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.”