Exploring psychosomatic congruence: The effect of focusing on body parts as a body-oriented mentalization process

IF 5.3 1区 心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background/Objective

: Patients with somatic symptoms are considered to have a deficiency in body-oriented mentalization; that is, the ability to perceive and interpret bodily sensations in relation to psychological states. We introduce the novel concept of psychosomatic congruence—the alignment of physical sensations with cognition and emotional states, which leads to behaviors that synchronize physical manifestations with emotional experiences and internal reflections. Despite its clinical relevance, this concept has not been empirically examined. Three experiments investigated the effects of psychosomatic congruence on the mental content of associations, autobiographical memories, and the accessibility of negative-related words. Grounded in theories of embodied cognition and interoception, we hypothesized that psychosomatic congruence could be facilitated through an initiated interoceptive task.

Methods

: Three pre-registered experiments involving 318 participants were conducted. Participants were asked to identify and label their most pleasant and unpleasant body parts, and then engaged in tasks involving associations with neutral words, memory retrieval, and the accessibility of negative-related words under varying conditions of mortality salience.

Results

: Focusing on the most pleasant body part, as compared to the most unpleasant, led to more positive associations with neutral words, enhanced positive memory retrieval, and reduced accessibility of negatively related words.

Conclusions

: These findings provide evidence that initiating an interoceptive task by focusing attention on body parts can induce congruent mental content. They offer insights into body-oriented mentalization and suggest that emotional distress may potentially be regulated by deliberately focusing on pleasant body parts.

探索心身一致性:关注身体部位作为以身体为导向的心智化过程的效果
背景/目的:有躯体症状的患者被认为缺乏以身体为导向的心理能力,即感知和解释与心理状态相关的身体感觉的能力。我们提出了 "心身一致性 "这一新颖概念--身体感觉与认知和情绪状态相一致,从而导致身体表现与情绪体验和内心反思同步的行为。尽管这一概念与临床息息相关,但还没有人对其进行过实证研究。三项实验研究了心身一致性对联想的心理内容、自传体记忆和负面相关词汇的可及性的影响。基于具身认知和内感知理论,我们假设通过启动内感知任务可以促进心身一致性:我们进行了三次预先登记的实验,共有 318 人参加。实验要求参与者识别并标注他们最愉快和最不愉快的身体部位,然后在不同的死亡率显著性条件下,参与涉及中性词联想、记忆检索和负面相关词的可及性的任务:结果:与最令人不愉快的身体部位相比,关注最令人愉快的身体部位会让人对中性词产生更多积极的联想,增强积极的记忆检索,并降低负面相关词语的可及性:这些发现提供了证据,证明通过将注意力集中在身体部位来启动互感任务,可以诱发一致的心理内容。这些研究结果提供了对以身体为导向的心智化的见解,并表明情绪困扰有可能通过刻意关注令人愉悦的身体部位而得到调节。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
10.70
自引率
5.70%
发文量
38
审稿时长
33 days
期刊介绍: The International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology is dedicated to publishing manuscripts with a strong emphasis on both basic and applied research, encompassing experimental, clinical, and theoretical contributions that advance the fields of Clinical and Health Psychology. With a focus on four core domains—clinical psychology and psychotherapy, psychopathology, health psychology, and clinical neurosciences—the IJCHP seeks to provide a comprehensive platform for scholarly discourse and innovation. The journal accepts Original Articles (empirical studies) and Review Articles. Manuscripts submitted to IJCHP should be original and not previously published or under consideration elsewhere. All signing authors must unanimously agree on the submitted version of the manuscript. By submitting their work, authors agree to transfer their copyrights to the Journal for the duration of the editorial process.
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