During the past 20 years, a significant body of literature has emerged focusing on the application of Dabrowski's theory of positive disintegration (TPD) to the study of gifted individuals. Although much of this literature is prescriptive, some research reports spanning this time period are available. A perusal of research on TPD's applicability…

Mentally retarded emotionally disturbed children (N=31) were compared on the Child Depression Inventory and the Child Behavior Profile with 31 children in a normal school setting. Correlational data showed a strong relationship between the cut-off scores for both measures suggesting that similarities exist between depression in mentally retarded…

Self-destructiveness can be viewed in two ways: as performing an act which one knows cognitively is not conducive to one's welfare but nonetheless leads to some pleasurable affect (e.g., overeating, smoking); or not performing an act one knows one should perform but which has some negative affective consequences (e.g., dental checkups, saving…

Dabrowski's theory that sensitivity and intensity are characteristic of the psychological makeup of young gifted children was investigated in a qualitative study with five gifted children (ages 4 through 6). The study found the five overexcitabilities postulated by Dabrowski were manifested in the children's classroom and home behaviors. (DB)

This article discusses clinical application of functional analysis in developmental disabilities, reviewing issues related to treatment logic and development. The article then approaches functional analysis as a research method, reviewing three areas of research: analysis of diverse response topographies, analysis of basic behavioral processes,…

This study examined how type of task affected 42 subjects' drinking patterns. Results indicated that subjects who had completed light creative work drank more alcohol than those in noncreative tasks, and participants completing hard creative tasks drank more of both alcoholic and nonalcoholic fluids. Results are discussed in terms of the need to…

Although research suggests that highly test anxious subjects are often motivated to escape from situations in which they are being evaluated, many persons in experimental situations do not see escape as an option. To examine the behavior of test anxious persons in aversive test situations, 60 college students, who were assessed as being high or…

Based on a modification of Berglas and Jones' (1978) design, conditions of contingent and noncontingent success and failure were manipulated to determine when and why individuals choose to adopt self-handicapping strategies. Male undergraduates (N=76) were informed that they were participating in a study investigating the effects of music on…

Sleep patterns of 103 institutionalized individuals with profound mental retardation were explored. Almost 40% were found to have short-sleep patterns. Short-sleep was predicted by blindness; nonshort-sleep was predicted by diagnosis of cerebral palsy and sodium valproate usage. Techniques for minimizing possible negative consequences of…

Compulsivity and obsessiveness are vaguely defined terms which include a broad range of behaviors and cognitions that have been elusive to quantify. To introduce the 22-item Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (OCS) and to perform preliminary validation studies, 114 (46 male, 68 female) college students and 57 counseling clients completed the OCS on two…

The symptomatology of 93 psychiatric inpatients with mild mental retardation was compared with that of a matched sample of inpatients without mental retardation. Patients with retardation displayed more outwardly directed and less inwardly directed symptoms; more symptoms involving action than thought; and psychotic symptom pictures which more…

This article reviews and critiques the literature on the effects of participation in aerobic exercise on psychological/behavioral variables for persons with mental retardation and associated disabilities. Findings suggested that participation in an exercise program produces immediate, but not durable, benefits in the psychological and behavioral…

Although the Tension Reduction Hypothesis (TRH) of alcoholism has been the most popular explanation for alcohol abuse to date, the research addressing this model has provided tenuous support at best. In light of this contradictory support, a coping model of alcohol consumption is proposed. This model is based on the low self-image of…

The importance of understanding the manner in which the desire to buy arises in buyers has been neglected in the study of consumer psychology. This report identifies those few research projects which have studied the origins of consumer motivation and describes a phenomenologically-guided investigation which studied individuals' desires to…

Observed a group of 46 children classified at 20 months as either behaviorally inhibited or uninhibited, and 18 children who were classified aa falling at neither extreme at 5.5 years of age, in contexts designed to evaluate behavior in social situations and heart rate, heart variability, and pupillary dilation to cognitive tasks. (HOD)