Abstract
When a person becomes distressed, the mood-congruence hypothesis predicts that the overall pleasantness-unpleasantness of judgements will change accordingly. This study reports the findings of a mood-congruent judgemental effect on the pattern of correlations of state anxiety and attitudes in the preabortion situation, assumed to be stressful to women requesting an early first-trimester abortion. The 58 participating patients were followed up about three weeks later. The mood-congruent effect was no longer present. Trait anxiety did not relate to the mood-congruent effect but strongly afflicted the level with which state anxiety and evaluations were expressed pre- and postabortion.