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The Body's Response to Processing Emotional Trauma: Linking Verbal Text with Autonomic Activity
Author(s) -
Hughes Cheryl F.,
Uhlmann Carmen,
Pennebaker James W.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
journal of personality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.082
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1467-6494
pISSN - 0022-3506
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6494.1994.tb00309.x
Subject(s) - psychology , denial , phrase , skin conductance , coping (psychology) , psychophysiology , heart rate variability , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , social psychology , heart rate , clinical psychology , linguistics , psychotherapist , medicine , neuroscience , philosophy , blood pressure , biomedical engineering , radiology
When individuals talk or think about upsetting experiences, different coping and defensive processes are invoked from one minute to the next. Further, some coping strategies are thought to be more effortful and to be associated with greater biological activity than others. The present research sought to identify how the expression of emotions and the use of different psychological defenses were reflected in momentary changes in autonomic nervous system activity while subjects wrote about emotional topics. A new methodology is introduced that links the production of natural written language with autonomic activity on a word‐by‐word or phrase‐by‐phrase basis. Using this technique with a sample of 24 subjects who wrote about traumatic experiences, it was found that certain text dimensions are highly related to skin conductance level (SCL) but not heart rate. In general, subjects' SCLs increased when expressing negative emotions and when using denial and the passive voice. SCLs were more likely to drop when subjects used positive emotion words and self‐references and at the conclusion of sentences or thought units. Implications for this methodology for understanding psychological defense and physical health are discussed.