A survey of 137 older persons from the mailing list of a multipurpose senior center found that participants and nonparticipants in the center's activities did not differ in terms of their life satisfaction. Life satisfaction was predicted by the respondents' activity level, financial status, and health status. (Author)

Patterns of friendship among intellectually intact nursing home patients were studied about relationships with other nursing home residents, staff, volunteers, and friends outside the institution. Findings demonstrated two-thirds of the patient-respondents named residents as friends, two-thirds named staff, and one-half named volunteers. Presented…

Groups of married couples (N=4) were studied using a measure of their marital communication habits and an intensive personal interview. Analysis of the data revealed that the quality of interpersonal communication between spouses significantly deteriorated across the groups as the degree of suicidal behavior increased. (Author)

Interviews conducted in 1970 and 1971 with women university students (N=36) and women registered with the state department of employment (N=44) indicated that compared to married women, single women who did not have direct experience in the traditional female role held opinions which tended to idealize that role orientation. (Author)

Interviews with a nationwide sample (N=1357) of young and low-income black, chicano, and Caribbean men and women, as well as with nonminority counterparts, reveal the large majority are uninformed about the effects of licit and illicit drugs, nor do they know much about a range of other drug-related consequences. (Author)

The present study evaluated the likelihood that volunteers for behavior therapy research are self-selected on variables known to moderate therapeutic outcomes. Compared with nonvolunteers, volunteers reported greater anxiety and externality. Among speech-anxious subjects, however, no volunteer bias was observed. (Author)

This study examines the relationship between five dimensions of alienation from work--powerlessness, normlessness, meaninglessness, self-evaluative involvement, and instrumental work orientation--and the work-related behavior of effort, performance, absenteeism, and tardiness. The results show that the five dimensions of alienation are empirically…

Social exchange theory was employed to predict instigative helping behavior as a function of two types of resources available to the recipient for reciprocation (social and non-social). The possibility of influencing reciprocation of both types of resources produced significant increases in subjects' helping. (Author)

The articles in this special issue from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study of nearly lethal suicide attempts represents an important contribution to research on suicidal behavior. This commentary highlights certain aspects of this line of research as well as comments on the findings of the CDC study and their relationship…

A social psychology of problem behavior was employed in a longitudinal study of high school youth to predict time of onset of marijuana use. Nineteen personality, perceived environment, and behavioral variables among nonusers of marijuana were shown to account for a significant amount of the variance in time of onset of use. (Author)

This study described the development of occupational decision processes over the high school years. The key processes in occupational decision development for both sexes appeared to be an information search strategy and an elaborate rationale. Both processes increased in complexity and contributed to confident feelings about occupational choices…

The prediction was borne out that children with inadequate impulse control would be found to have inadequate self-esteem and that the association would strengthen with age. Contrary to expectation, the association between impulse control and self-esteem was not stronger for girls than for boys. (Author/PC)

Assesses the locus of control orientation within an alcoholic population and relates this orientation to the degree of cognitive dysfunction. Results suggest that female alcoholics, specifically those who need inpatient treatment, may be a relatively more disturbed group compared to alcoholic male inpatients. (Author/PC)

This is a study of decision-making patterns among urban community-living older adults. Focus is on the utilization of resources by the elderly. The sample consists of 410 respondents who were interviewed twice. The results show that action-taking related to a significant life event is the most important predictor of well-being. Significant…