Cover not available
Article published In:
Narrative Inquiry
Vol. 33:1 (2023) ► pp.123–152

The psychophysiology of narrating distressing experiences

ORCID logo | University of Utah
| University of Utah
| University of Utah
| Weber State University
We examined patterns of psychophysiological arousal related to remembering and narrating distressing events, as compared to arousal while engaged in positive and neutral recall tasks. Narrating distressing events entailed increased arousal relative to remembering those events. Analyses of combined data showed that aggregate arousal during narration was related to post-narration reports of distress and self-perceptions. These results support conceptions of narration as an effortful form of regulation, and suggest insights about the process through which narrative construction may promote psychological and physiological benefits.
Keywords: narrative, psychophysiology, autonomic nervous system, emotion regulation
Article outline
  • Introduction
    • Narrating, distress, and physiology
      • Does narrating have lasting impact on physiological arousal?
    • Does arousal in relation to narration relate to self-reported distress and autobiographical reasoning?
  • Introduction to study 1
  • Study 1 methods
    • Participants & design
      • Study 1a
      • Study 1b
      • Study 1c
    • Measures
      • ANS arousal
      • Data collected but not used in studies 1a–1c
    • Procedure
      • Emotion elicitation
      • Regulation
      • Reexposure
  • Results study 1
    • SCL
    • RSA
    • Control analyses: Effects of stimulus, stimulus order, and gender
  • Discussion study 1
  • Introduction to study 2
  • Study 2 methods
    • Participants
    • Measures
      • Physiological arousal indicators
      • Emotional distress outcomes
      • Self-event integration outcomes
    • Procedures
  • Study 2 results
    • Arousal during regulation and emotional distress
    • Arousal during regulation and self-stability or self-growth?
  • Study 2 discussion
  • General discussion
    • Limitations
    • Conclusions
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 25 July 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.21102.pas
References (59)
References
Adler, J. M., Lodi-Smith, J., Philippe, F. L., & Houle, I. (2016). The incremental validity of narrative identity in predicting well-being: A review of the field and recommendations for the future. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 20 (2), 142–175. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Berntson, G. G., Quigley, K. S., Norman, G. J., & Lozano, D. L. (2017). Cardiovascular psychophysiology. In J. T. Cacioppo, L. G. Tassinary, G. G. Berntson, J. T. Cacioppo, L. G. Tassinary, & G. G. Berntson (Eds.), Handbook of psychophysiology. (pp. 183–216). New York, NY, US: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bollmer, J. M., Harris, M. J., & Milich, R. (2006). Reactions to bullying and peer victimization: Narratives, physiological arousal, and personality. Journal of Research in Personality, 40 (5), 803–828. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Butler, E. A., Wilhelm, F. H., & Gross, J. J. (2006). Respiratory sinus arrhythmia, emotion, and emotion regulation during social interaction. Psychophysiology, 43 (6), 612–622. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cacioppo, J. T., Uchino, B. N., & Berntson, G. G. (1994). Individual differences in the autonomic origins of heart rate reactivity: The psychometrics of respiratory sinus arrhythmia and preejection period. Psychophysiology, 31 (4), 412–419. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Clark, H. H. (1996). Using language. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Conradt, E., Abar, B., Lester, B. M., LaGasse, L. L., Shankaran, S., Bada, H., … Hammond, J. A. (2014). Cortisol reactivity to social stress as a mediator of early adversity on risk and adaptive outcomes. Child Development, 85 (6), 2279–2298. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Conway, M. A., & Pleydell-Pearce, C. W. (2000). The construction of autobiographical memories in the self-memory system. Psychological Review, 107 (2), 261–288. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cui, L., Morris, A. S., Harrist, A. W., Larzelere, R. E., Criss, M. M., & Houltberg, B. J. (2015). Adolescent RSA responses during an anger discussion task: Relations to emotion regulation and adjustment. Emotion, 15 (3), 360–372. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dawson, M. E., Schell, A. M., & Filion, D. L. (2017). The electrodermal system. In J. T. Cacioppo, L. G. Tassinary, G. G. Berntson, J. T. Cacioppo, L. G. Tassinary, & G. G. Berntson (Eds.), Handbook of psychophysiology. (pp. 217–243). New York, NY, US: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Del Giudice, M., Hinnant, J. B., Ellis, B. J., & El-Sheikh, M. (2012). Adaptive patterns of stress responsivity: A preliminary investigation. Developmental Psychology, 48 (3), 775–790. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Demaree, H. A., Schmeichel, B. J., Robinson, J. L., & Everhart, D. E. (2004). Behavioural, affective, and physiological effects of negative and positive emotional exaggeration. Cognition and Emotion, 18 (8), 1079–1097. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Diamond, L. M., & Otter-Henderson, K. D. (2007). Physiological measures. In R. W. Robins, R. C. Fraley, & R. F. Krueger (Eds.), Handbook of research methods in personality psychology. (pp. 370–388). New York, NY US: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Fivush, R., Berlin, L. J., Sales, J. M., Mennuti-Washburn, J., & Cassidy, J. (2003). Functions of parent-child reminiscing about emotionally negative events. Memory, 11 (2), 179–192. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fivush, R., Sales, J. M., & Bohanek, J. G. (2008). Meaning making in mothers’ and children’s narratives of emotional events. Memory, 16 (6), 579–594. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Frijda, N. H. (2007). The laws of emotion. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.Google Scholar
