-report measure, drawing its item pool primarily from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). It assesses manifest symptoms of anxiety, which are those that are openly expressed and observable. These symptoms typically include chronic worry, significant physiological reactivity, disturbances in sleep patterns, feelings of personal inadequacy, and measurable motor tension. The TMAS yields a single, overall score that reflects the intensity and frequency of the anxiety experienced by the respondent.

The scale was historically significant as it provided an objective, quantitative measure of anxiety suitable for experimental research, particularly within the context of learning theories prevalent in the mid-20th century. While several versions exist (commonly 28, 38, or 50 items), its core utility remains the assessment of anxiety as a relatively stable personality trait rather than a temporary state.

Keywords

Manifest Anxiety, Psychological Assessment, MMPI, Janet A. Taylor, Chronic Worry, Motor Tension, Physiological Reactivity, Clinical Psychology, Personality Trait, Psychometrics

Authors

Janet A. Taylor

Purpose

The primary goal of the TMAS’s development was to establish a reliable and objective metric for manifest anxiety, suitable for rigorous use in research settings. Specifically, Taylor constructed the scale to operationalize the concept of anxiety (often denoted as Drive, or D) within the framework of Clark Hull’s learning theory, where anxiety was hypothesized to influence performance and learning outcomes.

The scale serves to identify individuals who exhibit a high degree of overt anxiety symptoms, thereby enabling researchers to systematically study the relationship between baseline anxiety levels and various behavioral, cognitive, and physiological variables. By focusing on chronic anxiety as a stable personality disposition, the TMAS helped distinguish trait anxiety from situational or transient fear responses, cementing its role as a foundational tool in personality and abnormal psychology research.

Construct

The TMAS measures a generalized and pervasive construct of anxiety, defined by the presence of clinically recognizable symptoms that are openly expressed or “manifest.” This construct represents a chronic state of inner strain, tension, and distress that affects both psychological and physical functioning.

The core components that define the anxiety construct measured by the TMAS are clustered into several key symptomatic areas:

• Chronic Worry and Cognitive Distress: This involves enduring feelings of apprehension, dread, and excessive concern regarding potential future misfortunes or difficulties.
• Physiological Arousal: This component captures somatic complaints, including frequent headaches, gastrointestinal distress (stomach trouble), excessive sweating, and noticeable cardiovascular symptoms like heart pounding, reflecting heightened physiological reactivity.
• Sleep Disturbances: Difficulty in initiating or maintaining restorative sleep, often attributed to mental excitement or persistent worry.
• Motor Tension: Observable physical restlessness, agitation, and a general inability to relax or remain still for extended periods.
• Personal Inadequacy: Feelings of low self-worth, self-consciousness, lack of confidence, and a sense of futility or utilitylessness.

Validity

The TMAS has demonstrated robust psychometric properties, particularly concerning its ability to measure the intended construct. Initial item selection relied on content validity, as clinicians reached consensus judgments regarding the relevance of items (drawn from the MMPI) to overt symptoms of anxiety.

Subsequent research has supported strong construct validity through empirical findings, including high correlations with other established measures of psychological distress, notably the Neuroticism scale of the MMPI. Furthermore, criterion validity has been established by demonstrating that individuals with high TMAS scores tend to exhibit predictable behavioral deficits, especially when performing tasks in stressful experimental conditions, and report clinical symptoms highly consistent with generalized anxiety disorder, confirming the scale’s effectiveness as a measure of underlying chronic anxiety trait.

Reliability

The reliability of the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale is generally considered high, supporting its use as a measure of a stable personality characteristic. Measures of internal consistency, typically reported using Cronbach’s alpha coefficients, often range from 0.82 to 0.92 across diverse research samples. This indicates that the items within the scale reliably measure a cohesive, single underlying psychological construct of general anxiety.

Additionally, test-retest reliability studies have shown acceptable stability over short intervals. This stability reinforces the scale’s fundamental nature as an assessment of chronic personality disposition (trait anxiety) rather than momentary fluctuations in emotional state (state anxiety).

Factor Analysis

Early factor analytic investigations performed on the TMAS primarily supported the existence of a dominant, unitary factor corresponding directly to general manifest anxiety, which aligned with Taylor’s original intention for the scale to produce a single, global score.

However, later, more detailed factor analysis studies, particularly those utilizing the longer 50-item version, occasionally suggested the presence of minor, secondary sub-factors. These sub-factors often reflected distinct symptom clusters, such as cognitive components (worry/over-concern) and somatic components (physiological hyperarousal). Despite the identification of these sub-factors, the predominant and most reliable application of the TMAS remains focused on utilizing the aggregated total anxiety score.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report personality inventory

Format: Dichotomous (True/False) response format

Language Available: Primarily English (with numerous translations available for research purposes globally)

Population Group: General population and various clinical samples

Age Group: Adolescents and Adults (typically starting from college age or older)

Population Details: The scale was originally standardized and validated primarily on college student populations, though its subsequent wide adoption has led to its use across diverse demographic groups in research over several decades.

