How are worriers particularly sensitive to grief? Tonic immobility as a mediating factor

ABSTRACT

A growing body of literature has documented the negative outcomes associated with worry. To extend this line of research, we examined why some bereaved college students with the tendency to worry experience intense grief by focusing on psychosomatic symptoms that follow a wave of emotions episode. The results demonstrated that tonic immobility is not only responsible for grief outcomes beyond somatisation, but it also explains some of the bereaved worriers’ grief-related pain and dysfunction. Clinical implications and limitations of these results are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Worry
• grief
• tonic immobility
• somatisation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sherman A. Lee

Sherman A. Lee, PhD, is an associate professor of psychology at Christopher Newport University, USA. He studies negative feeling states, such as anxiety and grief, and the role personality and religion play in those emotional experiences. He teaches courses in the psychology of personality, psychology of the human-animal bond (Anthrozoology), and the psychology of death, dying, and bereavement (Thanatology). He is the founder of the Coronavirus Anxiety Project and creator of the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale and the Obsession with COVID-19 Scale.

Amanda A. Mathis

Amanda A. Mathis, BS, is a graduate of Christopher Newport University, USA. She will be attending the doctoral program in Quantitative Psychology at the University of Notre Dame this Fall 2020. Her interests include quantitative and cognitive psychology. She is a research member of the Coronavirus Anxiety Project.

Mary C. Jobe

Mary C. Jobe, BS, is a graduate of Christopher Newport University, USA. She will be attending the doctoral program in Applied Social Psychology at the George Washington University this Fall 2020. Her interests include developmental, quantitative, and social psychology. She is a research member of the Coronavirus Anxiety Project.