Variations in Magnitude of Emotion: A Method Applied to Anxiety and Hostility During Phases of the Menstrual Cycle

Abstract

We may now believe that in the interstitial tissues of the gonads special chemical substances are produced, which, when taken up in the blood stream, charge definite parts of the central nervous system with sexual tension.-Sigmund Freud 5 1 HE INVESTIGATION and measurement of emotions and emotional change constitute a research area that has challenged many but left none triumphant. Also challenged, but humbled by the prospective task, we have been attracted particularly to the general problem of the lack of a quantitative tool in psychiatry and to the specific problem of the need for a method of measuring, with reasonable precision, the extent of emotional change. These interests have involved us in construct selection and formulation of such questions as: What phenomena are to be labeled as typifying a specific emotion and what levels of affective aware-

Patterns of Affective Fluctuation in the Menstrual Cycle

“…Their concerns at that time ranged from the attempted suicide of a friend to the prospect of facing a great deal of make-up school work due to illness. The presence of a lower level of anxiety at ovulation compared with that at premenstruation in 21 of these subjects confirmed Gottschalk's findings, 6 which had indicated a transient decrease in anxiety at ovulation. The fact that a higher level of premenstrual anxiety (sig-PSYCHOSOMATIC MEDICINE nificant at the .01 level) was present in this sample was consistent with other research.…”

“…There was considerable variability in a S's response, largely due to the sensitivity of the measure to changes in situational anxiety. 6 Nevertheless, when the mean anxiety levels for all Ss were combined, the comparison between the premenstrual and ovulation anxiety levels showed the anxiety level at premenstruation to be significantly higher at the .0005 level.…”

Periodicity and self-actualization in women

“…Just as time of day has been found t o influence psychological state measures (Barton & Cattell, 1974), menstrual cycle phase changes may prove to lead to variations in measures other than those of mood, such as the MDQ and the Gottschalk et al (1962) procedure. …”

Profiles of children's psychological states derived from the Gottschalk-Gleser content analysis of speech

“…The affect scores of anxiety and hostility are very sensitive to many conditions, for example, the passage of time (see the generalizability studies of Gottschalk and Gleser, 1969, pp. 59-67); phases of the menstrual cycle (Gottschalk et al, 1962;Ivey and Bardwick, 1968;Sflbergeld et al, 1971); increases in serum dopamine beta-hydroxylase (Sflbergeld et al, 1975); different interviewers (Gottschalk and Gteser, 1969;Gottschalk, 1971;Schofer et al, 1978); various psychoactive drugs, such as perphenazine (Gottschalk et aL, 1960), amytal (Ross et al, 1963), chlordiazepoxide (Gleser et al, 1965;Gottschalk and Kaplan, 1972), and lorazepam (Gottschalk et al, 1972a); sex (Gottschalk and Gleser, 1969); and aging (Gottschalk and Gleser, 1969).…”