Gross, J. J., & Levenson, R. W. (1995). Emotion elicitation using films. Cognition and Emotion, 9 (1), 87–108. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Habermas, T. (2019). Emotion and Narrative: Perspectives in Autobiographical Storytelling. Cambridge University Press: New York, NY, USA.Google Scholar
Habermas, T., Meier, M., & Mukhtar, B. (2009). Are specific emotions narrated differently? Emotion, 9 (6), 751–762. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Habermas, T., & Reese, E. (2015). Getting a life takes time: The development of the life story in adolescence, its precursors and consequences. Human Development, 58 (3), 172–201. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hughes, C. F., Uhlmann, C., & Pennebaker, J. W. (1994). The body’s response to processing emotional trauma: Linking verbal text with autonomic activity. Journal of Personality, 62 (4), 565–585. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kross, E., & Ayduk, O. (2008). Facilitating adaptive emotional analysis: Distinguishing distanced-analysis of depressive experiences from immersed-analysis and distraction. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34 (7), 924–938. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kunzmann, U., Rohr, M., Wieck, C., Kappes, C., & Wrosch, C. (2017). Speaking about feelings: Further evidence for multidirectional age differences in anger and sadness. Psychology and Aging, 32 (1), 93–103. (Supplemental) DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lavallee, A., Saloppé, X., Gandolphe, M.-C., Ott, L., Pham, T., & Nandrino, J.-L. (2019). What effort is required in retrieving self-defining memories? Specific autonomic responses for integrative and non-integrative memories. PLoS ONE, 14 (12). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lilgendahl, J. P., & McAdams, D. P. (2011). Constructing stories of self-growth: How individual differences in patterns of autobiographical reasoning relate to well-being in midlife. Journal of Personality, 79 (2), 391–428. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mansfield, C. D., Pasupathi, M., & McLean, K. C. (2015). Is narrating growth in stories of personal transgressions associated with increased well-being, self-compassion, and forgiveness of others? Journal of Research in Personality, 58 1, 69–83. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mason, A. E., Adler, J. M., Puterman, E., Lakmazaheri, A., Brucker, M., Aschbacher, K., & Epel, E. S. (2019). Stress resilience: Narrative identity may buffer the longitudinal effects of chronic caregiving stress on mental health and telomere shortening. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 77 1, 101–109. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mauss, I. B., Levenson, R. W., McCarter, L., Wilhelm, F. H., & Gross, J. J. (2005). The Tie That Binds? Coherence Among Emotion Experience, Behavior, and Physiology. Emotion, 5 (2), 175–190. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McLean, K. C., Pasupathi, M., & Pals, J. L. (2007). Selves creating stories creating selves: A process model of narrative self development. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11 1, 262–278. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McLean, K. C., & Pasupathi, M. (2011). Old, new, borrowed, Blue? The emergence and retention of personal meaning in autobiographical storytelling. Journal of Personality, 79 (1), 135–164. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Murphy, M. L. M. (2017). How the use of redemption versus contamination sequences in the telling of life stories is associated with health related outcomes in midlife adults (unpublished dissertation). Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
Niles, A. N., Haltom, K. E., Mulvenna, C. M., Lieberman, M. D., & Stanton, A. L. (2014). Randomized controlled trial of expressive writing for psychological and physical health: The moderating role of emotional expressivity. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping: An International Journal, 27 1, 1–17. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nils, F., & Rimé, B. (2012). Beyond the myth of venting: Social sharing modes determine the benefits of emotional disclosure. European Journal of Social Psychology, 42 (6), 672–681. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Öner, S., & Gülgöz, S. (2018). Autobiographical remembering regulates emotions: A functional perspective. Memory, 26 (1), 15–28. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pasupathi, M. (2003). Emotion regulation during social remembering: Differences between emotions elicited during an event and emotions elicited when talking about it. Memory, 11 (2), 151–163. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2007). Telling and the remembered self: Linguistic differences in memories for previously disclosed and previously undisclosed events. Memory, 15 (3), 258–270. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pasupathi, M., Billitteri, J., Mansfield, C. D., Wainryb, C., Hanley, G., & Taheri, K. (2015). Regulating emotion and identity by narrating harm. Journal of Research in Personality, 58 1, 127–136. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pasupathi, M., McLean, K. C., & Weeks, T. (2009). To tell or not to tell: Disclosure and the narrative self. Journal of Personality, 77 1, 1–35. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pasupathi, M., Wainryb, C., Mansfield, C. D., & Bourne, S. (2017). The feeling of the story: Narrating to regulate anger and sadness. Cognition and Emotion, 31 (3), 444–461. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pasupathi, M., Wainryb, C., Oldroyd, K., & Bourne, S. (in press). Mothers and friends as listeners for adolescent anger narration: Distinct developmental affordances. Developmental Psychology. DOI logo
