Effects of anxiety and defense in a therapy-like situation.

Abstract

The major hypotheses were that (a) high-anxious (HA) Ss talk with less spontaneity and affect in an ambiguous condition than in a more structured one, while for low-anxious (LA) Ss the reverse relationship obtains; (b) LA Ss talk with less affect and spontaneity than HA Ss. S2 HA and LA women were each instructed to talk as a patient might in therapy. 2 sets of instructions used were intended to vary in ambiguity. HA Ss did talk with greater affect and spontaneity than LA Ss, and the predicted interaction with ambiguity occurred. The results suggested that the anxiety scale constituted a measure of defensive style. Further, the usual "HA" group is not homogeneous, but contains at least 2 subgroups.

The analytic couch and response to free association.

“…They were told that the experimenter would be in this room trying to understand them. The presence of the experimenter in the room would have confounded the study (Colby, 1960) and this procedure corresponds to Kaplan's (1966).…”

Einige (neuere) Bemerkungen zur freien Assoziation

“…Jahrhunderts durchgeführt wurden, hat bordin (1966) in einem "experimental analogue" als einer der ersten die freie assoziation systematisch empirisch in einer therapieähnlichen Situation evaluiert. Das von ihm entwickelte Forschungssetting beziehungsweise seine Skalen zur Messung der freien assoziation wurden später sowohl im englischen (Kaplan 1966) als auch im deutschen Sprachraum wiederholt verwendet ). Die durch bordin stimulierte empirische Forschung zur freien assoziation konzentrierte sich dabei zunächst auf die Untersuchung situ-1 3 einige (neuere) bemerkungen zur freien assoziation ativer Einflussfaktoren wie die Anwesenheit eines Untersuchers (Colby 1960), die Körperhaltung (berdach u. bakan 1967Wille 1993), die Verwendung eines Stimulus (brakel 1993) oder von Persönlichkeitsvariablen wie der habituellen Ängstlich-keit oder der verbalen Kreativität ) auf den Prozess der freien assoziation.…”

Effects of Posture and Anxiety Level on Effectiveness of Free Association

“…Low psychometric scorers on anxiety inventories have betrayed measurably high levels of arousal once stress has been introduced (Kaplan, 1966;Forrest & Kroth, 1969). Clinical observations explain this effect in the supposition that Ss with low anxiety (LA) are distinguished by repression and denial (Kaplan, 1966), while H A Ss have different defensive operations permitting increased conscious awareness of anxiety (Speilberger, DeNike, & Stein, 1965).…”

“…Clinical observations explain this effect in the supposition that Ss with low anxiety (LA) are distinguished by repression and denial (Kaplan, 1966), while H A Ss have different defensive operations permitting increased conscious awareness of anxiety (Speilberger, DeNike, & Stein, 1965).…”

“…Using Bordin's freeassociation experimental analogue (1966), it was predicted that LA Ss would free-associate more effectively in the supine posture than sitting LA Ss since repressive factors sho~lld be diminished with the postural arrangement. On the other hand, it was predicted that LA Ss in the sitting position would free-associate least effectively by maintaining repressive resistances inasmuch as the freeassociation task while siccing would be interpseted as stressful (Kaplan, 1966). Since different defensive operations are thought to be characteristic of HA Ss, it was predicted that free-associative effectiveness would not vary with these Ss as a function of posture, should postural changes only be relevant co repressive defenses.…”