The ecology of anxiety: situational stress and rate of self-stimulation in Turkey.

Twelve community behavior settings in Ankara, Turkey, were ranked with high agreement by 30 judges (average r = .80, p less than .001) according to the amount of situational stress, defined as evaluative apprehension and uncertainty, generated by each setting. The rate of hand-to- face or body (self-stimulation) behavior was observed systemically in stressful compared to relaxed settings. Analysis by a stepwise multiple regression procedure showed higher rates in stressful settings, F(1, 587) = 9.33, p less than .01. This finding was successfully replicated one year after the original study with new samples of settings, observers, and observed individuals, F(1, 351) = 7.38, p less than .01. Sex of the observed individuals had no relationship to rate of self-stimulation, and smoking appeared to act as a suppressor variable. These results suggest that other sources of variance from persons and Person X Situation interactions can be safely ignored if one's purpose in an investigation is to make ecological comparisons in anxiety rates.