Charles Donald Spielberger, Ph.D. (1927 – 11 June 2013) was a 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 The ''American Journal of Community Psychology'' (AJCP) is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering community psychology. It was established in 1973 by Dr. Charles D. Spielberger, with notable previous editors including, Dr. Julian Rap ...

, 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 Orfor ...

) of the

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...

. 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 research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida. USF is ...

Tampa Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city'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 the seat of Hillsborough County ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

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 correlated ...

Additional work on anxiety

His work on the measurement of

anxiety Anxiety is an emotion which is characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil and includes feelings of dread over anticipated events. Anxiety is different than fear in that the former is defined as the anticipation of a future threat wh ...

has been famously cited by

Rollo May Rollo Reece May (April 21, 1909 – October 22, 1994) was an American existential psychologist and author of the influential book '' Love and Will'' (1969). He is often associated with humanistic psychology and existentialist philosophy, ...

. 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 Electronics technicians help design, develop, test, manufacture, install, and repair electrical and electronic equipment such as communication equipment, medical monitoring devices, navigational equipment, and computers. They may be employed i ...

in the U.S. Army (1945–1946). His post secondary education includes a

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

from the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

(1949) and a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

, and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

from the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply 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 org ...

Footnotes

External links

His CV
(PDF)

The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Adults

The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children

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