People Under Extreme Stress

In this book the authors bring together scientists from Australia, Germany, Israel, Poland, United Kingdom, and the United States to present their theoretical viewpoints and research findings dealing with the impact of various traumatic events, such as flood, war atrocities, terror, and life threatening illness. It focuses on various personality dimensions, in particular, neuroticism, mastery, self-efficacy, coping styles, several temperament traits (and related concepts), and demographic variables as well. There are also studies exploring the PTSD symptoms among family members indicating that there is a substantial similarity of PTSD level among them. In spite of the different approaches, kinds of disasters, and populations being studied, there is a common denominator of all the chapters presented in this volume which is an effort to understand to what extent environmental and personal factors, especially personality, influence individual differences in the proneness to develop disorder symptoms known as posttraumatic stress disorder.