THE BODY RESPONSE TO PROCESSING EMOTIONAL TRAUMA - LINKING VERBAL TEXT WITH AUTONOMIC ACTIVITY

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 pr esent research sought to identify how the expression of emotions and t he use of different psychological defenses were reflected in momentary changes in autonomic nervous system activity while subjects wrote abo ut emotional topics. A new methodology is introduced that links the pr oduction 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 th at certain text dimensions are highly related to skin conductance leve l (SCL) but not heart rate. In general, subjects' SCLs increased when expressing negative emotions and when using denial and the passive voi ce. SCLs were more likely to drop when subjects used positive emotion words and self-references and at the conclusion of sentences or though t units. Implications for this methodology for understanding psycholog ical defense and physical health are discussed.