Verbal measures of anxiety and hostility under monological and dialogical conditions. A study on a mixed patient sample

Abstract

Anxiety and hostility scores (Gottschalk-Gleser method of verbal content analysis) were studied in a mixed patient sample comprising psychosomatic, functional, and neurotic patients under two speech-eliciting conditions: monological and dialogical. Hostility scores did not differ between conditions. Mutilation, diffuse and total anxiety scores were significantly higher in interview than in monologue. In this condition, separation anxiety was expressed more often. Some intercorrelations between variables were found in both conditions, mostly involving hostility, while others hold either for monological or interview data. Factor analysis disclosed different factor structures for the two conditions. An interaction between speech-eliciting condition and diagnostic subgroup is suggested. The implications of these findings for descriptive psychiatric research are discussed.