Provides comprehensive definition of psychological trauma and offers guidance to practitioners who are increasingly needed to treat traumatized children. Key therapy considerations are organized around the role of dissociation and repetition compulsion in trauma. Presents treatments in connection with aloneness of trauma experience, dream and…

The content of claims that basic emotions are the primitive building blocks of other nonbasic emotions is examined. It is suggested that the concept of basic emotions as elementary psychological primitives which explain other emotions is a false concept. An alternative approach is proposed. (SLD)

Responses of 125 older adults to a life-history interview were rated for frequency and extent of off-target verbosity. Talkativeness was rated by participants, 125 peers, and 10 professionals. Talkativeness did not appear to be age linked, suggesting that irrelevance in discourse may instead reflect longstanding personality traits. (SK)

Analysis of staff perceptions of classes of reinforcers and aberrant behaviors of 480 people with predominantly severe or profound mental retardation suggested 8 classes of reinforcers (e.g., consumable, play) and 5 classes of maladaptive behaviors (irritability, lethargy, stereotypy, hyperactivity, and inappropriate speech). Each class of…

Reviews the theories of C. Lange and William James on emotional consciousness, affirming it to be the effect of organic changes which express emotion. The name emotion might be considered to connote organic excitement as the distinctive feature of the state. (SLD)

Learning from program failure hinges upon acknowledging that everybody fails and having the ability to cope. Coping techniques may include accepting blame, denying failure, analyzing failure, blaming others, talking and sharing, remaining objective, using stress management techniques, and taking another risk. (SK)

Describes the characteristics of humor, its psychological and physiological benefits, effect on learning, applications in adult education and training, and recommendations for research. (SK)

Developed a university version of the Charles F. Kettering Climate Scale focusing on psychological dimensions of the educational climate. A second-order analysis of results from 707 students shows areas of generalization across the primary components. (SLD)

Proposes that multiple cognitive and motivational processes moderate the impact of the objective environment on well-being. Explores hedonically relevant psychological processes (social comparison, dissonance reduction, self-reflection, self-evaluation, and personal perception) in chronically happy and unhappy people, noting that they differ…

This article reviews the literature on creativity among African Americans including creative traits that may exhibit themselves in unusual and unacceptable classroom behavior, unique problem solving skills fostering survival in difficult circumstances, and E. Paul Torrance's list of creative positives. Suggestions to help parents and teachers…

Emotion concepts might be represented as distributed around a circumplex defined on bipolar dimensions of pleasure and arousal. Using an analog of categorical perception methodology, this study demonstrated a number of category boundaries that mark out discrete segments of the circumplex. Discriminability of emotion concepts was relatively weak…

Uses path model to examine how spirituality moderates relationships between negative life experiences and psychological adjustment (operationalized for the study as levels of depression and anxiety). Results suggest that spirituality provides a significant moderating effect for both depression and anxiety, with moderating effects stronger for…

Discusses selection and planning of group activities based on stages of group development. Describes typical group processes and behaviors encountered at the beginning, middle, and end of an extended group experience. Outlines two beginning, two middle, and one ending activity, including basic parameters and brief instructions. (SV)

Draws on the author's own experiences to look at several adolescent novels that treat the problem of eating disorders. Appends a four-item annotated bibliography of other young adult novels portraying characters with eating disorders. (RS)

Uses ethnographic data from a U.S. eating disorders treatment program to examine how medical and psychiatric practitioners actively craft the types of bodies they claim merely to describe, diagnose, and normalize, producing very real, socially located, embodied effects by acting as if these bodies preexist both socialization and medicalization.…