Relationship between physiological and self-reported stressful response and psychosomatic disorders.

A revised version of the Atonomic Perception Questionnaire (Mandler, Mandler, & Uviller, 1958) was administered to 359 psychology students and the highest and lowest scoring (12.5%) males and females (N = 88) of this group were selected to participate in two experiments. In Exp. 1, skin conductance, muscle tension, respiratory rate, and heart rate were recorded prior to and during presentation of neutral and stressful visual stimuli. In Exp. 2, the same indices were recorded and the same procedure was used. Participants were instructed to rate physiological reactivity to the stimuli. Finally, a medical history questionnaire was mailed to each participant 1 wk. after completing the experiments. The data indicate that this version of the Autonomic Perception Questionnaire was predictive only of responsivity of skin conductance to stressful stimuli.