IRRATIONALITY AND MANIFESTATIONS OF FEAR AND ANXIETY IN A SAMPLE OF SLOVAK ADOLESCENTS

The present study had for aim to assess how far the measure of irrational beliefs corresponds with selected types of fear and anxiety in a sample of secondary school students (N = 115). Two original Slovak scales were used: The Scale of Classical Fears and Stage Fright, Social situational fears (KSAT) and the Scale of Irrational Beliefs (IPA). The highest number of significant relations between irrationality and anxiety was noted with the factor of irrational idealization and anxiety. Idealization positively corresponded with the total KSAT scores as also with all the forms of fear. Perfectionism was related to the overall level of anxiety, and specifically to stage fright with which also corresponded irrationally-tinged negative expectations and the overall measure of irrationality. The latter was also related to experiencing of fear in social situations. The results vary in dependence on subjects' gender and are discussed also within the conceptual framework of the rational-emotive behavioral theory (REBT).