Volume 16, Issue 2
THE SUBJECTIVE EVALUATION OF SUCCESS IN ANXIETY DISORDERS
Abstract
The confidence or calibration is defined as the difference between the subjective estimated success and the objective success of a person in a series of tasks. The results of an experiment that tests two hypotheses are presented. The first hypothesis replicates previous findings and states that persons under treatment for anxiety disorders have better calibration than persons without such diagnosis. The second hypothesis states that the calibration of anxious persons behaves like the calibration of non-anxious persons with experimental training in calibration. The experimental evidence is consistent with both hypotheses. It is concluded that people under treatment for anxiety disorders have a good calibration. A metacognitive account that explains these findings is presented.
Keywords
calibration, metacognition, overconfidence bias, underconfidence bias, anxiety disorders