COPING AND SENSITIVITY TO AVERSIVE EVENTS

To test further the sensitivity to aversive events hypothesis, males a nd females varying in level of depressed mood listened to positive, ne gative, and neutral social scenes while psychophysiological measuremen ts were obtained. rn addition, the relations among response styles, co ping strategies, and psychological adjustment were examined. Results i ndicated that only dysphoric females responded in ways consistent with the sensitivity hypothesis, exhibiting greater electrodermal response s to negative social scenes compared to nondysphoric females. No diffe rences in psychophysiological sensitivity were found between dysphoric and nondysphoric males. Dysphoric students engaged in more ruminative type responses in reaction to their depressed mood and reported using more avoidant coping strategies in response to stress. In particular females utilized more ruminative strategies in response to a depressed mood and more emotion-focused coping strategies in response to stress ful events in general. The implications for these results are discusse d within a diathesis-stress framework.