Pennebaker, J. W., Hughes, C. F., & O’Heeron, R. C. (1987). The psychophysiology of confession: Linking inhibitory and psychosomatic processes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52 (4), 781–793. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Raby, K. L., Roisman, G. I., Simpson, J. A., Collins, W. A., & Steele, R. D. (2015). Greater maternal insensitivity in childhood predicts greater electrodermal reactivity during conflict discussions with romantic partners in adulthood. Psychological Science, 26 (3), 348–353. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ray, R. D., Wilhelm, F. H., & Gross, J. J. (2008). All in the mind’s eye? Anger rumination and reappraisal. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94 (1), 133–145. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rimé, B., Finkenauer, C., Luminet, O., Zech, E., & Phillipot, P. (1998). Social sharing of emotion: New evidence and new questions. European Review of Social Psychology, 9 1, 145–189. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rimé, B., Phillipot, P., Boca, S., & Mesquita, B. (1992). Long-lasting cognitive and social consequences of emotion: Social sharing and rumination. In W. Stroebe & M. Hewstone (Eds.), European Review of Social Psychology (Vol. 31, pp. 225–258). New York: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Rottenberg, J., Ray, R. D., Gross, J. J., Coan, J. A., & Allen, J. J. B. (2007). Emotion elicitation using films. Handbook of emotion elicitation and assessment. (pp. 9–28). New York, NY US: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schank, R. C., & Abelson, R. P. (1995). Knowledge and memory: The real story. Advances in Social Cognition, 8 1, 1–86.Google Scholar
Sheppes, G., Catran, E., & Meiran, N. (2009). Reappraisal (but not distraction) is going to make you sweat: Physiological evidence for self-control effort. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 71 (2), 91–96. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Smorti, A. (2020). Telling to understand. Springer Nature: Switzerland. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Smyth, J. M., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2008). Exploring the boundary conditions of expressive writing: In search of the right recipe. British Journal of Health Psychology, 13 (1), 1–7. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Song, Q., Lent, M. C., Suo, T., Murray-Close, D., & Wang, Q. (2021). Relational victimization and depressive symptoms: The interactive role of physiological reactivity and narrative processing. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 166 1, 92–102. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Spinelli, M., Aureli, T., Coppola, G., Ponzetti, S., Lionetti, F., Scialpi, V., & Fasolo, M. (2020). Verbal-prosodic association when narrating early caregiving experiences during the adult attachment interview: differences between secure and dismissing individuals. Attachment & Human Development, 1–22.Google Scholar
Stanton, A. L., & Low, C. A. (2012). Expressing emotions in stressful contexts: Benefits, moderators, and mechanisms. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 21 1, 124–128. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stephens, C. L., Christie, I. C., & Friedman, B. H. (2010). Autonomic specificity of basic emotions: Evidence from pattern classification and cluster analysis. Biological Psychology, 84 (3), 463–473. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thiruchselvam, R., Blechert, J., Sheppes, G., Rydstrom, A., & Gross, J. J. (2011). The temporal dynamics of emotion regulation: An EEG study of distraction and reappraisal. Biological Psychology, 87 1, 84–92. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tsai, J. L., Levenson, R. W., & Carstensen, L. L. (2000). Autonomic, subjective, and expressive responses to emotional films in older and younger Chinese Americans and European Americans. Psychology and Aging, 15 1, 684–693. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wainryb, C., Pasupathi, M., Bourne, S., & Oldroyd, K. (2018). Stories for all ages: Narrating anger can reduce distress and promote learning. Developmental Psychology, 54 1, 1072–1085. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Waller, E. M., & Rose, A. J. (2013). Brief report: Adolescents’ co-rumination with mothers, co-rumination with friends, and internalizing symptoms. Journal of Adolescence, 36 (2), 429–433. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Weeks, T. L., & Pasupathi, M. (2011). Stability and change self-integration for negative events: The role of listener responsiveness and elaboration. Journal of Personality, 79 (3), 469–498. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Habermas, Tilmann & Stephan Bongard
2024. Narrating Anger Appropriately: Implications for Narrative Form and Successful Coping. Emotion Review DOI logo
Song, Qingfang, Deborah Z. Kamliot, Emily Slonecker, Erica D. Musser & J. Zoe Klemfuss
2024. The interactive roles of narrative processing and emotion negativity/lability in relation to autonomic coordination. Psychophysiology 61:7 DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.