The relationships among defense mechanisms, psychological and physical health symptoms, and electrodermal response to emotionally evocative stimuli

This study examined the effects of a variety of defensive processes on autonomic reactivity to emotionally evocative stimuli. In addition, the relationships between defense mechanisms and psychopathology, and electrodermal activity and physical health symptoms were explored. Those subjects who demonstrated a physiological response to stimuli were compared to those who did not.;Male and female nonpatient adults (N = 99) were administered the SCL-90-R, the WAIS-R Vocabulary subtest, the SMU-Health Questionnaire, and six cards from the TAT. TAT stories were scored for denial, projection, and identification using Cramer's (1991) Defense Mechanisms Manual. Participants were then exposed to emotionally charged film clips while being monitored for electrodermal activity (EDA).;The three defense mechanisms were found to account for a significant amount of variance in mean ;Proportional use of denial was negatively related ;The subset of participants who did not exhibit electrodermal response during either stimulus presentation was found to utilize proportionally more denial ;These findings support the proposal that varieties of defensive processes relate differentially to autonomic reactivity, and suggest the importance of accounting for defensive processes in research related to autonomic response. The negative relationship between denial and electrodermal response is in contrast to previous research, suggesting that methodological issues in the study of defenses and physiological reactivity remain unresolved. The negative relationship between denial and self-reported symptoms is consistent with previous findings, and reiterates the need to account for unconscious defenses when using self-report measures.