Rick Howard

Brainstem auditory evoked responses (BAERs) during the menstrual cycle in women with and without premenstrual syndrome

Brainstem auditory evoked responses (BAERs) were recorded at three menstrual cycle phases (menstrual, late follicular, and late luteal) in a sample of healthy control women (n = 21) and in a sample of women (n = 30) diagnosed as suffering from Late Luteal Phase Dysphoric Disorder (LLPDD). The latter were divided on the basis of retrospective and prospective self-ratings into moderate (PMS+) and severe (PMS++) symptom groups. Results showed (1) no change in BAER latencies at different phases of the menstrual cycle; (2) increased BAER latencies for wave III in women with moderate PMS symptoms compared with healthy controls; (3) increased BAER latencies for waves III and V in women with severe PMS symptoms compared with healthy controls. These results raise the possibility of brainstem dysfunction in PMS women, and support the idea of a neurobiological predisposition to this order.

Chapter 8 Telic Dominance, Personality and Coping

Publisher Summary This chapter highlights telic dominance, personality, and coping. Personality traits reflect particular ways of coping with stress. Such traits represent the interactive effects of stressful environmental events, cognitive appraisal processes, and neuropsychological predisposing influences. Telic dominance (considered as a trait) aligns with a problem-focused versus emotion-focused dimension of coping, with telic dominant individuals engaging in predominantly problem-focused coping strategies and paratelic individuals engaging in predominantly emotion-focused coping strategies. As, telic dominance refers to the dominance of a telic metamotivational state, which is subject to reversal to a paratelic metamotivational state under the influence of contingent environmental events, the association between telic dominance and problem-focused coping is also consistent with Folkman et als suggestion that problem-focused forms of coping, unlike emotion-focused forms, are strongly influenced by the situational context. The serious-minded and planning orientation aspects of telic dominance are visualized as a dynamic third dimension, orthogonal to the two-dimensional personality space defined by Belligerence and Withdrawal.