Two studies examined models that preschoolers, fifth-graders, and adults use to guide predictions of self-beneficial, goal-directed action. Found that preschoolers' predictions were consistent with an animal-based model, fifth-graders' with biology-based and complexity-based models, and adults' predictions with a biology-based model. All age…

Explored whether and how understanding of biological explanation changes with development. Found that adults and children similarly distinguished between biology and psychology and about specific processes underlying biological change. Children's attributions of intention to biological organs or body parts did not differ from those of adults.…

Data from public and private sectors reveal that few persons stay in psychotherapy long enough to be classified as "long-term" clients. Those who do remain in psychotherapy for a long time are rarely studied because attention has generally been focused on terminators. Demographic, treatment, and psychometric characteristics of 64 long-term…

The authors administered the Isolation Symptomatology Questionnaire to persons living in Antarctica who were either well or maladjusted to their environment. Eliminating those items not discriminating between the two groups, the authors constructed a new isolation scale. (SE)

Recently, research has been conducted using an interactional understanding of depression, which views depression as a disorder exacerbated by a pathogenic social system. The interaction between intimate social partners seems especially relevant. Couples (N=26) participated in a study of depressed out-patients and their spouses and a matched…

Although research has examined influence of social ties on health and well-being, it has not clearly identified the characteristics of social support networks that facilitate coping and mediate responses to stress. This study was conducted to determine whether individual differences in social support networks would discriminate between individuals…

Institutionalized emotionally disturbed boys and noninstitutionalized normal boys were administered the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children. Locus of control and separate factor scores were calculated. Helplessness factor scores, but not overall locus of control scores, differentiated the two groups. (BJG)

Identified persons who actively direct and influence the positive evolution of others by acting upon the environment. Selected individuals on the basis of service to the community and matched them with a comparison group. A comparative analysis indicated differences in education and personality characteristics in the selected "autoevolutionary"…

In this study we compared the psychosocial (n = 7,896) and clinical (n = 4,664) characteristics and 6-month functional outcomes (n = 2,594) of suicidal and nonsuicidal youth. Repeat and previous attempters were more likely than first-time and never attempters to experience psychosocial problems and to be functionally impaired in a variety of…