Introduction: Medical students often describe the gross anatomy course as both stressful and a rite of passage. Research differs as to whether the stress it engenders is significant or transitory. This qualitative study of first year anatomy student reports on the use of optional creative projects to promote reflection and reduce stress. Methods:…

Depersonalization and the correct identification of the symptoms of depersonalization remain a source of controversy in psychiatry. For this study, 232 university students (75 percent women) answered questions on the Differential Personality Inventory. Five types of depersonalization experiences, based on earlier scales, were then used to cluster…

Group identification is a major cause of religious, racial, and international conflict. Many forms of group identification are fantasy bonds, imagined connections with others offering security at the expense of individual self-realization. The fantasy bond forms in childhood in response to inadequate parenting. Human beings are not inherently…

This essay examines Presidential rhetoric and popular culture practices in light of the stages of grief enumerated by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. The authors find a consistent retrenchment of grief into the anger phase, where the pain of losing national invulnerability is transferred to externalized aggression. Reconciliation is suggested by means of…

Reports on a study of African-American college students at a state university in the Midwest. The study examined the effects of marginality on their college experience and performance. Identifies six reactions to marginality and provides case study examples of each. Includes extensive references and verbatim comments from the students. (MJP)

Examined whether hostile and defensive personality characteristics contribute to conflict and withdrawal within marriage. Analysis of 90 newly wed couples' discussions showed that, among husbands, high levels of hostility combined with low levels of defensiveness accompanied increased conflict. This same personality pattern led to an increase in…

Emotional Release Counselling (ERC) is based on the simple premise that to feel emotions and energy and to let them be expressed keeps us mentally healthy. ERC works to help a child be deeply connected to the sensation within the body, to develop self-awareness. The book explains the concept of emotional release counseling and provides specific…

Self-handicapping is the phenomenon of setting oneself up to fail a feared evaluation task to protect a sense of self-worth. A study examined whether individuals self-handicap to protect a general or global perception of themselves or to protect perceptions of competence in the specific domain being evaluated. Handicapping behaviors related to…

Structured group therapy techniques were developed to foster mastery skill development and defense mechanisms in the treatment of eight sexually abused female children, aged six to eight. The techniques included development of intellectualization defenses through board games, cathartic exploration of feelings through art and storytelling, and…

Suggests that, although stresses in the classroom are unavoidable, they may offer optimal opportunities for effective early childhood education. Such education requires work with the child's feelings and cooperative work with the child's parents. Offers different ideas that can be used by teachers to help young children and their parents to cope…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report research into the social defence of splitting and projection in schools. In splitting and projection, organisational members separate their unbearable feelings from the more acceptable ones and project them, typically towards other individuals and groups. Design/methodology/approach: The research was…

Individual differences in the regulatory processes involved in managing difficult interpersonal interactions were investigated. Interpersonal systems that easily escalate to produce coercive or violent encounters in adult-child relationships were of particular interest. Adults who were predisposed to view adult-child interactions as containing…

Resilience is a universal capacity that allows a child to prevent, minimize, or overcome the damaging effects of adversity. The construct of resiliency, the combination of protective factors that result in resilience, was addressed by the International Resilience Project (IRP), which set out to explore what parents, caregivers, teachers or…

This book is specifically written for dyslexic or learning disabled individuals seeking insight into their disorder and its effects on their lives. The material is divided into 52 chapters, which are written expressly so that they will not be intimidating to learning disabled individuals. The chapters are drawn from issues that the author is asked…

Examined Los Angeles area middle school students' (N=54) stress, environmental stressors, and coping strategies. Results indicate the presence of gender differences, with girls indicating higher levels of stress; boys and girls reported different behavioral and affective responses to stress. School-related stressors were highest in frequency,…