Individual differences in somatic response patterns.

Abstract

The author reports an attempt to investigate the existence and reliability of somatic response patterns in normal human subjects in the hope that his method might be effective for studying choice of particular somatic reactions in autonomic dysfunction. Twelve pregnant women in good health were asked to associate as many words as possible to a given letter in a three minute period. Long before the end of this time, the flow of associations became halting, and embarassment and frustration became evident. During the experimental period blood pressure, pulse rate, and palmar conductance were measured. The author interprets his results as demonstrating that "normal" individuals exhibit organized patterns of somatic reaction to stress which are reliable over a period of time extending up to three hundred days, and that these patterns of somatic reaction exhibit individual differences.