Sinha’s Comprehensive Anxiety Test

(SCAT)
1. Aim-
To assess the Comprehensive Anxiety of an individual using the Sinha’s
Comprehensive Anxiety Test (SCAT) developed by L.N.K. Sinha and
A.K.P. Sinha.

2. Introduction-
The term anxiety is usually defined as a diffuse, vague, very unpleasant
feeling of fear and apprehension. But the definition given by American
Psychological Association (APA) states that- “Anxiety is an emotion
characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts and physical
changes like increased blood pressure.” People with anxiety disorders
usually have recurring intrusive thoughts or concerns. They may avoid
certain situations out of worry. They may also have physical symptoms
such as sweating, trembling, dizziness or a rapid heartbeat. Anxiety
disorders such as panic disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
cause recurring intrusive thoughts or concerns and physical symptoms
such as sweating, trembling, dizziness or a rapid heartbeat.
When assessing for GAD, clinical professionals are look for the following:
● The presence of excessive anxiety and worry about a variety of
topics, events, or activities. Worry occurs more often than not for at
least 6 months and is clearly excessive.
● The worry is experienced as very challenging to control. The worry in
both adults and children may easily shift from one topic to another.
● The anxiety and worry are accompanied with at least three of the
following physical or cognitive symptoms (In children, only one
symptom is necessary for a diagnosis of GAD):
❏ Edginess or restlessness
❏ Tiring easily; more fatigued than usual
❏ Impaired concentration or feeling as though the mind goes blank
❏ Irritability (which may or may not be observable to others)
 ❏ Increased muscle aches or soreness
❏ Difficulty sleeping (due to trouble falling asleep or staying asleep,
restlessness at night, or unsatisfying sleep)

In the Freudian model, anxiety symptoms reflect unconscious conflicts, and

the purpose of psychoanalytic therapy is to resolve them. In contrast, in the
behavioural model, anxiety symptoms result from simple conditioned
responses. But in both cases, the anxiety disorders that prevent people
from functioning normally are always associated with memories of
traumatic experiences and hence are the result of learning. Thus, in both
models, traumatic memories and the mechanism of conditioned fear are
believed to play an important role in anxiety disorders.
The psychoanalytical model of anxiety by Sigmund Freud is based on the
assumption that human behaviour is determined by intrapsychic impulses,
desires, motives and conflicts. According to Freud, Anxiety is a state of
tension that motivates an individual to do something. It arises out of a
conflict among the id, the ego and the superego. Namely, there are three
kinds of anxiety –
Reality Anxiety – Fear of danger from the external world , real, objective
sources of danger in the environment
Neurotic Anxiety – Fear that the Id impulses will overwhelm the ego and
cause the person to do something that will be punished.
Moral Anxiety – Fear of one’s own conscience, Fear that the person will do
something contrary to the desires of the Superego.
The cognitive model of anxiety views anxiety as having three components-
cognitive, emotional and behavioral. An anxious individual perceives
threats in relation to self, the world, or related to the future. The perception
of a threat elicits a physiologic reaction, known as a “flight or fight”
response, associated with increased pulse, blood pressure, sweating, and
an overall sense of high vigilance. For example, a person who is walking
down a dark street hears footsteps behind him. His first thought might be,
“someone is following me”, their cognitive appraisal might be, “they’re going
to hurt me”. The individual begins to experience increased arousal in
response to perceived threat including physiological reactions such as an
increased heart rate and sweating (fight or flight). The individual may then
feel scared (emotional response) and begin running or “freeze” (behavioral
response). The cognitive model of anxiety:The cognitive model of anxiety
states that an individual’s beliefs impact their perceptions in several crucial
ways. First an individual may have the belief that they cannot cope or
manage stress effectively and thus would perceive situations that elicit
stress or uncomfortable feelings as risky. Also, since anxiety elicits
physiological symptoms through cognitions or images, these feelings alone
may cause the individual to inaccurately assess a situation as threatening.
The perception of a situation as threatening coupled with the person’s
belief that they cannot cope with the situation serves to increase feelings of
anxiety, and vigilance to “watch out” for threatening stimuli both internally
and in the environment.

