Psychological and Physiological Effects of Specific Relaxation Techniques

Abstract

Several physiological tests (oxygen consumption, respiration rate, heart rate, tidal volume and diastolic and systolic blood pressure) and a psychological test battery (Eysenck Personality Inventory, the State Trait Anxiety Scale, and several questionnaires on health, the effects of various relaxation procedures and drug usage) were given to all subjects at pre- and post-tests. After the pre-test, one group learnt Transcendental Meditation (TM, N = 21) the second group learnt Jacobson’s Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PR, N = 18) while a third group were not taught a relaxation procedure and acted as the control group (CG, N = 19). Both experimental groups were then post-tested immediately after they learnt their respective techniques and again, 5, 10, and 15 weeks later. The CG was post-tested 7 weeks after their pre-test and again 5, 10, and 15 weeks later. Meditators demonstrated the most significant and wide ranging results over the psychological variables (decreases in neuroticism, extraversion, state and trait anxiety) and the physiological variables (respiration and heart rate, tidal volume, diastolic blood pressure, and oxygen consumption). The PR group’s results were less marked and covered a more limited range, showing decreases in state and trait anxiety, tidal volume, oxygen consumption, diastolic blood pressure and respiration and heart rate. The CG changed non-significantly over all variables. This consistent difference between experimental groups is explained in terms of the dissimilarity between relaxation techniques and both groups having different expectations; as subjects about to learn TM had to pay for their instruction while subjects about to learn PR did not. Further, the TM group spent considerably more time practising their technique than the PR group spent on their relaxation procedure.