Equivocal and often contradictory findings have resulted from studies that investigated the effects of anxiety on the performance of various groups that were receiving administrations of psychological tests. Newmark and Dinoff (6) provided evidence that such inconclusive findings were attributable in part to the failure to consider the effects of both state and trait anxiety@).
I n contrast, only two investigation^'^^ ') have focused attention on anxiety produced as a function of the particular psychological test that was being administered. Milterl et al.( 6) found that Ss who took the MMPI displayed a significant increase in anxiety as a function of the test experience. However, their anxiety measures were based on a posttest written essay on "Who am I?", which is a rather indirect, inferred method of anxiety assessment and does not distinguish between situational and chronic anxiety.
Newmark, et al. ( 7 ) investigated the effects of individual administrations of four psychological tests (Rorschach, TAT, MMPI, Rotter Sentence Completion Test) on state and trait anxiety to a normal college population. The results suggested that the mere process of taking certain projective tests, nameIy the Rorschach and TAT, produced a significant increase in state anxiety scores that was only temporary and abated within 24 hours. In contrast, the more structured, direct assessment methods, namely the MMPI and Sentence Completion Test, did not induce any significant changes in state anxiety. I n all cases, trait anxiety scores were noted to remain relatively stable as a function of the experimental procedures.
If one views the Rorschach and TAT as potentially ego-threatening, stressprovoking stimuli due to their amorphousness and ambiguity, then these findings are highly consistent with numerous investigations, reviewed by Spielberger, Gorsuch and Lushene (11), that showed that state anxiety increases during exposure to stimuli that are ambiguous and provide a potential threat to self-esteem.
The primary goal of this study was to assess the effects of stress associated with the administration of four commonly used psychological tests of personality assessment on measures of state and trait anxiety as these concepts are defined by Spiel-berge~-(~* l o ) with a psychiatric population. State anxiety (A-State) is conceptualized as a transitory emotional state characterized by subjective, consciously perceived feelings of tension and apprehension accompanied by or associated with heightened autonomic nervous system activity that may vary in intensity and fluctuate over time. In contrast, trait anxiety (A-Trait) refers to relatively stable individual differences in anxiety proneness that are not influenced by situational stress.
METHOD
Subjects. Ss were 24 white male and 29 white female hospitalized psychiatric patients between the ages of 17 and 31 years (M = 23.4, SD = 4.8) who were diagnosed as either schizophrenic reaction, paranoid type (N = 16); character disorder, sociopathic type (N = 20); or neurotic disorder, depressive type (N = 17). The criterion diagnoses were established during the first week of admission to the hospital by a review of all available clinical information, social history, observed behavior on the ward, and a psychiatric interview. Ss with concomitant organic brain syndrome were eliminated from the study. First or second admissions comprised 91% of the sample, and only 10 Ss had prior exposure to psychological test batteries.