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Psychosomatic Medicine 19:105-119 (1957)
© 1957 American Psychosomatic Society

Physiological Study of Personal Interaction

ROBERT B. MALMO Ph.D.1, THOMAS J. BOAG M.B., Ch.B.1, and A. ARTHUR SMITH Ph.D.1

1 Allan Memorial Institute of Psychiatry and McGill University, Montreal, Canada

The main purpose of the present investigation was to study the interaction between interviewer and the one interviewed by means of physiological recording techniques.

The subjects were 19 female psychoneurotics in the Institute. The experiment was divided into two parts. In the first part, the subject told a story from a TAT card. The examiner, a male psychologist, either praised or criticized her story, asked her to reply to his comments, and then made some reassuring remarks. He then informed the patient that Dr. N would be in to see her shortly. Dr. N came into the room with the patient and proceeded to conduct an interview in which he first questioned the patient about her test, asked her other questions, and finally reassured her.

Physiological recordings were taken from all participants: examiner, interviewer, and patients. Muscle potentials were recorded from neck and from speech muscles, and the heart rate was recorded continuously by means of EKG. All speech was recorded synchronously with the physiological tracings.

The results revealed differential physiological reactions to supportive vs. threatening situations, not only in the patients but also in the examiner. In brief rest intervals following praise, the speech-muscle tension fell rapidly, in contrast to the nonfalling tension following criticism. This phenomenon of differential reaction was noted in the examiner as well as in the patients. That is, after he had been critical his tension remained high in contrast to the falling tension after he had praised. Related findings were obtained from the second part of the experiment (during the interview).

The examiner's diary notes over a 3-month period were used in studying the interaction of the examiner's feeling state with the patient's physiological reactions during the TAT. On the examiner's "bad" days the patient's mean heart rate rose significantly more than on the examiner's "good" days.

Submitted on March 19, 1956




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Copyright © 1957 by the American Psychosomatic Society