Preferences and Descriptions of Religious Imagery According to Anxiety Level
Graduation Date
Fall 2003
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Document Form
Degree Name
Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy
Degree Granting Institution
Notre Dame de Namur University
Program Name
Art Therapy
Dean
Lizbeth Martin, PhD
First Reader
Richard Carolan, EdD, ATR-BC
Second Reader
Arnell Etherington, PhD, MFT, ATR-BC
Abstract
It is hypothesized that individuals who score in the High Anxiety range will select as preferable images that have been categorized as “anxiety-provoking” in a greater number of instances than individuals who score in the Mid and Low-Anxiety ranges in an inventory of State and Trait Anxiety. Also, it is hypothesized that individuals within the High-Anxiety groups will describe preferred images differently than the other anxiety groups. Students from Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, California were recruited for a study on “Personality Type & Visual Imagery.” The subject pool consisted of 28 females and 3 males, from 19-55 years of age. Results reveal that although individuals in the High Anxiety Ranges do not select as preferable images that have been categorized as “anxiety-provoking,” they do describe images differently than individuals with lower Trait and State anxiety.