An assessment of appraisal,anxiety, coping,and procrastination during an examination period

High School students responded to an inventory which included dispositional measures of procrastination and social evaluation trait anxiety. Subsequently, and 7 days prior to their first examination (Stage 1), each of the 40 female and 23 male students completed measures of state anxiety, perception of the stressor situation, and ways of coping, all with regard to their approaching exam period. These judgments were repeated 1 day prior to their first examination (Stage 2), and again 5 days after their last examination (Stage 3). Correlational analyses indicated that threat and harm perceptions were highly positively related to state anxiety, whereas challenge and gain were moderately and negatively related. State anxiety was linked to emotion-focused coping, but was independent of problem-focused coping. In an analysis of variance, high procrastination, high trait anxious subjects felt the least challenged at Stage 1. In a ‘maverick’, post hoc analysis, high procrastinators were more likely than low procrastinators at each stage to promise themselves ‘that things will be different next time’. Discussion included an assessment of the need for specificity when using the Ways of Coping (Folkman and Lazarus, 1985) scale.     

Career education in france: New objectives and new methods

The objective of French vocational counselling services has changed in recent years from that of matching young people with the occupation to which they are best suited, to that of teaching individuals how to construct career goals. This paper presents a historical overview of career education techniques in France. In particular, it outlines the ADVP (Activation of Personal and Vocational Development) method, the first to have a major impact. Among the other techniques discussed are the PPPP (Psychopedagogy of Personal and Career Planning) and the DAPP (Discovery of Employment Activities and Personal Plans): the former closely resembles the ADVP but is founded on the work of Wallon; the second - based on cognitive dissonance theory - aims at encouraging students to reflect upon and involve themselves in the process of increasing their chances of acquiring the necessary qualifications for the professional activities to which they aspire. The principles underlying these three methods are examined, as is the research conducted to assess their effectiveness.     

The contribution of Kleinian psychotherapy to the treatment of a disturbed five-year-old girl and her family

The theories of Melanie Klein are incorporated into many family therapy 'models' in regular use, although a detailed understanding of these theories is not an essential part of the repertoire of family therapists. In the present case, however, Klein's theories provided essential insight into the personality development of a five-year-old girl with severely disordered behaviour, as well as a foundation for the treatment offered to her and to her family.     

Experimental manipulations of responsibility: An analogue test for models of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Several authors attribute excessive responsibility a predominant role in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) [Salkovskis, P. M. (1985) Behaviour Research and Therapy, 23, 571–583; Rachman, S. (1993) Behaviour Research and Therapy, 31, 149–154; van Oppen, P. & Arntz, A. (1994) Behaviour Research and Therapy, 32, 79–87]. The present studies aimed at demonstrating the link between different levels of perceived responsibility and checking behaviors by experimentally manipulating responsibility in non-clinical Ss. In the first study, a sound recognition task was used to compare checking behaviors in Ss with high (HR) and low (LR) perceived responsibility. Only one variable was significantly different, Ss from the HR group reporting more anxiety during the task than Ss from the LR group. Results did not support a link between responsibility and checking behavior. In a second study HR and LR Ss were compared on a manual classification task. Subjects from the HR group hesitated and checked more, and reported more preoccupation with errors and anxiety during the task than Ss from the LR group. Since perceived severity of the outcome was the most variable affected by the manipulation, the implications for current models of OCD are discussed and an alternative explanation is attempted. Finally, clinical implications are examined and suggestions are made for future directions of research.     

Optimism,appraisals, and coping in the adjustment of mothers and their children with spina bifida

Families of children with physical disabilities show substantial differences in the levels of adjustment of both the children and their parents. These differences result, in part, from the complex interplay of family and child adaptation resources, such as coping and social support. In order to identify factors which may differentiate levels of adjustment among families with children with physical disabilities, this study examined relationships among optimism, primary and secondary appraisals of and coping with child-related stressors, maternal psychological adjustment, and child adjustment in 29 families with a child with spina bifida without mental retardation and 28 comparison families with a nondisabled child. For the spina bifida group, primary appraisals were related to the use of avoidant coping strategies, and these coping strategies were related to maternal psychological adjustment and child internalizing behavior problems. No significant differences between the groups in terms of the nature of the relationships or in the levels of the variables were found with the exception that mothers of children with spina bifida were less optimistic than comparison mothers. These data support the importance of coping in understanding the psychological adjustment of mothers faced with a chronic stressor in the family.     

A structured pictorial questionnaire to assess DSM-III-R-based diagnoses in children (6–11 years): Development,validity, and reliability

This paper presents a structured pictorial instrument, the Dominic questionnaire, to assess mental disorders in 6- to 11-year-old children. Ninety-nine drawings represent situations corresponding to DSM-III-R based ADHD, CD, ODD, MDD, SAD, OAD, and SPh. However, cognitive limitation of 6- to 11-year-old children do not allow for time-related measurement. The instrument takes 15–20 min to administer. Reliability and validity of the Dominic questionnaire were studied in Parent DISC-2 positive and negative outpatient and general population samples and against clinical judgement. The pictorial approach provides acceptable test-retest reliability and the instrument makes standardized assessment possible for children as young as 6 years of age.This investigation was supported by the National Health Research and Development Program (Ottawa) grant #6605-2780-42. The authors wish to thank L. Houde and S. Lepine for their collaboration and J. J. Breton, P. Cohen, K. Minde, K. Munir, and D. Shaffer for their suggestions and editorial comments.     

Family Therapy in France: A Brief Overview

The major issues in contemporary family therapy in France are described: Difficult beginnings, the practice of family therapy today, training and professionalisation, organization for family therapy, journals and publishing, and perspectives for family therapy in France.A psychiatrist, Head of Hospital Psychiatric and Mental Health Center near Paris (Ville Evrard. France 93330) and a family therapist     

Average faces are average faces

Photographs of faces of young adult male and female Scots were measured on nineteen frontal dimensions. Measures in each dimension were converted to z-scores and summed for each face. For each sex, the ten faces closest to the average summed z-score and the ten most distant from it were rated for attractiveness by white male and female New Zealand undergraduates. Raters agreed significantly in ordering the faces in attractiveness, but did not rate faces close to the “population” average differently from those distant from it. Tested for the first time with actual rather than contrived faces, the commonly reported hypothesis that faces representing the average of a population are attractive is not supported.