Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vvkck Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T12:10:37.742Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Traumatic Events and Tonic Immobility

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2014

Arturo Bados ,
Lidia Toribio  and
Eugeni García-Grau
Arturo Bados*
Affiliation:
Universidad de Barcelona (Spain)
Lidia Toribio
Affiliation:
Consorci Sanitari de l'Anoia (Spain)
Eugeni García-Grau
Affiliation:
Universidad de Barcelona (Spain)
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Arturo Bados, Departamento de Personalidad, Evaluació n y Tratamiento Psicoló gico, Facultad de Psicologí a, Universidad de Barcelona, (Spain). Phone: 34-933125106. FAX: 34-934021362. E-mail: abados@ub.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Tonic immobility is a basic defense strategy which has not been studied in depth in humans. Data suggest that it may be a relatively frequent phenomenon in victims of rape and sexual abuse, but its occurrence has not been systematically explored in other types of trauma. We carried out a retrospective study in a sample of 100 university students to establish whether tonic immobility varies depending on the nature of the worst trauma experienced, defined subjectively by each participant. Immobility was assessed using the Tonic Immobility Scale and traumas were assessed using the modified Traumatic Events Questionnaire. Seventy percent of the sample had experienced trauma of some kind. There were no significant differences in tonic immobility between different types of trauma (e.g., physical abuse, assault or aggression, serious accident), except that the mean tonic immobility score was significantly higher in the group with trauma due to physical/psychological or sexual abuse than in the group with trauma due to receiving news of the mutilation, serious injury, or violent or sudden death of a loved one. We conclude tentatively that tonic immobility may be typical not only of sexual traumas, but of other kinds of directly experienced traumas as well.

La inmovilidad tónica es una estrategia defensiva básica que ha sido muy poco estudiada en seres humanos. Hay datos de que puede ser un fenómeno relativamente frecuente en víctimas de violación y abuso sexual, pero su ocurrencia no ha sido investigada de forma sistemática en otro tipo de traumas. Así pues, estudiamos retrospectivamente en una muestra de 100 estudiantes universitarios si la inmovilidad tónica varía en función del peor trauma experimentado, definido este según la valoración subjetiva de cada participante. La inmovilidad fue evaluada mediante la Escala de Inmovilidad Tónica y los traumas mediante el Cuestionario de Eventos Traumáticos modificado. Un 70% de la muestra había experimentado algún trauma. No hubo diferencias significativas en inmovilidad tónica entre diferentes tipos de traumas (p.ej., maltrato, atraco o agresión, accidente grave), excepto que la media de inmovilidad tónica fue significativamente mayor en el grupo con trauma de maltrato físico/psicológico o abuso sexual que en el grupo con trauma subsecuente a noticias de mutilación, heridas graves o muerte violenta o inesperada de alguien cercano. Así pues, puede concluirse tentativamente que la inmovilidad tónica puede ser típica no sólo de traumas sexuales, sino también de otro tipo de traumas directamente experimentados..

Keywords

tonic immobilitytraumaTonic Immobility ScaleTraumatic Events Questionnairedefensive strategiesInmovilidad tónicatraumaEscala de Inmovilidad TónicaCuestionario de Eventos Traumáticosestrategias defensivas.
Type
Articles
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , November 2008 , pp. 516 - 521
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Psychiatric Association (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual for mental disorders, DSM-IV-TR (4th ed., revised text). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.Google Scholar
Bernat, J.A., Ronfeldt, H.M., Calhoun, K.S., & Arias, I. (1998). Prevalence of traumatic events and peritraumatic predictors of posttraumatic stress symptoms in a nonclinical sample of college students. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 11, 645–664.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bracha, H.S. (2004). Freeze, flight, fight, fright, faint: Adaptationist perspectives on the acute stress response spectrum. CNS Spectrums, 9, 679–685.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Breslau, N. (2001). The epidemiology of posttraumatic stress disorder: What is the extent of the problem? Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 62 (suppl. 17), 16–22.Google ScholarPubMed
Carleton, R.N., McCreary, D.R., Norton, P.J., & Asmundson, G.J.G. (2006). Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale—Revised. Depression & Anxiety, 23, 297–303.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Forsyth, J.P., Marx, B., Fusé, T.M.K., Heidt, J., & Gallup, G.G. Jr., (2000). The Tonic Immobility Scale. Albany, NY: Author.Google Scholar
Fusé, T., Forsyth, J.P., Marx, B., Gallup, G.G., & Weaver, S. (2007). Factor structure of the Tonic Immobility Scale in female sexual assault survivors: An exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 21, 265–283.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Galliano, G., Noble, L.M., Travis, L.A., & Puechl, C. (1993). Victim reactions during rape/sexual assault: A preliminary study of the immobility response and its correlates. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 8, 109–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, J.A. (1987). The psychology of fear and stress (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Heidt, J.M., Marx, B.P., & Forsyth, J.P. (2005). Tonic immobility and childhood sexual abuse: A preliminary report evaluating the sequela of rape-induced paralysis. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 43, 1157–1171.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lauterbach, D., & Vrana, S. (1996). Three studies on the reliability and validity of a self-report measure of posttraumatic stress disorder. Assessment, 3, 17–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leach, J. (2004). Why people ‘freeze’ in an emergency: Temporal and cognitive constraints on survival responses. Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine, 75, 539–542.Google Scholar
Marks, I.M. (1987). Fears, Phobias and Rituals: Panic, Anxiety, and their Disorders. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Spanish translation: Miedos, fobias y rituales 1: Los mecanismos de la ansiedad. Barcelona: Martí nez Roca, 1991].Google Scholar
Martín, J.L., & de Paúl, J. (2005). Situaciones traumáticas: Un estudio sobre su prevalencia en población universitaria. Psicología Conductual, 13, 79–96.Google Scholar
Moskowitz, A. (2004). ‘Scared Stiff’: Catatonia as an evolutionary-based fear response. Psychological Review, 111, 984–1002.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Suarez, S.D., & Gallup, G.G. (1979). Tonic immobility as a response to rape in humans: A theoretical note. Psychological Record, 29, 315–320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vrana, S., & Lauterbach, D. (1994). Prevalence of traumatic events and post-traumatic psychological symptoms in a nonclinical sample of college students. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 7, 289–302.Google Scholar
Watson, S.B., & Haynes, S.N. (2007). Brief screening for traumatic life events in female university health service patients. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 7, 261–282.Google Scholar