Possible Selves theory, introduced by Markus and Nurius (1986), explores individuals' ideas of what they might become, what they would like to become, and what they fear becoming. This paper examines the theoretical foundations of Possible Selves theory and its implications for identity development, particularly among graduate students. It reviews…

Research suggests that preservice teachers enter teacher education with predominantly negative dispositions towards mathematics. We present a case study of an approach to supporting the development of positive mathematics teaching identities among students in a middle-level math methods course. Our findings suggest that engaging in narrative…

The authors were professor and student, in a doctoral leadership course, during fall semester of 2013-2014. Across the term the professor mentored the mentee, guiding him to the creation of the next, needed model for leadership. The new model, known as The Affect-Centered Transformational Leadership Model, came about as the result. Becoming an…

This article was presented as the 2008 Wallace Foundation Distinguished Lecture at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in New York City. It argues that, to generate robust and generative theories of human learning and development, researchers must address the range of diversity within human cultural communities. The…

Psychologists have often observed an underlying pattern or theme in the accounts that individuals give of their lives. To test a humanistic-existential approach to human development, 48 women were interviewed with the Loss and Transcendence (L/T) Life History Form. The L/T Life Theme is expressed in two ways: the expanded version includes the…

This study examined the relationship between level of ego development and parents' self reports of the subjective experience of parenthood. Subjects were 30 mother/father pairs of middle class parents, 10 from each of three phases of the family: families whose oldest children were attending preschool or middle school, or had graduated from high…

The vision quest is a technique used by primitive cultures to gain psychological or religious insight. During a vision quest, a person would wander alone into the wilderness, searching for a sign or vision that would reveal some truth. The basic psychological dynamics underlying the quest include free association and de-structuring; the…

A total of 38 children of 5-6 years in one of four early childhood or kindergarten programs participated in a study of the predictive relationship of stress and coping to development and psychosocial adjustment. Measures of independent variables included the Life Events Scale for Children, Family Invulnerability Test, Hassles Scale for Children,…

With changes in sex role expectations in marriage, family researchers have begun to examine the concept of machismo. Two characteristics dominant in the study of machismo are aggressiveness and hypersexuality. A biological model of machismo asserts that males everywhere tend to be more aggressive than females, a sex difference which appears to…

This essay argues that humans are capable of a large number of affect states; a distinction should be made among acute emotions, chronic moods, and temperamental vulnerabilities to a particular emotion state; and research on human effects will profit from a return to, and reinterpretation of, Sigmund Freud's suggestion of unconscious affect…

This document presents information from a body of research called Lives of Service, a collection of case studies of 32 altruistic adults. It begins with a review of the research on altruism, service orientation, giving, helpfulness, social responsibility, and voluntarism. Research on altruism in psychology and in other disciplines is included,…

This paper reports on a study to develop a scale of stress measurement and its use with undergraduate students (N=269) at a large land grant mid-Atlantic university. Students, within the classroom setting, were given a questionnaire containing 52 potentially stressful hypothetical situations and were asked to indicate the degree of stress they…

Identity development has been conceptualized as a process with four possible outcomes or identity statuses: Achievement, Moratorium, Foreclosure, and Diffusion. If males placed a high value on an identity crisis, women who identified with the male sex role would be expected to be in a crisis (Moratorium) or post-crisis (Achievement) status.…

Whereas aggressive multimodal therapies are responsible for improved survival rates of children and adolescents diagnosed with cancer, concern has grown regarding the potential for adverse and delayed developmental effects resulting from these treatments. In light of this concern, this study assessed 207 adult survivors of childhood cancer in…

Recent research on domestic violence has sought to provide insight into the psychological consequences of such violence. A conceptual framework, which suggests that both situational and person-centered factors contribute to adjustment to violence and affect a woman's personal and social resources, was formulated to examine the impact of stress,…