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This research tested whether chronic or contextually activated Holocaust exposure is associated with more extreme political attitudes among Israeli Jews. Study 1 (N = 57), and Study 2 (N = 61) found that Holocaust primes increased support for aggressive policies against a current adversary and decreased support for political compromise via an amplified sense of identification with Zionist ideology. These effects, however, were obtained only under an exclusive but not an inclusive framing of the Holocaust. Study 3 (N = 152) replicated these findings in a field study conducted around Holocaust Remembrance Day and showed that the link between Holocaust exposure, ideological identification, and militancy also occurs in real-life settings. Study 4 (N = 867) demonstrated in a nationally representative survey that Holocaust survivors and their descendants exhibited amplified existential threat responses to contemporary political violence, which were associated with militancy and opposition to peaceful compromises. Together, these studies illustrate the Holocaustization of Israeli political cognitions 70 years later.

This pilot study evaluated the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of tailored cognitive-behavioral resilience training (TCBRT) for trauma-exposed individuals with a variety of subsyndromal psychological symptoms. TCBRT is a brief, flexible intervention that allows individuals to select the areas they wish to target using common cognitive-behavioral change principles. There were 14 individuals (78.6% female) who were recruited from a major medical center and enrolled in the 5-session intervention. There were 12 (85.7%) who completed all TCBRT sessions, and 2 (14.3%) who dropped out after 3 sessions. All participants reported that they received benefit from, were engaged in, and were satisfied with the intervention. Of the 12 with postintervention data, 5 of the participants demonstrated reliable increases in resilience and 6 demonstrated reliable decreases in anxiety. These improvements appeared to be maintained at 2-month follow-up; of the 11 participants with follow-up data, 5 demonstrated reliable increases in resilience and 6 demonstrated reliable decreases in anxiety. Our findings suggested that TCRBT was acceptable to trauma-exposed individuals with varying types of subthreshold distress.

Conservation of resources (COR) theory was originally introduced as a framework for understanding and predicting the consequences of major and traumatic stress, but following the work of Hobfoll and Shirom (1993), COR theory has been adopted to understanding and predicting work-related stress and both the stress and resilience that occur within work settings and work culture. COR theory underscores the critical role of resource possession, lack, loss and gain and depicts personal, social and material resources co-travelling in resource caravans, rather than piecemeal. We briefly review the principles of COR theory and integrate it in the crossover model, which provides a key mechanism for multi-person exchange of emotions, experiences and resources. Understanding the impact of resource reservoirs, resource passageways and crossover provides a framework for research and intervention promoting resilience to employees as well as to organizations. It emphasizes that the creation and maintenance of resource caravan passageways promote resource gain climates through resource crossover processes.

Author(s): Hobfoll, Stevan E; Gerhart, James I; Zalta, Alyson K; Wells, Kurrie; Maciejewski, John; Fung, Henry | Abstract: ObjectiveDespite the potentially life-saving effects of stem cell transplant (SCT), many transplant patients experience traumatic stress reactions due to mortality threat, interpersonal isolation, financial and occupational loss, and invasive medical procedures. Emerging evidence suggests that trauma-related stress symptoms (TSS) predict significant health complications following SCT. The aim of the current prospective study was to examine TSS in the acute aftermath of SCT as a predictor of neutrophil recovery following SCT, a crucial component of immune defense against infection.MethodsFifty-one autologous SCT recipients were assessed for TSS 7 days after SCT. Patients' absolute neutrophil counts were collected from medical charts for the first 30 days following SCT. Hierarchical linear growth modeling was used to test the hypothesis that TSS at day 7 would be associated with delayed recovery of neutrophil counts from days 9 to 30 post SCT, that is, when neutrophil counts began to recover.ResultsAs hypothesized, TSS measured 7 days after SCT was significantly associated with slower neutrophil recovery even after pre-existing TSS, depression, distress related to physical symptoms, and potential medical confounds were statistically controlled. Exploratory analyses showed that of the TSS symptom clusters, re-experiencing symptoms and hyperarousal symptoms predicted neutrophil recovery, whereas avoidance symptoms did not.ConclusionThough traumatic stress symptoms may be a normative response to SCT, our findings suggest that TSS following SCT may interfere with neutrophil recovery and overall health. These results provide further insight as to potential mechanisms by which traumatic stress translates to poor medical outcomes for SCT patients.

