tense emotion and worry are distinct elements of anxiety states, with differing
behavioral correlates (Zeidner, 1998). The Cognitive Interference Question-
naire (see Sarason et al., 1995) is one of the best known cognitive state meas-
ures. It indexes levels of intrusive thoughts related to task performance and to
task-irrelevant personal concerns. Many other general qualities of cognition
such as self-focus of attention and confidence may be operationalized simi-
larly. The assessment of motivational states has been neglected, but the litera-
ture on motivation suggests various constructs that might be operationalized
as states, including achievement motivation, and intrinsic and extrinsic moti-
vation. Unlike trait research, there have been few attempts to map state con-
structs systematically across all three domains of the trilogy.
Recent research has explored overlaps between emotional, cognitive and
motivational constructs, focusing on task performance environments.
Matthews, Joyner, et al. (1999) sampled items from each of the domains that
represented the principal state constructs relevant to human performance.
Item factor analyses identified 10 robust primary state factors, included in a
new questionnaire, the Dundee Stress State Questionnaire (DSSQ). A further
factor-analytic study (Matthews, Campbell, & Falconer, 2001) differentiated
an additional motivational state factor. Thus, as shown in Table 6.2, subjec-
tive state can be described by multiple factors, each of which relates exclu-
sively to emotion, cognition or motivation, supporting a differentiated view
of states.
The primary state factors are themselves correlated. Second-order factor
analyses have extracted three higher-level factors that define broader syn-
dromes of subjective experience, summarized in Table 6.3 (Matthews et al.,160 MATTHEWS AND ZEIDNERTABLE 6.2
A Summary of the Scales of the DDSQ
(data from Matthews et al., 1999; Matthews, Campbell, & Falconer, 2001)Domain Scale Items Example Item α
Emotion–
mood
Energetic arousal 8 I feel... Vigorous 80
Tension 8 I feel... Nervous 82
Hedonic Tone 8 I feel... Contented 86
Motivation Task Interest 7 The content of the task is interesting 75
Success Motivation 7 I want to perform better than most people do 87
Cognition Self-focus 8 I am reflecting about myself 85
Self-esteem 7 I am worrying about looking foolish (-ve) 87
Concentration 7 My mind is wandering a great deal (-ve) 85
Confidence-control 6 I feel confident about my abilities 80
CI-TR
8
I have thoughts of... How much time I
have left 78
CI-TI 8 I have thoughts of... Personal worries 86
Note. CI-TR = Task-Relevant Cognitive Interference, CI-TI = Task-Irrelevant Cognitive Interfer-
ence.