ABSTRACT
A legitimate question to be addressed in anxiety research pertains to the assessment of basic underlying variables that contribute to the maintenance of trait anxiety levels. Many authors have pinpointed neuroticism as a major concomitant of trait anxiety. In this chapter, it is contended that a multimodel approach that references specific intrapsychic preconditions related to previous experiences will facilitate an understanding of the causation of trait anxiety. The rationale for this view stems partly from the outcome of several intervention studies that involved deliberate efforts to reduce trait anxiety levels over time in which very different approaches were found to be effective in producing substantial reductions in trait anxiety.
