Il ruolo dell'ansia di tratto nella rappresentazione mentale di un'importante scelta di vita reale

The role of trait anxiety in a mental representation of important real-life decision. The decision is defined as the output of a mental construction resulting from the way which decision dilemma and information that characterizes different alternatives could be represented. The perception and interpretation of some situations as “threat” could affect the representation of the problem. Trait anxiety is associated with several appraisal biases, including heightened perception of threat and reduced perceptions of personal control. The Endler Multidimensional Anxiety Scales (EMAS) was administered to 107 high school graduates about to enrol at the University of Salerno, asking information on choices for future degree courses. Starting from the hypotheses of the multidimensionality of anxiety, we looked at the association that could exist between trait anxiety, the perception of threat and the imaginative and verbal representations of the decision problem. KEYWORDS: anxiety, decision making, emotion, mental imagery