3. Review of Literature-
1. Bajaj S. in 2017 studied anxiety in relation to marital adjustment
among males and females.On a sample of 50 urban couples of
Ludhiana and for Data Collection Marital Adjustment Inventory
designed by Dr. Har Mohan Singh and Sinha’s Comprehensive
Anxiety Test designed by A.K.P. Sinha & L.N.K. Sinha was used. The
results revealed that there was a significant difference between
marital adjustment and anxiety among male and female. It was
concluded that females have greater marital adjustment as compared
to male counterparts.

2. Chanchal T. , Himani B., et al.(2018) conducted a study to

incorporate yoga for anxiety management. The data was collected
from post graduate females of Patanjali University, Haridwar with the
help of Sinha's comprehensive anxiety test (SCAT). Design of the
study is one group pre and post design. After assessing the level of
anxiety there were four weeks meditation training had given to the
participants of the study. After analyzing the data with the help of
appropriate statistical techniques. It was concluded that there was a
significant effect of meditation on anxiety of post graduate students.

3. Giri C. in 2018 conducted a study with the aim to assess the effect
of Yoga Nidra on anxiety. For this purpose 25 subjects were selected
through random sampling. All subjects were urban educated male of
40 to 50 age range. The social and economic status is treated as a
control variable in the study. In this study SCAT (Sinha's
Comprehensive Anxiety Test) developed by. Sinha and Sinha has
been used to obtain scores on Anxiety. The t-test has been employed
to analyze the data. Results revealed that Yog-nidra decreases the
level of Anxiety.

4. Patil SS.(2017) conducted research with the purpose to describe

and compare the Anxiety behavior between Group and individual
games and players represented at state, national, and all India
university level sports. Total 300 (Each 100) samples including both
in individual and group game players were selected as samples and
to collect the data the standardized scale devised by Sinha’s
comprehensive anxiety test (SCAT) has been administered on the
subject who are participating in state, national, and all India inter
university tournaments. found that state level players have noticed
higher level of anxiety and sports persons participated in all India
interuniversity players noticed moderate level of anxiety and national
level players exhibited lesser anxiety behavior, sportsperson
participated in individual games and expressed more anxiety
behavior compared to group game players. The conclusion was
drawn that level of participation leads to control anxiety behaviour
and group game nature helps to share the stress and anxiety evoked
by game situations.
 5. Joshi R. and Yadav K.(2017) conducted a study to investigate the
Emotional competence and behavioural deviance of adolescents in
relation to anxiety. Total sample consists of 100 school going boys
and girls of Dehradun city, in the age range of 13-18 years. Anxiety
scale developed by Sinha (1955) was used to assess the anxiety
levels of the subjects. Emotional competence scale developed by
Sharma and Bhardwaj (1995-2007) was used to measure the
emotional competence and Behavioural deviance scale developed by
Chauhan and Saroj Aurora (1989) was used to measure the
Behavioural deviance of the subjects. Results suggested that high
and low anxiety groups differ significantly on adequate depth of
feeling, adequate expression and control of emotions, and
enhancement of positive emotions. The high and low anxiety subjects
also showed significant difference on withdrawing deviance and
rebellion deviance, the two dimensions of behavioural deviance.
Significant gender difference was also found on adequate depth of
feeling, enhancement of positive emotions, total behavioural
deviance, withdrawing deviance, and rebellion deviance.