Test Methodology: Respondents are required to indicate whether each statement is generally true or false as it applies to their own experience. Scoring involves summing the total number of responses that are indicative of anxiety (e.g., responding “True” to anxious statements or “False” to reversed, non-anxious statements). The final score is a reflection of the overall intensity of manifest anxiety symptoms. The specific scoring key for the 38-item version is detailed below in the Items section.

Keywords

Psychometrics, Personality Trait, Psychological Assessment, Self-Report, Clinical Screening, Somatic Symptoms, Neuroticism, Drive Theory, Hullian Theory

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A (Information not specified in source)

Affiliation Email addresses: N/A (Information not specified in source)

Correspondence Address: N/A (Information not specified in source)

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (TMAS) was first published in 1953. Due to the fact that the scale items were systematically derived from the copyrighted Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), usage permissions for certain versions may vary depending on the specific research context and institutional agreements. Nevertheless, the scale remains highly accessible and widely used in non-commercial academic research globally.

The original publication detailing the scale’s development and validation is: Taylor, J. A. (1953). A Personality Scale of Manifest Anxiety. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 48(2), 285-290.

The original PDF describing a study using the TMAS (Swang, 1974) can be downloaded here: https://shareok.org/bitstream/handle/11244/3896/7511254.PDF?sequence=1

Reference’s

• Taylor, Janet, A. (1953). A Personality Scale of Manifest Anxiety. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 48(2), 285-290.
• Swang, John I. (1974). The “AAA Syndrome”: Relationships Between Alienation, Anxiety and Aggression. University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. PhD Dissertation.
• The instrument can also be referenced online at: https://db.arabpsychology.com/taylor-manifest-anxiety-scale/

Items of the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (TMAS)

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

The TMAS uses a True/False response format. Based on the 38-item version provided in the source content, the scoring direction is:

• True (Anxiety Indicated): items 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, and 37
• False (Anxiety Indicated): items 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 16, 23, 25, 30, and 38

The 50-item version of the scale derived from the MMPI includes the following statements:

1. I do not tire quickly
2. I am often sick to my stomach. [I am troubled by attacks of nausea.]
3. I am about as nervous as other people. [I believe I am no more nervous than most others.]
4. I have very few headaches.
5. I work under a great deal of strain. [I work under a great deal of tension.]
6. I cannot keep my mind on one thing.
7. I worry over money and business.
8. I frequently notice my hands shake when I try to do something.
9. I blush as often as others.
10. I have diarrhea (“the runs”) once a month or more.
11. I worry quite a bit over possible troubles. [I worry quite a bit over possible misfortunes.]
12. I practically never blush.
13. I am often afraid that I am going to blush.
14. I have nightmares every few nights.
15. My hands and feet are usually warm enough.
16. I sweat very easily even on cool days.
17. When embarrassed I often break out in a sweat which is very annoying. [Sometimes when embarrassed‚ I break out in a sweat which annoys me greatly.]
18. I do not often notice my heart pounding and I am seldom short of breath. [I hardly ever notice my heart pounding and I am seldom short of breath.]
19. I feel hungry most of the time.
20. Often my bowels don’t move for several days at a time. [I am very seldom troubled by constipation.]
21. I have a great deal of stomach trouble.
22. At times I lose sleep over worry. [I have had periods in which I lost sleep over worry.]
23. My sleep is restless and disturbed. [My sleep is fitful and disturbed.]
24. I often dream about things I don’t like to tell other people. [I dream frequently about things that are best kept to myself.]
25. I am easily embarrassed.
26. My feelings are hurt easier than most people. [I am more sensitive than other people.]
27. I often find myself worrying about something.[ I frequently find myself worrying about something.]
28. I wish I could be as happy as others. [I wish I could be as happy as others seem to be.]
29. I am usually calm and not easily upset.
30. I cry easily.
31. I feel anxious about something or someone almost all of the time.
32. I am happy most of the time.
33. It makes me nervous to have to wait.
34. At times I am so restless that I cannot sit in a chair for very long. [I have periods of such great restlessness that I cannot sit long in a chair.]
35. Sometimes I become so excited that I find it hard to get to sleep. [Sometimes I become so excited that I find it hard to get sleep.]
36. I have often felt that I faced so many difficulties I could not overcome them. [I have sometimes felt that difficulties were piling so high that I could not overcome them.]
37. At times I have been worried beyond reason about something that really did not matter. I must admit that I have at times been worried beyond reason over something that really did not matter.]
38. I do not have as many fears as my friends. [I have very few fears compared to my friends.]
39. I have been afraid of things or people that I know could not hurt me.
40. I certainly feel useless at times.
41. I find it hard to keep my mind on a task or job.
42. I am more self-conscious than most people. [I am usually self-conscious.]
43. I am the kind of person who takes things hard. [I am inclined to take things hard.]
44. I am a very nervous person. [I am a high-strung person.]
45. Life is often a strain for me. [Life is a strain for me much of the time.]
46. At times I think I am no good at all.
47. I am not at all confident of myself. [I am certainly lacking in self-confidence.]
48. At times I feel that I am going to crack up. [I sometimes feel that I am about to go to pieces.]
49. I don’t like to face a difficulty or make an important decision. [I shrink from facing a crisis or difficulty.]
50. I am very confident of myself. [I am entirely self-confident.]