This literature review examines the psychological aspects of the savant syndrome in people with intellectual disabilities, focusing on the means by which such abilities as calendar calculation are accomplished and highlighting variables (such as intense motivation in one area) postulated as important for development of the syndrome. (Author/DB)

Examined social conflict in preschoolers' play. When children resolved conflicts, they behaved differently with friends than with acquaintances. Conciliatory gestures were used more often with friends than with acquaintances. The overwhelming majority of conflicts were resolved by children yielding to other children. (BG)

Examination of the number, content, and intensity of fears of 42 visually impaired children, aged 5-18, found more fears of potentially physically dangerous situations than of psychologically harmful ones and little difference between the number of mild and severe fears. Counselors' estimations of children's fears generally disagreed with the…

The utility of a Korean version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) for identifying depression was studied for 860 Korean immigrants in Canada. Evidence supports the Korean version, although it is recommended that Positive Affect items be deleted to avoid overstating psychological distress. (SLD)

Internal factors affecting how people perceive and react to relocation include beliefs about events, and emotions such as anger and loss, effects of early separation experiences, and self-esteem. Counseling can help individuals and families facing the psychological discomfort of this life crisis. (SK)

Parents rated the fears of their autistic children (n=14), and results were compared with ratings for nonhandicapped same-sex, same-age (2.5-17 years) peers. More autistic children than nonhandicapped children were rated as having specific common fears. Fears of autistic children were often different suggesting qualitative variations or…

Discussion of the creative self considers ideas of the described, not defined, self; the differentiated self; intensity, transformation, and development of the creative self; complexity of the creative self; the dialectical self; dialectical personality traits or bipolar mood disorder; and the inventive self. (DB)

Discusses coping and personal adjustment to chronic pain for adolescents with sickle cell anemia and presents a model of illness behavior for these adolescents. Offers a framework of disease severity and disease impact, and suggests using functional ability as an index of coping and personal adjustment. Contains 59 references. (SLD)

Research suggests that children's drawings are reflective of their culture. Drawings of seven- and eight-year-old children from Japan and the United States revealed that Japanese children draw significantly fewer smiles; created larger figures; and have a higher number of details. The findings are interpreted within the context of cultural…

Explores client psychological distress as a variable in career counseling among a group of 42 clients seen by counselors-in-training. Results indicate that 60% of the clients were psychologically distressed; clients' scores decreased significantly from pretest to posttest on psychological variables; and significant linear growth occurred in…

This study compared self-reported sexual functioning among 30 cleric alleged child molesters, 39 noncleric alleged child molesters, and 38 normal control subjects, as measured by the Derogatis Sexual Functioning Inventory. Results suggested that cleric offenders may be less seriously psychologically disordered than noncleric molesters. Clerics…

Meaning events are in-therapy change episodes that occur when a patient seeks to understand the meaning of an emotional experience. A performance model of this task was developed in an earlier study. This study sought to determine which client performance components distinguish successful from unsuccessful creation of meaning episodes. Measures of…

Examines how low- and high-trust individuals (n=111) react to messages of intended behavior in a social dilemma situation. Subjects played a two-person prisoner's dilemma; the opponent was a reciprocal strategy programmed by the experimenter. During the game, subjects received a message status that the opponent planned to be cooperative or…

The authors examined the ways in which 40 women with chronic illnesses used religious beliefs as a means of coping with their illnesses. The majority reported that religious beliefs were important in living with chronic illness. In addition, more women who were identified as coping well reported strong religious beliefs. (Author)

Explores how parents' psychological functioning, social relationships, and demographic characteristics relate to family functioning with a sample of 197 participants. Significant associations between predictor variables and family functioning were found as rated by mothers, caseworkers, and coders of family interaction tasks. (JDM)