Charles Donald Spielberger (March 28, 1927 – June 11, 2013) was an American clinical community psychologist well-known for his development of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. In 1972, as incoming president of the Southeastern Psychological Association he appointed the organization's Task Force on the Status of Women, chaired by Ellen Kimmel. Spielberger was founding Editor (1973–76) of the

American Journal of Community Psychology American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

, official journal of Division 27 (

Community Psychology Community psychology is concerned with the community as the unit of study. This contrasts with most psychology, which focuses on the individual. Community psychology also studies the community as a context for the individuals within it,Jim Orf ...

) of the

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...

. He was President of that Division in 1974-75. He won the Division's 1982 Award for Distinguished Contributions to Theory and Research in Community Psychology. He was president of the APA in 1991. Spielberger was formerly Chairman of the Psychology Department at the

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, Tampa, Florida, United States, and other campuses in St. Petersburg, Florida, St. Petersburg and Sarasota, ...

Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

and in 2012 belonged to a think tank there. In 1987 Spielberger was one of the key psychologists who supported the efforts of David Pilon and Scott Mesh in their efforts to form a national graduate student association. Spielberger was very supportive and helpful in this effort along with Raymond D. Fowler, then APA President, Virginia Staudt Sexton (St. John's University), Ellin Bloch (Division of Psychotherapy), and Pierre Ritchie (Canadian Psychological Association). In 1988 those efforts were successful and the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students was formed and in thriving 25 years later with over 30,000 members.

State-Trait Anxiety Inventory

Spielberger, like

Raymond Cattell Raymond Bernard Cattell (20 March 1905 – 2 February 1998) was a British-American psychologist, known for his psychometric research into intrapersonal psychological structure.Gillis, J. (2014). ''Psychology's Secret Genius: The Lives and Works ...

and others before him, made the conceptual distinction between chronic or trait anxiety (a general propensity to be anxious) and temporary or state anxiety (a temporary state varying in intensity). To measure these concepts, he developed the

State-Trait Anxiety Inventory The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) is a psychological inventory consisting of 40 self-report items on a 4-point Likert scale. The STAI measures two types of anxiety – state anxiety and trait anxiety. Higher scores are positively correla ...

Additional work on anxiety

His work on the measurement of

anxiety Anxiety is an emotion characterised by an unpleasant state of inner wikt:turmoil, turmoil and includes feelings of dread over Anticipation, anticipated events. Anxiety is different from fear in that fear is defined as the emotional response ...

has been famously cited by Rollo May. He also co-wrote the boo
Anxiety in Sports: An International Perspective
One of his earlier books, co-authored with Eric Gaudry at the University of Melbourne, examined anxiety in relation to educational achievement.

State Trait Anger Scale

Carrying this concept further, Spielberger distinguished between state and trait anger. State anger is defined as a temporary emotional state while trait anger is a general tendency to react angrily to perceive situations. (Spielberger et al., 1983). Spielberger became a well-known authority on anger and its manifestations.

Early career

One of his first vocations was as an electronics technician in the U.S. Army (1945–1946). His post secondary education includes a B.S. in

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

from the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public university, public research university and Institute of technology (United States), institute of technology in Atlanta, ...

(1949) and a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

from the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...

Footnotes

External links

His CV
(PDF)

The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Adults

The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spielberger, Charles 1927 births 2013 deaths Presidents of the American Psychological Association University of Iowa alumni