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Reactivity and Anxiety in the Laboratory and Beyond

  • Chapter
Explorations in Temperament

Part of the book series: Perspectives on Individual Differences ((PIDF))

Abstract

Reactivity as a concept (Strelau, 1983) is the psychological obverse of strength of the nervous system (Nebylitsyn, 1972a). Thus, highly reactive people, ones with a weak nervous system, are sensitive to weak stimulation, have a low optimum level of stimulation and arousal, are distractible and lack “functional endurance.” The last term means that they are less able than others to respond adaptively to increasingly intense, prolonged, or repetitive stimulation. Their reaction time, for example, should stop quickening and, in fact, slow down in response to increasingly loud auditory stimuli at a lower volume than is characteristic of low reactives. In technical language, high reactives have a lower “threshold of transmarginal inhibition” than other people (Keuss & Orlebeke, 1977; Nebylitsyn, 1972a). Low reactives, persons with strong nervous systems, of course, show the opposite characteristics.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, York University, North York, Ontario, M3J 1P3, Canada

    Paul M. Kohn

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  1. Paul M. Kohn
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland

    Jan Strelau

  2. University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany

    Alois Angleitner

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© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Kohn, P.M. (1991). Reactivity and Anxiety in the Laboratory and Beyond. In: Strelau, J., Angleitner, A. (eds) Explorations in Temperament. Perspectives on Individual Differences. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0643-4_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0643-4_17

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-0645-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-0643-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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