Extreme Stress and Communities: Impact and Intervention is the first volume to address traumatic stress from a community perspective. The authors, drawn from among the world's leaders in psychology, psychiatry and anthropology, examine how extreme stress, such as war, disasters and political upheaval, interact in their effects on individuals, families and communities. The book is rich in both theoretical insight and practical experience. It informs readers about how to adopt a community perspective and how to apply this perspective to policy, research and intervention.

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on `Stress and Communities', Château de Bonas, France, June 14--18, 1994

"...how a man rallies to life's challenges and weathers its storms tells everything of who he is and all that he is likely to become." —St. Augustine It has long been understood that how a person adjusts to life stresses is a major component of his or her ability to lead a fulfilling life. Yet it wasn't until the 1960s that coping became a discrete topic of psychological inquiry. Since then, coping has risen to a position of prominence in the modern psychological discourse—especially within the personality, cognitive, and behavioral spheres—and, within the past decade alone, many important discoveries have been made about its mechanisms and functioning, and its role in ongoing psychological and physical health and well-being. A book whose time has come at last, the Handbook of Coping is the first professional reference devoted exclusively to the psychology of coping. Reporting the observations and insights of nearly sixty leading authorities in stress and coping from a wide range of affiliations and schools of thought, it brings readers the state of the art in coping theory, research, assessment, and applications. In orchestrating the book, the editors have scrupulously avoided imposing any particular slant or point of view, other than the need to foster greater eclecticism and cooperation between researchers and clinicians concerned with the phenomenon of coping. The Handbook of Coping is divided into five overlapping parts, the first of which serves to lay the conceptual foundations of all that follows. It traces the history of coping from its origins in psychoanalytic theories of unconscious defense mechanisms, and provides an exhaustive review of the latest conceptualizations, models, and constructs. The following section provides an in-depth exploration of current research methodology, measurement, and assessment tools. Part Three explores key facets of coping in a broad range of specific domains, including everyday hassles, chronic disease, cataclysmic events, and many others. The penultimate section focuses on individual differences. Among important topics covered here are coping styles and dispositions; the role of family, social support, and education; and coping behaviors across the life span. The final section, Part Five, is devoted to current applications. Clinical parameters are defined and a number of specific interventions are described, as are proven techniques for helping clients to improve their coping skills. A comprehensive guide to contemporary coping theory, research, and applications, the Handbook of Coping is an indispensable resource for practitioners, researchers, students, and educators in psychology, the health sciences, and epidemiology. Of related interest ... EGO DEFENSES: Theory and Measurement —Edited by Hope R. Conte and Robert Plutchik This book explores the nature and manifestations of defense mechanisms and traces ego defense theory and research from Freud's initial conceptualization through recent work in object-relations theory and other psychoanalytically oriented approaches. It provides clinical guidelines for diagnosing, assessing, and dealing with defenses, reviews empirical research techniques, and indicates their value in development and in psychotherapy. This volume should be of value to theoreticians, clinicians, and researchers interested in finding appropriate tools for measurement of defense mechanisms. 1994 SOCIAL SUPPORT: An Interactional View —Edited by Barbara R. Sarason, Irwin G. Sarason, and Gregory R. Pierce The study of social support and its relationship to personality, health, and adjustment is one of the fastest growing areas of research and application in psychology. This book contains integrative surveys of clinical and field studies, experimental investigations, and life-span explorations. It approaches social support as an important facet of interpersonal relationships and shows its undesirable, as well as its positive, features. 1990 (0-471-60624-3) 528 pp.

As the population of older Americans grows, it is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse. Differences in health by racial and ethnic status could be increasingly consequential for health policy and programs. Such differences are not simply a matter of education or ability to pay for health care. For instance, Asian Americans and Hispanics appear to be in better health, on a number of indicators, than White Americans, despite, on average, lower socioeconomic status. The reasons are complex, including possible roles for such factors as selective migration, risk behaviors, exposure to various stressors, patient attitudes, and geographic variation in health care. This volume, produced by a multidisciplinary panel, considers such possible explanations for racial and ethnic health differentials within an integrated framework. It provides a concise summary of available research and lays out a research agenda to address the many uncertainties in current knowledge. It recommends, for instance, looking at health differentials across the life course and deciphering the links between factors presumably producing differentials and biopsychosocial mechanisms that lead to impaired health.

This book presents a decade of advances in the psychological, biological and social responses to disasters, helping medics and leaders prepare and react.

Social anxiety disorder is persistent fear of (or anxiety about) one or more social situations that is out of proportion to the actual threat posed by the situation and can be severely detrimental to quality of life. Only a minority of people with social anxiety disorder receive help. Effective treatments do exist and this book aims to increase identification and assessment to encourage more people to access interventions. Covers adults, children and young people and compares the effects of pharmacological and psychological interventions. Commissioned by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). The CD-ROM contains all of the evidence on which the recommendations are based, presented as profile tables (that analyse quality of data) and forest plots (plus, info on using/interpreting forest plots). This material is not available in print anywhere else.

In this volume the authors examine the variety of ways in which gender affects the stress process.

This original work focuses on how stress evolves and is resolved in the interplay between persons and their social connectedness within family, tribe, and culture. Stress, Culture, and Community maintains that the primary motivation of human beings is to build, protect, and foster their resource reservoirs in order to protect the self and its social attachments. Stevan E. Hobfoll searches for the causes of psychological distress and potential methods of successful stress resistance by probing the ties that bind people in families, communities, and cultures. By focusing on the `process" rather than the `outcomes' of stress, he reshapes the stress dialogue.

Scientific advances in our understanding of animal physiology and behavior often require theories to be revised and standards of practice to be updated to improve laboratory animal welfare. This new book from the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research (ILAR) at the National Research Council, Recognition and Alleviation of Distress in Laboratory Animals, focuses on the stress and distress which is experienced by animals when used in laboratory research. This book aims to educate laboratory animal veterinarians; students, researchers, and investigators; animal care staff, as well as animal welfare officers on the current scientific and ethical issues associated with stress and distress in laboratory animals. It evaluates pertinent scientific literature to generate practical and pragmatic guidelines. Recognition and Alleviation of Distress in Laboratory Animals focuses specifically on the scientific understanding of the causes and the functions of stress and distress, the transformation of stress to distress, and the identification of principles for the recognition and alleviation of distress. This book discusses the role of humane endpoints in situations of distress and principles for the minimization of distress in laboratory animals. It also identifies areas in which further scientific investigation is needed to improve laboratory animal welfare in order to adhere to scientific and ethical principles that promote humane care and practice.

The Oklahoma City bombing, intentional crashing of airliners on September 11, 2001, and anthrax attacks in the fall of 2001 have made Americans acutely aware of the impacts of terrorism. These events and continued threats of terrorism have raised questions about the impact on the psychological health of the nation and how well the public health infrastructure is able to meet the psychological needs that will likely result. Preparing for the Psychological Consequences of Terrorism highlights some of the critical issues in responding to the psychological needs that result from terrorism and provides possible options for intervention. The committee offers an example for a public health strategy that may serve as a base from which plans to prevent and respond to the psychological consequences of a variety of terrorism events can be formulated. The report includes recommendations for the training and education of service providers, ensuring appropriate guidelines for the protection of service providers, and developing public health surveillance for preevent, event, and postevent factors related to psychological consequences.