The measurement of anxiety through computerized content analysis - A contribution to the automation of the Gottschalk-Gleser-technique

Abstract

The Gottschalk-Gleser Content analysis for the measurement of anxiety and hostility has proven to be a valid and reliable content analytic method for the quantification of affects in many studies. It was used world-wide, German scales have been available since 1980. Especially in the field of psychosomatic medicine a lot of research was done. The certain use of this method, however, needs an extensive training and the application takes an enormous amount of time. For these reasons a computer program for the Gottschalk-Gleser analysis was developed in English language, whereas for German texts such a program has not been available up to this date. This report describes the development of a computer based anxiety measurement method in German - The Dresden Anxiety Dictionary (Dresdner Angstwörterbuch, DAW). The DAW is designed as a category system for use with different content analytic software. The test of reliability and validity, using 160 clinical texts, shows that the DAW is a reliable and valid method that can be used in different fields.