Effects of Brief Relaxation Training on Autonomic Response to Anxiety‐Evoking Stimuli

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Abstract
Relaxation training procedures used in systematic desensitization are abbreviated forms of procedures developed by Jacobson to decrease muscle tension level and assumed by Gellhorn to affect autonomic balance. Autonomic response effects of relaxation training are sometimes considered secondary to either cognitive or autonomic level change. In the present experiment, specific instruction and training was provided in making relaxation responses to a cue stimulus which was used subsequently in two mild anxiety conditions. Brief relaxation training did not significantly affect either verbal report of anxiety or autonomic level following training, but did affect autonomic response in the anxiety conditions. The results suggest that autonomic response modification can be accomplished by instruction and relatively minimal training. Also, the results indicate that autonomic response effects need not be accompanied by either verbal report of greater relaxation or autonomic level modification. These results are difficult to account for by any theoretical model of desensitization which considers autonomic response change secondary to either cognitive or autonomic level change.

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