Determines the time course of circulating cortisol following circumcision in 80 healthy newborns and investigates whether changes in behavioral state following circumcision in anyway paralleled the adrenocortical time course. Adrenocortical and behavioral data indicated that subjects were able to cope with circumcision trauma. Cortisol levels…

Past research suggests that Type A's have a higher need for control than Type B's, and empirical evidence documents their greater reactivity to control loss. To extend investigation to control decisions and examine the hypothesis that Type A's would be less willing than Type B's to relinquish control to another person, 160 male undergraduates were…

Although the Type A behavior pattern has been linked to serious health disorders, recent evidence suggests that the Type A style only produces negative health consequences when its fit with the environment is poor. A study was undertaken to determine whether there was a difference between Type A and Type B persons in general lifestyle pace…

Although many studies have documented age-linked shifts in values, few studies have demonstrated the relationship between values and psychological adjustment. To explore the relationship between values, daily stressful experiences, positive experiences, and coping strategies, 100 white, middle-aged adults (ages 45-64 years) completed the Ways of…

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…

Rigidity, as it relates to aging, refers to motor/cognitive, personality/perceptual, and psychomotor functioning. To investigate the relationship of rigidity to intelligence and educational level in younger and older adults, and of rigidity to age and sex, 48 young adults (25 male, 23 female), with a mean age of 23, and 45 older adults (21 male,…

Both behavioral and cognitive coping strategies are determined by an individual's perception of the stressful stimuli. To investigate the relationship of an individual's usual coping style to differential responses to a behavioral or cognitive stressor in four response systems (heart rate, muscle tension, galvanic skin response, and subjective…

Research has suggested that people not sharing a common fate lack a sense of group identity, thus decreasing the tendency for helping behavior. To study the effects of stress and commonality of fate on helping behavior, 60 female college students participated in a replication of an earlier study which used male subjects. Participants were assigned…

Research on interpersonal influence within counseling psychology has focused primarily on the characteristics of the counselor. There is a need to study the role of client characteristics in resistance or noncompliance. A review of the literature indicates that most client characteristics associated with noncompliance in therapy can be narrowed…

Examines the strange-situation procedure among Japanese mother-infant pairs and analyzes their behavior by comparing them with the data reported in the book by M.S. Ainsworth and others. (HOD)

The term "pre-doctoral syndrome" is used to define behaviors of doctoral students during the research and dissertation stage of their program, when they typically become intense, single-minded, over-sensitive, less receptive to criticism, and exhibit stress-related behaviors. A study was conducted to examine the perceptions of University…

Fifty-five mothers of young children with Down syndrome completed the Parenting Stress Index. Low internal reliability coefficient for the Adaptability/Plasticity Child Domain subscale was found. Factor analysis of the scale found that the Adaptability/Plasticity factor did not perform as a unidimensional structure, but provided information on…

The cognitive model of depression postulates that the depressed individual's cognitions are not only negative, but erroneous and impervious to information from the environment. However, the valence of that information ultimately determines whether those cognitions are impervious or merely receptive. The actual life circumstances of the depressed…

Type A behavior is an epidemiological construct whose major features are aggressiveness, hostility, a sense of time urgency, and competitiveness; these features are considered measures of coronary-prone behavior in men and women. To determine a possible relationship between sex role orientation, parenting behavior, and Type A behavior, college…

This study examined school-related stress in children with and without disabilities, specifically the sources and manifestations of such stress and whether children with disabilities experience greater degrees of school-related stress than children without disabilities. The nondisabled group comprised 7,200 grade 4-12 students from urban and…