The relationship between state anxiety and the impression of Sandplay productions in terms of factors of the makers and raters

This study investigated the relationship between the state anxiety of Sandplay makers and raters, and the raters' impressions of the Sandplay productions. The S-Anxiety subscale of the STAI was administered to college students. One group (N = 20) created Sandplay productions which were photographed. Three works were selected from higher S-Anxiety subjects (H-works) and three from lower S-Anxiety subjects (L-works). Then another group of 58 college students were asked to rate these Sandplay productions using the SD method. Factor analysis extracted three factors of Flexibility, Integration, and Activity. The raters were divided into two groups based on their S-Anxiety scores, and their subscale scores were examined using ANOVA. Significant main effects for the makers involved Flexibility and Activity (L-works < H-works). This suggests that the S-Anxiety and ego function of the makers influence their works. Furthermore, an interaction was found with Integration. Higher S-Anxiety raters rated the Integration of L-works lower than did the lower S-Anxiety raters. This indicates that higher S-Anxiety raters observed the free expression of lower S-anxiety makers from a partial perspective.