Attachment theory asserts that human beings are innately programmed to seek and form attachments with others. The assumption that the quality of early attachment relationships will be functionally related to subsequent attachment styles and competencies provides the theoretical basis for extending the theory of attachment to the study of adult…

Hope has been theorized to be a stable cognitive mindset that develops over time, as children experience success at meeting challenges and in conquering obstacles to their goals (Snyder et al, 1994). To determine the effects of children's violence exposure, both as victims and as witnesses, to children's hope, 99 children living in violent areas…

This digest focuses on issues of supervisee resistance, defined as defensive behaviors of the supervisee that serve to reduce supervision-induced anxiety. It describes resistant behavior and identifies ways to counteract it, while noting that supervisee resistance is common. The purposes and goals of supervisee resistance, as manifested in verbal…

Many people come to analysis appearing quite ordinary on the surface. However, once below that surface, there often appear extraordinary protections created to keep at bay any awareness of deeply traumatic happenings occurring at some point in life. This book investigates the development and function of these protections, allowing the reader to…

Provides content and process information for helping fourth- and fifth-grade students cope with stressors: content includes a survey of stressors and coping behaviors, and process includes ways to gather such information. Suggests that when teaching coping strategies, to remember that many students have developed their own coping mechanisms. (RJM)

Examines from an existential view the development of abstract thought in adolescents and the conflicts arising from its process. Proposes an existential model that views various types of adolescent behavior as the manifestation of the adolescent's defense mechanisms developed in response to existential conflict; presents specific examples of…

Seventy-five 4-, 6-, and 8-year olds participated in a study examining the relationship between children's awareness and use of strategies for self-control. Knowledge of strategies was more highly correlated with process than with performance, and the relationship between knowledge about strategies and actual performance increased with age. (AA)

Details study of adolescents in York County, Pennsylvania, to determine processes by which maltreated children develop adaptive personalities despite aversive family experiences. Discusses five themes that provide cues to behavior in new environments viewed as unsafe by the child: loyalty to parents, normalizing the abusive environment,…

Notes that attachment behavior in infants is a facet of normal child development, and that children with attachment problems require special attention during and after the adoption process. Presents actions needed to increase the probability that such children can be successfully adopted, detailed attachment patterns, and parenting strategies and…

Describes the process of active learning--consolidation and internalization of information that is personally meaningful and conceptually coherent. Discusses downshifting (a self-protective response that includes reversion to routine behaviors) and the educational practices and conditions that lead to it or reduce it. Describes 12 principles of…

Loneliness is a prevailing experience which is particularly familiar to adolescents and young adults. It is a subjective experience which is influenced by one's personality, life experiences, and situational variables. The present study examined the influence of drug cessation on coping with loneliness. Drug abusers, during their stay in detox…

The purpose of this study is to direct attention inside the walls of a juvenile correctional facility to closely examine the experiences and daily lives of adolescent inmates. The ethnographic data for this study were collected through participant-observation and extended interactions in a cottage for violent male offenders in one state's…

A truly interactive approach in the classroom involves giving students the freedom to add their own "twist" to course materials and allowing them to decide to some degree how the information will be used. Two learning activities employed in a psychology course serve to illustrate how interactive techniques can encourage students to…

The father of a boy with Down's syndrome describes his early efforts to cope with his emotions by being strong and hiding his feelings, due to his social conditioning, and subsequent recognition of the importance of expressing his emotions. Problems men face in expressing grief and sharing feelings are discussed in this personal narrative. (PB)

Extinction of conditioned fear in animals is the explicit model of behavior therapy for human anxiety disorders, including panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Based on previous data indicating that fear extinction in rats is blocked by quinpirole, an agonist of dopamine D2 receptors, we hypothesized…