Explores how agoraphobia is realized through the activity of storytelling. Analyzes one agoraphobic woman's narrative to articulate the narrative structuring of a panic episode, the grammatical resources systematically recruited to portray panic as unaccountable and the protagonist as irrational and helpless, and a recurrent communicative dilemma…

Explores parallels between the soap opera and both fairy tales and therapy. Presents a detailed analysis of a recurrent narrative element in soaps--that of the "bad" and/or missing mother of young women heroines in "The Young and the Restless." Emphasizes the repressive over the liberating aspects of the soap opera. (SR)

Describes how teachers can equip students to deal with disaster, focusing on coping with earthquakes. The article suggests watching for symptoms, encouraging expression, providing concrete information, helping soothe parents, developing emergency plans, holding emergency drills, and developing a communication strategy. Tips for before and after…

This article reviews and critiques the literature on the effects of participation in aerobic exercise on psychological/behavioral variables for persons with mental retardation and associated disabilities. Findings suggested that participation in an exercise program produces immediate, but not durable, benefits in the psychological and behavioral…

A sample of 55 young adolescents and their parents were surveyed to determine the relationship between adolescent and parent emotions. Analyses showed modest associations between adolescents and parents both in their global emotional patterns and their immediate emotions. Age and gender effects were also found. (MDM)

In individual interviews, 80 children ages 4-8 predicted which of 5 emotions they would feel, and how intensely, to 15 affect-laden situations. Results indicated that responses involve three dimensions of emotion cognition (intensity, multiplicity, and valence) that emerge in four developmental stages. By age eight, children can predict multiple…

Subjects who self-reported episodes of abusing a child were compared to those without a history of child battery. It was concluded that self-identified child abusers have increased lifetime rates of antisocial personality disorder, alcoholism, and depression. (DB)

Describes development of the Therapeutic Reactance Scale, which was developed to measure psychological reactance as defined by Brehm (1966), factor analysis of scale into verbal and behavioral reactance subscales, and reliability and validity data from study with 130 college students. (Author/ABL)

A Finnish university medical school precedes its cadaver dissection course with lectures on death, dissection, and psychological response. Student surveys reveal that the lectures have created an awareness that has helped them through difficult situations and prevented dissipation of energy through emotional reaction. Long-term benefits are also…

Claims writing teachers need to understand the relationship between personality type and the range of successful writing strategies. Discusses a method for identifying students' psychological (personality) type and examines how these characteristics affect preference for types of writing, group learning, experiential learning, and tutorial…

Explores how undergraduate readers take the protagonist's mental perspective in stories involving conflicting beliefs about a situation. Demonstrates that readers with privileged information build emotional inference corresponding to the protagonist's (wrong) beliefs; inferences related to protagonist's beliefs are backward inferences at the text…

A questionnaire was developed and administered to 30 young children with autism and a control group to explore sensory hyper- and hypo-sensitivities. Significant differences were found between groups across all (auditory, tactile, visual, gustatory, and vestibular) domains. Findings are interpreted within the framework of theory of mind and joint…

A study compared the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder and other diagnoses in three groups of abused children (ages 7-13), sexual only (n=127), physical only (n=43), and both (n=34). Children who had been both physically and sexually abused appeared to be at the highest risk of psychiatric disturbance. (Author/CR)

In a sample of adult subjects (Study One), the relative importance and efficacy of extrinsic aspirations for financial success, an appealing appearance, and social recognition were associated with lower vitality and self-actualization and more physical symptoms. Study Two replicated these findings in a sample of college students. (JPS)

The psychological experience of ejaculation was examined for 188 Nigerian adolescent boys to determine emotional reactions, feelings of preparedness, sources of preexperience information, and the extent of peer discussion after the experience. The experience was not perceived negatively, and boys usually told their friends. Most suppliers of…