The Nottingham Adjustment Scale, a scale to measure psychological status before and after rehabilitation for acquired sight loss, is described; its factorial validity is demonstrated; and its validity in enabling changes is measured. The scale revealed changes in both cognitive and emotional factors as a consequence of receiving rehabilitation.…

Conventional research strategies typically emphasize behavior-determining tendencies so strongly that the person as a whole is ignored. Research strategies for studying whole persons focus on symbolic structures, formulate specific questions in advance, study persons one at a time, use individualized measures, and regard participants as expert…

One unified aspect of men's gender role conflict is the fear of femininity, which can produce six conflicts: restrictive emotionality; homophobia; socialized control, power, and competition; restrictive affectionate behavior; obsession with achievement and success; and health care problems. To measure these constructs 85 items were generated from…

Rubin and Peplau's Just World Scale is based on the belief that a just world is a unidimensional construct in which individual beliefs are polarized according to immanent justice or ultimate justice. To investigate the effect of personal style on just world view, 109 male and female college students (who previously had completed the Just World…

Psychological researchers continue to debate the relative contribution of ability and effort to feelings of self-worth. To investigate student preferences for ability or effort and their relationship to self-worth, and to assess the relative contribution of ability and effort to affective experience, two separate studies were undertaken. In the…

Based on the assumption that differences in personal meaning and in the social significance of loss predispose widows and divorced individuals to different, specific vulnerabilities during grieving, 410 separated, divorced, and widowed women, aged 23 to 76 years, with at least one child, completed the Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist, the…

Although research suggests that highly test anxious subjects are often motivated to escape from situations in which they are being evaluated, many persons in experimental situations do not see escape as an option. To examine the behavior of test anxious persons in aversive test situations, 60 college students, who were assessed as being high or…

Based on a modification of Berglas and Jones' (1978) design, conditions of contingent and noncontingent success and failure were manipulated to determine when and why individuals choose to adopt self-handicapping strategies. Male undergraduates (N=76) were informed that they were participating in a study investigating the effects of music on…

This study examined separation-individuation development issues for young adult women, from the perspective of object-relations theory. Its purpose was to explore a woman's perception of her relationship with mother as it is affected by age and request for psychotherapy as well as the relationship between mother-daughter bond and personality…

Relationships are examined between support types (emotional, instrumental, and nonintimate social participation), gender, sex role orientation, and stress level. Dependent variables include need, perceived availability, and satisfaction. Effects of sex role orientation on perceptions of social support appear circumscribed. (MCK)

Consideration of underlying neurological and psychological deficits suggests that the autistic syndrome results from the coexistence of at least two distinct constellations of functional impairments: deficits in mechanical language skills, as in the developmental dysphasias; and deficits in social relatedness, play, and nonverbal communication, as…

Compares the stress levels and reactions to stress of 804 female and 127 male college students and examines their relationship to self-esteem, confidence, and self-concept. Concludes that sex differences in dysfunctional reactions to stress are related to sex differences in self-concepts, whereas sex differences in areas of stress are not related…

Focuses on: (1) principles that underlie regulation of distress and negative emotions among infants and young children; and (2) developmental trends that occur during the first years of life. Discusses the role of caregivers. Offers ideas that lend themselves to hypothesis testing and empirical validation. (RH)

Sleep patterns of 103 institutionalized individuals with profound mental retardation were explored. Almost 40% were found to have short-sleep patterns. Short-sleep was predicted by blindness; nonshort-sleep was predicted by diagnosis of cerebral palsy and sodium valproate usage. Techniques for minimizing possible negative consequences of…

Nine adult males with mental retardation resulting from Fragile X syndrome were compared to males with mental retardation of other etiology. Fragile X males showed a distinct psychological profile with more autistic features, more schizoid features, and more schizotypal features. These males were also more shy, more socially withdrawn, less…