INCENTIVE MOTIVATION, COPING STYLE AND EEG ASYMMETRY

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A recent focus of psychopathology research has been the identification of factors that promote lowered risk for psychopathology as well as those that enhance vulnerability to affective disorder. Two constructs that have each been associated with lowered risk are relative left frontal electroencephalographic (EEG) asymmetry and a repressive- defensive coping style. The focus of the proposed research is the relation of these constructs to a current major model of hemispheric asymmetry in which affective lateralization of hemispheric function occurs along a dimension of incentive-related approach and punishment- related withdrawal responses. Subjects who report a repressive coping style are predicted to show sustained increased relative left frontal hemispheric activation throughout incentive-related trials of a warned- reaction-time task in which feedback becomes increasingly negative as the task progresses. This would reflect the hypothesized increased motivational sensitivity to incentive in repressors compared to subjects who report a non-repressive coping style, who are not predicted to sustain high levels of relative left frontal activation across such a task. Although the proposed sample will not specifically be drawn from a clinical population, the findings will have implications for the study of affective disorders, especially given the putative roles of left frontal EEG asymmetry and a repressive coping style in conferring lowered risk for the occurrence of depressive episodes.