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Psychosomatic Medicine 12:303-314 (1950)
© 1950 American Psychosomatic Society

Electrical Resistance of the Skin During Induced Emotional Stress

A Study of Normal Individuals and of Patients with Internal Disease

J. M. VALK M.D.1 and J. GROEN M.D.1

1 Second Medical Service of the Wilhelmina Gasthuis, Amsterdam, Holland

The electrical resistance of the skin against a direct current of constant low voltage was measured in normal individuals and in patients with various internal diseases, under the following circumstances:

Immediately after the connection of the subject into the circuit. The value thus obtained is designated as initial resistance.

When, for ten minutes after the connection of the subjcet, no external stimuli were applied and the subject was told not to move and not to speak.

During the next fifteen minutes when the subject was asked to answer a set of standard questions.

During an interview in which emotional material from the subject's life history was discussed with him.

The initial resistance was generally found to be high in patients with peptic ulcer, ulcerative colitis, diabetes, and some vascular diseases, and low in some other diseases.

During the silent period the resistance usually decreased. It was found to increase when the subject under the circumstances of the experiment was brought into tension, by which the authors understand a condition of more or less consciously inhibited discharge of emotion. It appeared that normal individuals and most patients only infrequently became tense under the circumstances of the experiment. However, in patients with peptic ulcer, ulcerative colitis, diabetes, essential hypertension and peripheral vascular disease, an attitude of tension was readily produced under these circumstances. In these diseases a rise of the electrical resistance was commonly observed.

The answering of a set of standard questions or the discussion of an emotional subject was found to decrease the skin resistance when the subject was given an opportunity to discharge his emotions in this way.

The registration of the skin resistance may be used as a method to measure tension in seemingly quiet individuals.






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Copyright © 1950 by the American Psychosomatic Society