Workers in the field of psychological assessment and psychodiagnostic evaluation, and, in fact, in the broader area of test administration, long have underscored the importance of establishing rapport and an air of comfort for the testee"). The supposition is that assessment situations involve personal evaluation and are perceived as ego-threatening or threaten the loss of self-esteem. Thus they may arouse heightened feelings of anxiety that in turn could interfere with optimal test performance (6 ) .
Spielberger (8, * ) draws upon earlier factor-analytic studies of anxiety (a) and proposes a theoretical conceptualization of anxiety phenomena that posits two anxiety constructs. State anxiety is conceived of as a transitory emotional response, while trait anxiety is conceptualized as a relatively permanent personality disposition of anxiety proneness that tends to remain stable across situations. The viability of these constructs is evidenced in a wide variety of settings, e.g., human potential group and marathon experience (l), effects of residential placement on children (2), interview stress (61, and computer-assisted learning (').
This study explores the stress experienced by young adolescents who are undergoing a complete psychological assessment and psychodiagnostic evaluation. With reference to current understanding of examination administration dynamics, it was hypothesized that levels of state anxiety prior to the evaluation session would be elevated significantly over that assessed after the test period, as well as being elevated in comparison to the normative group. Also, it was expected that trait anxiety levels and postevaluation state levels would be comparable to standardization norms.