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Anxiety is a basic psychological concept and its evaluation is important both in describing behavior and in understanding the psychodynamics involved in this behavior. The psychologist in the hospital or clinic is constantly called upon to make judgments of the amount or degree present in a patient.A question that the therapist frequently asks is, "Does this patient have enough anxiety to work with ?" This expresses clearly the belief that success in treatment is somehow related to anxiety. A patient who refers himself for treatment because of "nervousness and tension" is generally considered to offer a more favorable prognosis than a patient sent by the court. The latter may have no complaints referable to anxiety but comes in because his attendance is a requirement for his probation.In terms of diagnosis such statements are often made: "he doesn't have enough anxiety to be a real psychoneurotic," or "he has too much free anxiety to be a good conversion hysteric." The reaching of agreement as to diagnosis may be in part, then, a function of agreement as to how much anxiety is present and how this anxiety is directed.Unfortunately the measurement of anxiety is largely left to clinical judgment and to inference from psychometric data. Although dozens of tests are used by the psychologist, there have been very few attempts to objectify and quantify such measurement. By observing the subject's behavior in the clinic or test situation, or by a consideration of test scores obtained, the psychologist must make an estimate 1 Reviewed in the Veterans Administration and published with the approval of the Chief Medical Director. The statements and conclusions published by the author are the result of his own study and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or policy of the Veterans Administration.

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