Neurotic anxiety, pronoun usage and stress

The use of the pronoun "I" when a speaker refers to his own actions, thoughts, or emotions is appropriate. Omission of the pronoun or the use of "you" or "it" may be taken as an indicant of psychological distantiation. This study examines the effects of stress and neurotic anxiety on pronoun usage. Forty-five male and female undergraduate Ss enrolled at Virginia Commonwealth University were selected randomly from 172 volunteers assessed for neurotic anxiety level as measured by the Maudsley Personality Inventory and Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale. Treatment consisted of asking 20 emotionally charged questions, 10 of which were neutral baseline questions and the other 10 were either negative, neutral, or positive in stress. Responses were tape recorded and transcribed. It was found that negative stress interacting with medium level anxiety neurotics significantly increased distantiation above baseline levels. A hypothesis to explain the results was offered.