Galvanic skin response as a measure of patient's reaction to therapist's permissiveness.

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Abstract
Frequency of a patient''s galvanic skin response is shown to be inversely related to the judged permissiveness of the therapist during a series of 42 hours of psychotherapy. The GSR is interpreted as a measure of the anxiety of the patient, or his ''mobilization'' against any cue threatening punishment by the therapist, such as any cue which the patient has learned to perceive as evidence of low esteem. This anxiety presumably motivates varying subtle forms of resistance and defense against the feared punishment. Several alternative interpretations of the relation between permissiveness and GSR are rejected by various findings." GSR is related to the emotional significance of the patient''s speech, as well as to the permissiveness of the therapist.

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