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

This study examined the influence of hypnotizability and absorption on psyc hological and autonomic responses to an experimental stressor and a relaxat ion procedure of 13 high and 13 low hypnotizable subjects. Heart-rate varia bility 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 absorpti on or hypnotizability, predicted perceived relaxation in the relaxation con dition. The results suggest that in a nonhypnotic context the influence of hypnotizability on responses to experimental conditions may be less promine nt than the influence of absorption. Absorption may be associated with grea ter awareness of internal physical and psychological processes, and the res ults support previous clinical findings of positive correlations between ab sorption, subjective perception of autonomic arousal, and somatic symptom r eporting.