Emphasizes the importance of play therapy for hospitalized children. Describes separation anxiety and psychological patterns including protest, despair, and denial. Describes the play therapy program at Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, which helps children express their fears and cope with anxiety. (JAC)

Assessed five scales as mental health measures for older persons (N=318). The internal consistency reliabilities for the anxiety, depression, and well-being scales were moderately high to high, but the reliabilities for the affect balance scale suggest some caution. Cutting points for the well-being and depression scales are suggested. (Author/JAC)

Signs of school anxiety are described, and parents are advised about ways to help their children with this problem. Anxiety may arise when children start to school, change schools, or enter college and may also be triggered by a physical illness or family problem. (PP)

Examined a Sufi personality typology that describes nine life strategies depicted by a nine-sided figure called the enneagram. Devised an objective 135-item test instrument to differentiate the nine styles, and obtained positive results. Enneagram typology may have diagnostic, prognostic, and heuristic value for studying personality structure and…

Compared self-esteem among 87 unemployed metal refinery workers and 81 who were still employed. Results confirmed that unemployed workers scored lower in self-esteem and those who were reemployed at other jobs scored between the unemployed and employed workers. Implications for counseling practices are discussed. (JAC)

Perceived risk, defined as a multidimensional psychological phenomenon which influences individuals' decisions, was measured in 68 adults for 20 leisure activities. Overall risk and six component factors of risk associated with leisure are analyzed: (1) financial; (2) performance; (3) physical; (4) psychological; (5) social; and (6) time loss. (FG)

Psychological and physiological stress indices were taken from collegiate swimmers of both sexes. Later a scale of self-reported masculinity and femininity was administered. Males had higher systolic blood pressure but lower self-reported anxiety and hostility with the stress of competition. Differences in relative masculinity/femininity allow…

Investigated whether assertive and nonassertive individuals differ in defense mechanisms they most typically rely on when confronted with interpersonal stress and conflict. Results indicated assertive males and females both endorsed the most adaptive defense mechanism cluster, whereas nonassertive males and females endorsed more primitive defense…

Interviewed bereaved persons shortly after the death of a close family member and 18 months later. Respondents were grouped according to mode of death. The short-term chronic illness group made the most favorable adjustment. Sudden death and long-term chronic illness death groups sustained higher intensities of bereavement. (Author/RC)

Untrained normal achievers attributed failure to adoption of specific task strategies, while untrained learning disabled boys attributed failure to task difficulty. Characteristics of learned helplessness were apparent in the impaired performance of the learning-disabled boys. Normal achievers appeared to have developed active and independent…

Examined the Life Satisfaction Index A (LSIA) by factor analytic techniques. Although the results indicated a strong need for caution, there was evidence of an alternative interpretation of the LSIA that has a degree of consistency across racial and gender categories. These findings raise implicit questions about prior research. (Author/JAC)

A taxonomy is proposed for evaluating the quality of learning in terms of a composition's structural complexity. Five writing structure levels are distinguished (incoherent, linear, conventional, integrated, and metaphoric) and samples of high school students' compositions illustrate each. Implications for both the psychology and teaching of…

Discusses current ideas about the symptoms and psychodynamics of depression in middle and late childhood (ages 6 to 8 and 9 to 12, respectively). Implications for intervention differ according to cognitive development. Environmental intervention and family involvement are necessary in middle childhood, and individual psychotherapy in late…

Age-related change in manifest dream content was assessed in dreams recalled from REM sleep by (N=58) men aged (27-64), and in dreams recalled from sleep at home. Evidence indicated a small age-related decline in dream distortion and family-related content. (Author)

Presents a five-level taxonomy classifying counseling problems in hierarchical order. Each level is composed of inappropriate behaviors, cognitions, or expectations. Discusses interrelated characteristics which decrease from the highest to the lowest level. Gives an example of the use of the taxonomy. (Author/RC)