Examines recent empirical evidence to test theories postulated in separate works by G. Stanley Hall and Anna Freud that adolescents must experience psychological turbulence in the transition to adulthood. Concludes that turmoil is no longer a necessary condition of adolescence and that those who do experience it need psychiatric attention.…

Counselors are often confronted with client goals that are at varying levels of awareness, elusive to either the counselor or the client. Discusses methods for bringing unfocused goals into awareness. Notes techniques for counseling clients with unrealistic and uncoordinated goals. (Author/RC)

Studied factors to help dentists understand smoking in patients. Dental patients (N=57) attended "quit smoking" clinics and were given the Horn Smoker's Self-Test which elicits information on factors relating to smoking. The most important functions cigarettes serve, according to smokers, were to satisfy craving, act as a crutch, and provide…

Presents survey data indicating that residence in urban areas is not correlated with distrust of neighbors but is correlated with distrust of other people in the wider community. (Author/MK)

Compared the behavioral correlates of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory 4-3 high-point pair and the Overcontrolled-Hostility scale in a sample of university psychology clinic outpatients (N=97). Behavioral correlates of two groups of outpatients were more similar to each other than they were to the group of outpatient controls.…

Therapist's pregnancy creates new problems and opportunities for therapeutic relationships. Patient reactions relate to impending separation and psychological and physical events of pregnancy. Pregnant therapists also have new reactions to patients and must consider potential benefits of communicating something personal about themselves. (NRB)

Competitive stress occurs when a child perceives that he is not performing to athletic standards. Results of a study done on boys from 16 soccer teams indicate that pregame stress was influenced by the child's perceived capabilities, and postgame stress was influenced by his perception of his actual performance. (JN)

To identify distinguishing features of personality associated with anorexia nervosa in adolescence, the Cattell High School Personality Questionnaire responses of 50 anorectics were compared with matched groups of depressed and antisocial adolescent females. Results indicated that anorectics displayed greater conformity, neurotic anxieties,…

Investigated the utility of situational assessments of trait anxiety in predicting state anxiety reactions. Results indicated that the STAI-A-Trait and the S-R GTA Evaluation measures correlated significantly higher with each other than either did with the S-R GTA Physical Danger measure. Both stresses produced significant increases in state…

A factor analysis of questionnaire responses from (N=189) victims of life-threatening accidents identified three dimensions of the altered state of consciousness produced by dangerous circumstances. These dimensions, included depersonalization, hyperalertness, and mystical consciousness, appeared meaningful in terms of the endangered personality's…

Nihilism is the fundamental movement in the history of the West. Materialism is a symptom of nihilism. Materialism is the view that all meaning has gone from the cosmos, nature, and culture. Values are objective, explicit options which imply the existence of choice. (JN)

College students (N=253) rated the effects they expected from drinking alcohol along various dimensions. Results showed that subjects expected moderate drinking to result in relatively greater stimulation/perceived dominance and pleasurable disinhibition, whereas for heavy drinking they expected a greater degree of behavioral impairment. (Author)

Analysis indicates that religious intensity, sex, age, and education are important associational variables regarding attitudes toward suicide and euthanasia. Males are more accepting than females. Females are influenced by family life conditions. Males are influenced by health status. (JMF)

A description is given of a smoking prevention strategy that focuses on both the social and psychological factors involved in developing the smoking habit. (JD)

The common negative relationship between the Test Anxiety Scale for Children (TASC) and the Lie Scale for Children (LSC) was examined using previous data. Defensiveness (measured by the LSC) was more related to later test anxiety than anxiety was to defensiveness, indicating causal effects of defensiveness on anxiety. (Author/GDC)