Working with students in social fundamentals classes in which social comprehension has been found to influence the development of these traits, this study attempts to determine whether sex, college classification and subject-matter are factors in the development of objectivity, agreeableness, and cooperativeness.

The purpose of this investigation is to extend the study of the influence of social comprehension on the adjustment of college students by (1) determining the adjustment progress of students in the social fundamentals classes, and (2) comparing the adjustment progress of men and women in these home economics classes with the progress of men and women in other subject-matter fields.

The purpose of this study was to construct and use an instrument to assess the adjustment of aged residents in an institution.

The study was conducted to investigate the result of three differential seating arrangements in college classrooms on anxiety level, acquaintance volume, and perceived social distance among students.

This study was undertaken in order to compare the self-contained classroom with team-teaching organizations according to pupil behavior and personal-social adjustment in children of first- and second-grade level. A comparison was made of pupil behavior and personal-social adjustments between (1) children in the first grade after one year in the self-contained classroom and children in the first grade after one year in a team-teaching organization and (2) children in the second grade after two years in the self-contained classrooms and children in the second grade after two years in team-teaching organizations.

The purpose of this study is to compare the personality traits of the physically handicapped children with the personality traits of normal children. An attempt will be made to answer two questions. First, how do physically defective children compare with Physically normal children in self-adjustment and social-adjustment? Second, is there an associated emotional or personality pattern which accompanies physical handicaps?

This study looked at how children who are exposed to the impact of HIV/AIDS in their immediate families are affected and what coping strategies they employ. Research was conducted in Lusaka, Zambia, involving eight female and eight male Zambian children between the ages of thirteen and sixteen, as research participants. Separate gender specific focus group discussions were held, after which the recorded proceedings were transcribed and analysed using thematic content analysis. The study found that children experience socioeconomic difficulties, psychosocial deprivations, and insecurity as a result of parental death or illness. However, they are still able to find ways to survive and cope with their difficulties. State and private sector efforts have focussed primarily on addressing the socioeconomic needs of these children as this has been understood to be the most critical. The psychological impact of HIV/AIDS on children in Zambia, and the resultant needs that arise, will need to be tackled as a matter of priority.

