Styles of Interpersonal Contact and Muscular Tone at Rest of Some Muscles of the Shoulder

Abstract

Styles of interpersonal contact are related, we hypothesized, to particular postural attitude showing the tendency to interact with or to avoid the environment. Those attitudes are expressed through myographic patterns. Now we examined the interpersonal contact styles and the muscular activity at rest (frequency and amplirude) of some muscles of the shoulders of 54 undergraduate women in psychology. All subjects declared they were right-handed. Increased myographic frequency seems associated with the perception of some levels of interpersonal barrier while increased amplitude seems to facilitate contact with other persons.