Research Symposium

BIO

I am a second-year psychology student, graduating in December. I am interested in research involving anxiety, ADHD, depression, language, especially involving children and adolescents. I hope to continue my education in a graduate program for pediatric clinical psychology.

Affect of Trait Anxiety on Interpretational Prosody

Abstract

Are you mad at me? Is a question you may hear a lot from your more anxious friends. It may feel like the slightest change can worry some people high in trait anxiety. There are many studies that attribute anxiety disorders to a likelihood to interpret neutral facial expressions or written words (like text messages) as threatening or negative. This study aims to expand that knowledge into neutral prosody, or tone, of voice. Tone of voice can convey a lot of what people aim to say and can be interpreted differently by different people. Findings from this study can help people high in trait anxiety because they can be more aware of how they are processing language and information. It can also help to dissipate stigma surrounding anxiety, because this interpretational bias may happen at an unconscious level.

Keywords: anxiety, language, prosody, interpretation