Level of Emotional Arousal in Laboratory Training

Abstract

In order to study the level of emotional arousal produced by laboratory training, data from the highest level of a four-T-Group laboratory were tested against the following stress conditions from perceptual isolation investigations: 6 hours, 8 hours, and 24 hours. Data were collected on a self-administering adjective check list which provided scores on anxiety, depression, and hostility. Anialyses of covariance were conducted, using prestress scores as covariates to provide statistical control in the absence of experimental matching of subjects.

Laboratory training mean scores on anxiety, depression, and hostility for the four T Groups at the highest level (stress condition) were significantly lower than the mean scores from the stress condition of the three perceptual isolation studies. Comparison of the poststress frequency distributions for the four samples indicates that no scores occur for laboratory training at or beyond the point traditionally accepted as deviant (T score of 70 on the standardization sample for the instrument), whereas the stress condition of each of the three perceptual isolation studies produced scores at or beyond this point.