A Epilepsia Mioclônica Juvenil (EMJ) é uma epilepsia generalizada idiopática geralmente associada à ausência de alterações estruturais. Estudos neuropsicológicos, com um número restrito de paradigmas, sugerem que indivíduos com EMJ apresentam pior desempenho nos testes que avaliam funções executivas. De maneira complementar, a descrição da personalidade nos pacientes com EMJ corrobora os estudos neuropsicológicos, uma vez que relata maior exacerbação da impulsividade nestes pacientes, o que refletiria uma possível disfunção de lobo frontal. Estes estudos baseiam-se ou em observações clínicas ou nos critérios de classificação categorial do DSM-IV. Não há até o momento, estudos sobre traços de personalidade assim como a correlação com a presença de disfunção executiva e traços de personalidade impulsivos nos pacientes com EMJ. Além disso, o impacto da EMJ sobre o funcionamento social não foi estudado. Os objetivos deste estudo foram: 1. verificar se as funções atencionais e executivas encontram-se prejudicadas; 2. verificar se existem diferentes níveis de comprometimento das funções executivas e atencionais; 3. verificar se há alteração dos traços de personalidade, através de instrumento objetivo; 4. verificar se existem prejuízos da adequação social; 5. verificar a correlação entre o desempenho nas funções executivas e atencionais e a expressão de traços de personalidade relacionados a um pior controle de impulsos; 6. verificar a correlação entre as pontuações obtidas nos testes neuropsicológicos avaliadores das funções executivas e atencionais e os escores em adequação social e; 7. verificar se as variáveis clínicas da epilepsia se correlacionam com as pontuações obtidas nos testes neuropsicológicos, a expressão de traços de personalidade relacionados a um pior controle de impulsos e com os escores em adequação social em pacientes com EMJ. Para tanto, foram avaliados 42 pacientes com EMJ através de: a) bateria compreensiva de testes neuropsicológicos avaliadores de funções executivas e atencionais; b) questionário padronizado de avaliação de traços de personalidade (ITC) e; c) escala padronizada de avaliação da adequação social (EAS). Os desempenhos e escores nos testes, questionário e escala dos pacientes com EMJ foram comparados a um grupo de 42 sujeitos controle, sem diagnóstico psiquiátrico ou neurológico, pareados por idade, escolaridade e nível sócio-econômico. Os pacientes com EMJ tiveram piores desempenhos que os controles em testes de atenção imediata, controle mental, atenção seletiva e sustentada, flexibilidade mental, controle inibitório, fluência verbal, formação de conceitos, manutenção de metas, fluência verbal e memória verbal a curto prazo. Quanto à gravidade da disfunção executiva, observou-se que 83,33% apresentaram disfunção executiva moderada ou grave. Os pacientes com EMJ também apresentaram maior expressão dos traços de personalidade impulsivos e pior adequação social em comparação com o grupo controle. Disfunção executiva/ atencional se correlacionaram com o pior controle dos impulsos, porém não com o pior funcionamento social. Houve correlação entre a frequencia de crises e a presença de transtornos psiquiátricos com o pior desempenho executivo/atencional, com a maior expressão de traços impulsivos e com a pior adequação social. A maior duração da epilepsia e a idade de início precoce tiveram relação com a disfunção executiva e personalidade, respectivamente. Na análise categorial entre os grupos de fácil e difícil controle, pacientes refratários apresentaram pior disfunção executiva e uma presença ainda mais expressiva dos traços de personalidade impulsivos. Nosso estudo demonstra a presença de disfunção atencional e executiva nos pacientes com EMJ, além da presença de traços de personalidade impulsivos. O presente estudo identificou a presença de pior funcionamento social destes pacientes. Além disso, verificamos a existência de dois grupos distintos de pacientes, sendo que pacientes mais refratários apresentam-se globalmente comprometidos. Estes achados sugerem que há uma necessidade de melhor caracterização fenotípica dos pacientes com EMJ a fim de incluir endofenótipos visto que nossos resultados demonstram uma possível existência de grupos distintos de pacientes com EMJ. / Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy (JME) is an idiopathic generalized epilepsy usually associated with absence of structural changes. Neuropsychological studies in patients with JME, using a limited number of paradigms, show worse performance on tests assessing executive functions. In addition, the description of personality traits in patients with JME corroborates neuropsychological studies, reporting failure of impulse control in these patients, which reflects a possible frontal lobe dysfunction. These studies are either based on clinical observations or on the categorical classification criteria of DSM-IV. To moment, the correlation between executive dysfunction and impulsive personality traits in patients with JME, has not been performed, as well as neither an objective study of the social adjustment of this population. The objectives of this study were to: 1. Investigate if attentional and executive functions are impaired; 2. Investigate if there are different levels of impairment in attentional and executive functions 3. Investigate if there are alterations in personality traits using an objective instrument 4. Investigate if there is impairment of social functioning 5. Investigate if there are correlations between performance on attentional and executive functions and the expressions of personality traits related to poor impulse control, 6. Verify if there are correlations between scores on neuropsychological tests of attentional and executive functions and social functioning 7. Investigate if there are correlations between clinical variables of epilepsy and neuropsychological performance, expression of impulsive personality traits and social functioning. We evaluated 42 patients with JME by: a) a comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests of attentional and executive functions b) a standardized assessment of personality traits (TCI) and c) a standardized scale for assessing social functioning (SAS-SR). The performances and scores on tests, of patients with JME were compared to a group of 42 control subjects without neurological or psychiatric diagnosis, matched for age, education and socioeconomic status. Patients with JME showed worse performance than controls on tests of attentional span, working memory, inhibitory control, concept formation, maintenance of goals, verbal fluency and immediate verbal memory. We also observed that 83.33% of the patients with JME had moderate or severe executive dysfunction. Patients with JME showed higher expression of personality traits associated with an impaired impulse control and worse social functioning, when compared with the control group. Attentional/ executive dysfunction was correlated with poor impulse control, but not with worse social functioning. We found correlations between the frequency of seizures and the presence of psychiatric disorders with attentional and executive dysfunction, with the highest expression of impulsive traits and with worsened social functioning. Longest duration of epilepsy and the early age of onset were respectively associated with executive dysfunction and personality. In the category analysis between groups of patients easy and difficult to control seizures, refractory patients had worse executive dysfunction with an even a greater presence of impulsive personality traits. Our study demonstrates the presence of attentional and executive dysfunction in patients with JME, as well as the presence of impulsive personality traits. Moreover, this study identified the presence of poor social functioning in these patients. We also note the existence of two distinct groups of patients, were more refractory patients appear to present broader impairment. These findings suggest that there is a need for better phenotypic characterization of patients with JME to include diverse phenotypes since our results suggest a possible existence of distinct groups of patients with JME.

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effects of a symbolic modeling procedure upon the social adjustment of socially-withdrawn seventh-grade students. The three hypotheses investigated in this study were the following. I. At the conclusion of the experimental period, the mean number of social interactions will be significantly greater for students in the experimental condition than for students in either the placebo or the control condition. II. At the conclusion of the experimental period, the social adjustment of each student in the classroom, as rated by his first-period teacher, will be significantly greater for students in the experimental condition than for students in either the placebo or the control conditions. III. At the conclusion of the experimental period, the personal social adjustment, as measured by a self-rating scale, for the students in the experimental condition will be significantly greater than for students in either the placebo or the control conditions. The following conclusions are presented as a result of this investigation. 1. The symbolic modeling procedure conducted in this study appears to be effective in increasing the frequency of social interaction of socially-withdrawn seventh-grade students even though the findings of the present study did not quite reach the desired level of statistical significance, 2. The symbolic modeling procedure conducted in this study does not appear to be effective with respect to altering the classroom behavior of socially-withdrawn seventh grade students. 3. The symbolic modeling procedure conducted in this study appears to be ineffective with respect to helping seventh-grade students achieve greater personal social adjustment.

Includes bibliography.