Research suggests that the perception of personal competence may account for a significant portion of the variance in individual physical and psychological well-being. Yet to be investigated is how people arrive at judgments of their competence, the structure of personal competence perception represented by these judgments, and the relation of the…

Although inconsistent, research findings indicate that men and women self-disclose differently in terms of depth and frequency and interpret disclosures differently during varying stages of their relationships. A review of the literature concerning communication within stable, enduring relationships reveals that, overall, there are no apparent sex…

The utility of a theoretical model of quality of life for graduate students was investigated. Variables that relate to the person-environment fit of graduate students were also examined. The data were collected via a biographical data form and seven psychometric instruments. The 142 subjects from two graduate departments at Peabody College were a…

This paper explores the developmental changes in meaning and purpose across the life course. Thirty males and females at the developmental stages of young adulthood (16-29 years), early middle-age (30-49 years), late middle-age (50-64 years), young-old (65-74 years) and old-old (75+ years) completed the Reker and Peacock (1981) Life Attitude…

This study was undertaken to examine the relationship between "Personality fitness" and academic achievement. One hundred seventy-five subjects from three educational levels--university, vocational technical institute, and high school--were administered the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices and an…

Research partially supported by grants MH-12548-01 and CA-04937-07 from the U.S. Public Health Service and by Bureau of State Services grant NIH-5-107A66.

If the nature of mourning depends on the relationship between the bereaved and the deceased, then parental mourning following a child's death may be different from mourning following the death of an adult. Parents' (N=145) descriptions of their experiences in the first year after a child's death from cancer or a blood disorder were examined to…

The specification in concrete behavioral terms of theoretical constructs is one difficulty associated with behavioral assessment. For example, the construct of heterosocial skill has not been successfully defined in operational terms. A linear modeling technique was used to identify valid behavioral referents of heterosocial skill ratings for both…

Rogers' protection motivation theory that, in a fear-producing situation, stresses cognitive processes rather than emotional ones and emphasizes coping with or avoiding aversive events rather than reducing unpleasant emotional states and Bandura's theory of self-efficacy, i.e., all processes of psychological change operate through the alteration…

Knowledge of individual differences of victim responses to and recovery from rape is necessary in order to provide for each victim's individual needs. Black women may be exposed to more violence in their culture and may be treated differently than white women. These differences may lead to different recovery patterns between black and white rape…

Researchers, coaches, and players of racquet sports were brought together for this symposium on four racquet sports. Although most of the papers presented at the symposium were written by Americans, one of the speakers was from Canada, and another was from Australia. The sports represented were badminton, racquetball, tennis, and squash. In Part…

This paper focuses on the systems approach in family therapy and attempts to further the development of this approach by defining its assumptions and delineating the relationship between the assumptions and their operationalization in assessment and therapy. The first section identifies two basic assumptions of a systemic approach, i.e., that the…

Although research has provided evidence to document a relation between parental psychopathology and female delinquency, the dimensions of that relationship are unclear. Adjudicated delinquent females (N=48) completed a general social history interview and three psychological instruments. Probation records were used to analyze subjects' delinquent…

This book presents a crisis management model that effectively bridges the areas of substance abuse and crisis intervention. A crisis alternatives model which can be incorporated into drug counseling programs is discussed, along with a four-step crisis intervention plan for use by crisis workers that includes: (1) establishing rapport; (2)…