Predicting the Impact of Trauma Disclosure on Physiological Responses: How cognitive Style Challenges Our Ideas About Coping

Abstract

The inhibition–confrontation model of coping asserts that by disclosing a traumatic event, inhibition is released, reducing the strain on the body and vulnerability to disease. This study questions the parameters of this model by testing whether individual differences in uncertainty orientation will lead to differential physiological reactions to confrontation of past traumatic events. Participants discussed a traumatic and neutral event while skin conductance and heart rate measures were obtained. For those who disclosed a high-intensity trauma, uncertainty-oriented persons exhibited less inhibition (lower skin conductance levels) and a greater increase in arousal (higher heart rate) relative to certainty-oriented persons. These differences were reversed for disclosers of low-intensity traumas. The results suggest that one's orientation to uncertainty is associated with trauma disclosure. They highlight the value of considering individual differences in the clinical setting.