Autonomic and psychological responses to an acute psychological stressor and relaxation: The influence of hypnotizability and absorption

Abstract This study examined the influence of hypnotizability and absorption on psychological and autonomic responses to an experimental stressor and a relaxation procedure of 13 high and 13 low hypnotizable subjects. Heart-rate variability was the measure of autonomic reactivity. Absorption was found to be the only significant predictor of autonomic reactivity in both experimental conditions. Expectation and previous relaxation training, but not absorption or hypnotizability, predicted perceived relaxation in the relaxation condition. The results suggest that in a nonhypnotic context the influence of hypnotizability on responses to experimental conditions may be less prominent than the influence of absorption. Absorption may be associated with greater awareness of internal physical and psychological processes, and the results support previous clinical findings of positive correlations between absorption, subjective perception of autonomic arousal, and somatic symptom reporting.

[1]  C. B. Pedersen,et al.  The low-power laser in the treatment of tinnitus. , 1999, Clinical otolaryngology and allied sciences.

[2]  V. De Pascalis,et al.  Psychophysiological correlates of hypnosis and hypnotic susceptibility. , 1999, The International journal of clinical and experimental hypnosis.

[3]  D. Moskowitz,et al.  It's a function of time: A review of the process approach to behavioral medicine research , 1998, Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine.

[4]  M. Gick,et al.  Absorption, social desirability, and symptoms in a behavioral medicine population. , 1997, The Journal of nervous and mental disease.

[5]  T. Patterson,et al.  Chronic Life Stress Alters Sympathetic, Neuroendocrine, and Immune Responsivity to an Acute Psychological Stressor in Humans , 1997, Psychosomatic medicine.

[6]  Irving Kirsch,et al.  Specifying nonspecifics: Psychological mechanisms of placebo effects. , 1997 .

[7]  I. Kirsch,et al.  Mechanisms of Placebo Pain Reduction: An Empirical Investigation , 1996 .

[8]  R. Zachariae,et al.  Danish norms for the Harvard group scale of hypnotic susceptibility, form A. , 1996, The International journal of clinical and experimental hypnosis.

[9]  A. Malliani,et al.  Heart rate variability. Standards of measurement, physiological interpretation, and clinical use , 1996 .

[10]  G. Breithardt,et al.  Heart rate variability: standards of measurement, physiological interpretation and clinical use. Task Force of the European Society of Cardiology and the North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology. , 1996 .

[11]  M. Malik.  Heart rate variability. Standards of measurement, physiological interpretation, and clinical use. Task Force of the European Society of Cardiology and the North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology. , 1996, European heart journal.

[12]  J. Hartikainen,et al.  The high frequency component of heart rate variability reflects cardiac parasympathetic modulation rather than parasympathetic 'tone'. , 1995, Acta physiologica Scandinavica.

[13]  D. A. Weinberger.  The construct validity of the repressive coping style. , 1995 .

[14]  R. Zachariae,et al.  Changes in cellular immune function after immune specific guided imagery and relaxation in high and low hypnotizable healthy subjects. , 1994, Psychotherapy and psychosomatics.

[15]  J. Kihlstrom,et al.  Hypnotizability and facets of openness. , 1993, The International journal of clinical and experimental hypnosis.

[16]  K. Olness,et al.  Voluntary modulation of neutrophil adhesiveness using a cyberphysiologic strategy. , 1992, The International journal of neuroscience.

[17]  W. Stevenson,et al.  Patterns of beat-to-beat heart rate variability in advanced heart failure. , 1992, American heart journal.

[18]  H. Stam,et al.  A longitudinal study of the development of anticipatory nausea and vomiting in cancer chemotherapy patients: the role of absorption and autonomic perception. , 1992, Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association.

[19]  S Cerutti,et al.  Sympathovagal interaction during mental stress. A study using spectral analysis of heart rate variability in healthy control subjects and patients with a prior myocardial infarction. , 1991, Circulation.

[20]  J. Kihlstrom,et al.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Absorption and Hypnotizability: Context Effects Reexamined , 2022 .

[21]  Suzanne M. Roche,et al.  Absorption: Nature, assessment, and correlates. , 1990 .

[22]  O. Vassend.  Dimensions of negative affectivity, self-reported somatic symptoms, and health-related behaviors. , 1989, Social science & medicine.

[23]  R G Green,et al.  Daily relaxation modifies serum and salivary immunoglobulins and psychophysiologic symptom severity , 1988, Biofeedback and self-regulation.

[24]  Paolo Pancheri,et al.  Mind and Immunity , 1987 .

[25]  E. Fromm,et al.  Hypnosis and behavioral medicine , 1987 .

[26]  Ian Wickramasekera PhD.  A model of people at high risk to develop chronic stress-related somatic symptoms: Some predictions. , 1986 .

[27]  M. Turiel,et al.  Power Spectral Analysis of Heart Rate and Arterial Pressure Variabilities as a Marker of Sympatho‐Vagal Interaction in Man and Conscious Dog , 1986, Circulation research.

[28]  北村俊則,et al.  日本語版Social Desirability Scaleについて , 1986 .

[29]  Changes in rectal and mean skin temperature in response to suggested heat during hypnosis in man , 1984, Physiology & Behavior.

[30]  T. Kamarck,et al.  A global measure of perceived stress. , 1983, Journal of health and social behavior.

[31]  L. Derogatis,et al.  The Brief Symptom Inventory: an introductory report , 1983, Psychological Medicine.

[32]  A. Tellegen.  Brief manual for the Differential Personality Questionnaire , 1982 .

[33]  R. Davidson,et al.  Low-anxious, high-anxious, and repressive coping styles: psychometric patterns and behavioral and physiological responses to stress. , 1979, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[34]  J. G. Bacon,et al.  Individual differences and autonomic control: absorption, hypnotic susceptibility, and the unilateral control of skin temperature. , 1975, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[35]  A. Tellegen,et al.  Openness to absorbing and self-altering experiences ("absorption"), a trait related to hypnotic susceptibility. , 1974, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[36]  P. Zimbardo,et al.  Hypnotic control of peripheral skin temperature: a case report. , 1972, Psychophysiology.

[37]  C. Stein.  Clinical hypnotherapy. , 1969, Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien.