Incongruence of Sentence Completions under Time Pressure and Freedom

A direct relationship is hypothesized between amount of ego-alien content elicited by SC tests and amount of time pressure imposed. This prediction, tested with female college Ss, was supported by: (a) the results of two independent groups, one taking the test under time pressure and the other under freedom; (b) the results of a single group which was given the test under pressure and later under freedom, and those of a control group for whom the test was repeated under identical pressure conditions. Measures of incongruence within a given personality were obtained by assessing the dissimilarity of completions elicited under pressure and freedom. Anxious Ss showed a greater degree of incongruence than non-anxious Ss.