Effect of Time-Specific Sets and Patients' Personality Style on State and Trait Anxiety

Abstract

60 subjects representing equal numbers of repressors arid sensitizers were matched for age and sex and evaluated on three measures of anxiety which differed in time span in which anxiety was estimated. As expected, sensitizers reported significantly greater anxiety than repressors regardless of the proximity of the time on which they based their estimates. A significant interaction between reports of anxiety and repression-sensitization demonstrated that sensitizers report less anxiety when recording their current condition than remote remembrances, whereas repressors tend to report essentially the same level of anxiety regardless of whether they are estimating their anxiety over “a year or two,” “a month or two,” or “now.”

Depression in Patients With Epilepsy

“…Although the established values for psychiatric patients have come from males, it was felt justified in applying these norms to the population of the present study, as it has been shown (Beutler et al 1977) that there are no significant differences in scores of male and female psychiatric patients.…”

“…with such ambiguity of time instru.ctions, selectivity in long-term memory may influence the results (Beutler et al 1977).…”

The Factor Structure of Test Anxiety among Children with Different Characteristics1

“…The trait scale allows the subjects to provide their own definitional time span. Thus, because of ambiguity of time instructions, selectivity in long-term memory is likely to influence the responses, and hence, memory-based inaccuracies may turn out to influence systematically the responses either by denying anxiety or by increasing the memory of anxiety-providing stimuli (Beutler, Johnson, Morris, & Neville, 1977). The investigators classified inpatients into sensitizers and repressors, and found that sensitizers reported less anxiety when recording their current condition that remote remembrances, whereas repressors tended to report the same level of anxiety regardless of time distance.…”

“…Regarding the state anxiety scales, Beutler et al (1977) have pointed out that these scales focus on a particular moment of time in which the subjects are to estimate their anxiety level, whereas the trait anxiety scale does not. The trait scale allows the subjects to provide their own definitional time span.…”

Precursors of relatedness and self-definition in mother-infant interaction.

“…They avoid conflictual themes and report few negative childhood experiences (Davis & Schwartz, 1987), but their speech has a greater frequency of disruptions than does speech of other groups. Although they report little awareness of contradiction and conflict (Beutler, Johnson, Morris, & Neville, 1977;Byme et al, 1963;Rofe & Lewin, 1979;Tempone & Lamb, 1967), they are physiologically responsive to emotionally stressful situations (Epstein & Fenz, 1967;White & Wilkins, 1973). Thus, repressors have a marked discordance between their subjective experiences and their physiological responses.…”