4. Method-
I. Description of the test-
● Reliability-
The coefficient of reliability was· determined by using the
following two methods-:
1. The test-retest method (N=100) was employed to
determine the temporal stability of the test. The product
moment correlation between the test and retest scores
was 0.85.
2. The internal consistency reliability was ascertained by
adopting odd-even procedure (N=100). Using the
Spearman Brown formula, the reliability coefficient of the
test was found to be 0.92.
● Validity-
The coefficient of validity was determined by computing the
coefficient between scores on the Comprehensive Anxiety Test
 and on Taylor’s Manifest Anxiety Scale. It was .62, which is
significant beyond .001 level of confidence.
● Application of the test-
Following can be the usage of SCAT-
1. To study the anxiety level in professional and
nonprofessional college students with relation to gender.
2. To find out the correlation between anxiety and mental
health among adolescents.
3. To find out the difference of anxiety among college
students on the basis of gender.
II. Materials Required-
Sinha’s Comprehensive Anxiety Test Manual, Pencil, SCAT
questionnaire.
III. Demographic information of the participant-
Name: D.S
Age: 19 years old.
Sex: Male
IV. Administration-
The booklet was ready with a pen and paper beside it for the
participant to enter the answers.
He was given instructions before even starting the test, while he
was attempting it was already informed that they can withdraw from the test
at any given point of time.
They were informed that the personal information will be
confidential and name will not be disclosed.
No time limit is fixed for completing the test. However, usually an
individual takes 15 to 20 minutes in completing the test form.
It should be emphasized that there is no right or wrong response
to the statements. They are designed to study an individual's reaction to
different situations.
It should be pointed out that each item has to be responded in
either positive or negative terms, i.e. Yes or no statement should be left
out.
It is undesirable to tell the testee about the aim of the test.
V. Instructions-
 “Against each statements two alternate responses are provided in YES and
NO form of cell. You have to read each statement and put your views by tick mark
✓ on either cell below Yes or No response.”
VI. Procedure-
The participant entered inside the room and given the instructions
along with the assurance that their name will not be disclosed to anyone.
As the rapport was already formed and the participant was comfortable
they were able to attempt it easily while asking doubts freely whenever
faced with one.
VII. Observational Report-
As the participant was comfortable he was able to attempt the test
and did it within 20 minutes. Though he was not quite happy with the
statements given.
VIII. Introspective Report-
“The test didn’t take long to finish so it was not monotonous but
the statements were really negative which can be the reason for someone
to focus on the negative side more instead of positive ones”.
IX. Precautions-
The following precautions were taken while the test was being
conducted-
a. Though, there was no fixed time limit but it was still made sure
that the participant didn’t take that long.
b. The test was being conducted in a room with minimum noise
and distractions.
5. Results Obtained-

RAW SCORE Percentiles Level of Anxiety

Page 3 4 5 6 7 8 P10 Extremely Low
level of Anxiety
Score 1 1 1 2 1 2
Total 6
Table 1- Scoring table shows raw scores obtained on test and
percentile equivalents of test scores for boys.
 The table illustrates that an individual scores 6 on the test and when
looked at its percentile equivalent of test scores for boys it is P10.
6. Interpretations-
From the raw scores which were turned later into percentile
equivalents, it can be seen that the percentile P10 falls under the
category of ‘Extremely low level of Anxiety’. It indicates the person as
undermotivated and sluggish.
7. Conclusion-
The aim of this test was to measure the level of anxiety in an
individual using Sinha’s Comprehensive Anxiety Test(SCAT). As it can be
seen from Table 1 the total score of the individual was 8 and when it is
converted into percentile it was P10, which falls under the category of
‘Extremely Low Level of Anxiety’. It shows that those who score below P25
on this test are sluggish and undermotivated. This low level of anxiety can
be due to many reasons as the individual is at home and is not facing any
issues with low social media usage. Since all the three state of mind are at
peace i.e. Id, Ego and Superego there are no clashes anymore and even
the ‘fight and flight’ situation is not there. Along with it another reason may
be the defence mechanisms an individual uses to save themselves from
any anxiety, which is the Avoidance Model by Freud based on the
Psychoanalytic theory and three types of anxiety. An individual might not
be facing any anxiety because they use different defence mechanisms.
Extremely low levels of anxiety might be clinically non-significant but it can
lead to problems in future also this can be due to lack of communication
ability and decision-making abilities making them less anxious.

8. References-
Bajaj, S. (2017). Study of Anxiety in Relation to Marital Adjustment
among Males and Females. Journal of Exercise Science & Physiotherapy,
13(1). doi:10.18376/jesp/2017/v13/i1/111274
Chanchal, T., Bhardwaj, H., & Pratima, V. (2018). Anxiety
management of post graduate girls through meditation. Indian Journal of
Physical Education, Sports Medicine & Exercise Science, 18 (1)
Giri C.(2018). Efficacy of Yoga Nidra on anxiety. Indian Journal of
Health and Wellbeing; Hisar Vol. 9, Iss. 6, 854-856.
 Joshi R, Yadav K.(2017) Emotional competence and behavioural
deviance in relation to anxiety among adolescents. Indian Journal of
Positive Psychology; Hisar Vol. 8, Iss. 4, 628-630.
Patil, S.S. (2017) The influence of nature of game and level of
sports competition on anxiety behavior between national, state, and all
India university women players. International Journal of Yogic, Human
Movement and Sports Sciences 2018; 3(1): 813-816