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)

Reviews recent trends in suicide among young Blacks and discusses three inadequate causal theories (urban stress, status integration, and Black family deficit). Presents an alternative explanatory paradigm which focuses on weakened communal and family ties as a result of upward mobility. (MK)

A factor-analytic study of the relationship of vocational client change to nonvocational client change is presented. Previous research findings indicating the independence of these two dimensions are supported. An explanation to account for this result is offered. (Author/BEF)

Recounts the history of cancer treatment to illustrate the long-standing tradition of a holistic approach to the investigation and treatment of cancer, discusses the growing emphasis on holistic cancer treatment and the importance of counseling in such treatment. (Author)

Reviews and clarifies counseling from an existential perspective, with emphasis on the distinction between neurotic and ontological anxiety. The existentially oriented counselor insists that clients face themselves as referents in a phenomenological context by experiencing existential "anxiety" when confronted with the pain of finitude,…

A reexamination of the arousal-performance relationship indicates that anxiety should be viewed as a multidimensional construct consisting of physical, behavioral, and cognitive components. (CJ)

Smokers and nonsmokers were exposed to anti-smoking communications to compare the relationship of emotional arousal, attitudes, and subjective normative beliefs. Findings revealed that smoking-related intentions were more strongly associated with attitudes toward smoking than with subjective normative beliefs or emotional arousal. (RC)

Measured psychological sequelae to induced abortion among women pregnant out of wedlock, using the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and questions specific to willingness to repeat abortion under similar circumstances. Analyses indicated no relation between objective and subjective indicators. Affectivity after induced abortion had…

States that the social conditions that produce cults are favorable today and that those young people who are attracted to cult membership are idealistic, innocent, inquisitive, independent, identity-seeking, insecure, and vulnerable. Suggests that educators can help students be aware of the seriousness of the problems cults can cause. (TJ)