Wilderness Alternative for Youth (WAY), conducted by the Pacific Crest Outward Bound School, is a treatment program for adjudicated youth that integrates wilderness or adventure therapy with a community-based component. Participants were 115 boys and girls, aged 13-18, recommended by court counselors and screened for appropriateness by Outward…

This paper examines the consequences of the chronic trauma produced by parental inadequacy, when the need to know a painful reality is coupled with the need not to know. It follows what the author believes was Freud's intent in making a distinction between the processes of denial and disavowal. In particular, the paper examines the fantasy that…

Prior research has established that gender differences in self-perceptions exist. It was hypothesized that self-consistency tendencies can partially explain gender differences in self-evaluations. College students (N=488) were presented with either a feminine, masculine, or neutral gender-typed task, each containing 35 multiple-choice questions.…

Research has shown that unrealistically-optimistic people believe that they will experience fewer negative events and more positive events than other persons. This paper analyzes a scale which was designed to measure the several cognitive dimensions underlying unrealistic optimism about health. For this study, 220 college students completed a…

The depressed person is often trapped in a vicious cycle of dysfunctional thoughts and feelings of powerlessness. Young adults are prone to depression because of the intimacy versus isolation conflict. Young adulthood (ages 18-35) focuses on the search for intimacy, establishment of a career, and formation of a lifestyle. The failure to succeed in…

In response to the Hurricane Hugo disaster, the South Carolina Department of Mental Health (SCDMH) deployed 10 percent of its workforce to serve as members of "Go Teams" that worked with the Charleston Area Community Mental Health Center (CACMHC) staff and provided crisis intervention services to the community. This study examined the…

The Precursors Study, initiated in 1946, has focused on searching for links between psychological patterns and future disease and death. Gathering a broad spectrum of psychobiological characteristics from a large group of medical students, this study has continued year after year. This study examined the role of psychological factors on mortality,…

As a result of the Holocaust, many survivors developed long term psychosocial impairment known as the Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which is characterized by depression, anxiety, hypocondriasis, inability to concentrate or to express anger, nightmares, insomnia, obsessive thoughts, guilt, mistrust, and alienation. The literature in this…

This four-chapter monograph, translated from a 1977 Russian book written originally in Russian for Russians, describes methodology and results of the study of cognitive activity in children with cerebral palsy. An initial chapter reviews research on impairments in cognitive activity and speech defects in such children and on methods of…

The view that humans fail to solve certain types of problems because they are helpless and passive originated from a series of studies with animals; subsequent research attempted to replicate the findings of the learned helplessness behavior with humans. In an attempt to replicate and extend the Hiroto and Seligman (1975) study of humans exposed…

In its broadest context, play can be interpreted as any pleasurable use of discretionary time. Playfulness is an intrinsic feature of being human, and should be viewed in the light of a total lifestyle, not as an occurrence in an isolated time of life. Adult play appears to be an indefinable and controversial concept. A holistic approach should be…

Stress has been hypothesized to be both a negative and a positive prognostic factor. Stress was examined in relation to total symptomatology as rated by the patient and a significant other and to five symptom factors. This was accomplished at the time a patient was hospitalized and one year subsequently. (Author)

This article examines the idea that social norms are not permanently incorporated into a person's personality. The author presents the argument that in a group situation subjects are conditioned toward similarity while afterward, the individual's behavior gradually returns to an "operant level". Tests show this argument to be essentially true.…

This study suggests that the feelings of isolation experienced by some older people may be more likely than their actual lack of interaction. Data were collected from 163 subjects, aged 60 and older, by interview. Significant differences were obtained for the age and income variables and two of the proximity variables. (Author)

Effects of differential reinforcement of cautiousness upon intellectual performance in the elderly were investigated employing 56 females and 32 males. Systematically varied pre-test instruction conditions involving two levels of risk and of response omission when taking the PMA Test. Results suggest performance in intelligence tests is influenced…