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10
ANN WERTZ
GARVIN
ET
AL.
The state anxiety, tension, and overallmood data are summarized in
Table
1,
and the
ANOVA
results revealed that none of the
F
valueswere
significant for the group (hypnosis, autogenic relaxation, quiet rest) or
position (supine, seated) conditions, nor were
any
of the interaction
effects significant.However, there was a significant trials effect for each
of the affectivemeasures.TheresultingFvalues acrosstime forstate
anx-
iety, F(2,84)
=
40.8,
p
i
.Owl;
tension, F(2,84)
=
33.7,
p
<
.0001;
and overall
mood, F(2,84)
=
17.7,
p
c
.001,
were each significant.Post hoc analyses
revealed that state anxiety, tension, and overallmood was reduced sig-
nificantly at
5
minutes following each intervention. These affective
changes persisted for at least 1hour, the point at which the final assess-
ment was made.
Oxygenuptake was expressed in relativeterms asmilliliters per
kilo-
gramof bodyweight per minute (ml. kg-'*rnin-'), because
this
approach
has the advantage of controllingfor differences
in
body size.Themeans
and standard deviations for the oxygen data are summarized in Table
2.
The
ANOVA
results revealed a significant group effect,
F(2,42)
=
5.81,
p
<
.006, trial effect,F(5,210)
=
7.15,
p
c
.0001,
and a groupby trial interac-
tion, F(10,210)
=
5.94,
p
<
.0001.
Post hoc analysesof the interactioneffect
revealed that oxygen uptake increased significantly
( p
<
.001)
for the
hypnosis group at minutes 15to 20 of the induction, compared with the
steady state values observed at minutes
5
to
10
and
25
to
30.
DISCUSSION
The results of
this
investigation revealed that state anxiety, tension,
and overall mood state improved sigruficantly following relaxation,
hypnosis, and quiet rest, and these affective changes were independent
of body position. The finding that anxiety is decreased followingrelax-
ation and hypnosis is consistentwith the earlier reports of Herbert and
Gutman (1983)and Paul (1969).Furthermore, this study extends earlier
research to include the issue of body position, and outcomeswere found
to be similar
in
the seated and supine positions. These findings differ
from the earlier report by Benson (1975) indicating that the effects of
relaxation and hypnosis are best realized in the supine position. The
present study provides empirical evidence showing that reduced anxi-
ety and improved mood states are not influencedby the body position
(seatedversus supine)inwhich oneperfoms autogenicrelaxation,hyp-
nosis,
and
quiet rest. It should alsobe noted that quiet rest resulted in the
same degree of affective improvement as did autogenic relaxation and
hypnosis,
and
these results are consistentwith earlier reports by Bahrke
and Morgan (1978)and
Raglin
andMorgan (1987),who reported
similar
reductions in anxiety followingnoncultic meditation, aerobic exercise,
and
quiet rest. These findings have been interpreted to mean that dis-
traction from the cares
and
worries of the day afforded by
both
passive
(e.g.,meditation, relaxation, quiet rest) and active (e.g., aerobicexercise)
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