The physiological impact on citizens of prolonged exposure to violence and conflict is a crucial, yet underexplored, issue within the political science and biology literature. We examined the effect of high levels of exposure to rocket and terrorist attacks on biological markers of immunity and inflammation in a sample of 92 Israelis. A stratified random sample of individuals was drawn from a pool of subjects in Israel who had previously been interviewed regarding their stress exposure and psychological distress during a period of active rocket and terrorist attacks. These individuals were reinterviewed and blood samples were collected to assess antibodies to cytomegalovirus (CMV antibodies) and C-reactive protein (CRP). Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was significantly related to CRP, β =.33, p =.034, with body mass index, depression, and exposure to terrorism included in the model. Depression scores were not significantly associated with CRP or CMV antibody levels. In contrast to the established convention that psychological distress is the sole outcome of terrorism exposure, these findings reveal that individuals exposed to terrorism experience higher levels of both PTSD/depression, and inflammation. This study has important ramifications for how policy makers and medical health professionals should formulate public health policies and medically treat individuals living in conflict zones. Language: en

Conservation of resources (COR) theory is a stress and motivational theory that has been applied broadly in the organizational literature. Increasingly, this literature is transforming from a focus on resource-setting fit to an understanding that ‘fitting’ is an active process that operates dynamically with both individuals and settings altering and metamorphosing. COR theory provides a framework to understand, predict, and examine this transactional relationship that can then be used to shape settings towards more optimal balance of resource cost and benefit. Rather than focusing on single, isolated variables or seeing individuals and settings as independent agents, COR theory suggests that resources exist in caravans. Therefore, employers that hope to ensure employee engagement must maximize the ecology that fosters resource caravan enrichment and challenge that promotes excellence, dedication, and commitment.

This study examined the impact of exposure to traumatizing events in an ethnic minority group of Bedouin members of the Israel Defense Forces (N = 317). Guided by the conservation of resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 1988), the authors hypothesized that loss of resources would mediate the relationship between trauma and posttraumatic responses. We found that loss of personal resources (e.g., self-esteem, self-mastery) was the best predictor of psychological distress among traumatized Bedouin servicemen. Our findings suggest the significance of personal resources within collectivist communities in coping with trauma and maintaining resilience. This study contributes to the understanding of the ethnocultural aspects of trauma and the potential interventions that may be tailored for minority groups.

Israel has faced ongoing terrorism since the beginning of the Al Aqsa Intifada in September 2000. The authors examined risk and resiliency factors associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among 1,117 Jews and 394 Arab adult citizens of Israel during August and September 2004 through telephone interviews. Probable PTSD was found among 6.6% of Jews and 18.0% of Arabs. Predictors of probable PTSD in a multivariate model for Jews were refusal to report income, being traditionally religious, economic and psychosocial resource loss, greater traumatic growth, and lower social support. For Arabs, predictors were low education and economic resource loss among those exposed to terrorism. Findings for only those directly exposed to terrorism were similar to those for the overall national sample.

The Israeli government's decision to remove settlers in the Gaza Strip forcibly produced a situation of traumatic stress, resulting from confrontation and conflict for settlers. The authors examined the effects of the Gaza disengagement, that occurred following prolonged terrorist exposure, on rates of probable major depressive disorder (MDD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis in a representative sample of Gaza settlers (N = 190). Predictors of probable MDD in multivariate models were being female, and experiencing greater economic and psychosocial resource loss. Predictors of probable PTSD were being older and experiencing greater psychosocial resource loss. Posttraumatic growth was significantly related to a reduction in the odds of having probable PTSD. This latter finding is interpreted within our conceptualization of action-focused growth.

Recent studies related to global terrorism have suggested the potential of posttraumatic growth (PTG) following experiences of terror exposure. However, investigations of whether psychological distress is reduced or increased by PTG in other trauma contexts have been inconsistent. Results from our studies conducted in New York following the attacks of 11 September 2001 and in Israel during recent tumultuous periods of violence and terrorism, the Al Aqsa Intifada, have found posttraumatic growth to be related to greater psychological distress, more right-wing political attitudes, and support for retaliatory violence. Only when individuals were deeply involved in translating growth cognitions to growth actions in our research on the forced disengagement of settlers from Gaza did we find positive benefit in posttraumatic growth. Findings are considered within the framework of a new formulation of action-focused growth. De recentes recherches en rapport avec le terrorisme international ont souligne le potentiel du developpement post-traumatique (PTG) decoulant de la confrontation a la terreur. Toutefois, les travaux cherchant a savoir si la detresse psychologique etait attenuee ou accentuee par le PTG dans d’autres contextes traumatiques se sont reveles contradictoires. Nos investigations a New York apres l’attentat du 11 septembre 2001 et en Israel durant des periodes recentes de violence et de terrorisme, la seconde Intifada, ont montre que le developpement post-traumatique etait plutot liea une grande detresse psychologique, a des opinions politiques de droite et a une attente de represailles. On a observe lors du demenagement obligatoire des colons de Gaza que ce n’est que lorsque les individus etaient profondement impliques dans la transformation des cognitions de developpement en actions de developpement que le developpement post-traumatique avait des retombees positives. Ces resultats sont apprehendes dans le cadre d’une nouvelle approche du developpement centre sur l’action.

We respond to the commentators who raise several key issues. Points of agreement include the need to incorporate several new concepts within the broader umbrella of posttraumatic growth (PTG), a need to understand more of the context under which PTG might have positive, negative, or limited influence, and a need to understand aspects of persons and populations who might use PTG in different ways. A major point of disagreement remains with the original formulation of PTG which poses PTG as a universally positive contribution to well-being, or even that it is beneficial in its own right. Illusion may have positive aspects, but we remain interested in the idea that it is most beneficial when translated into action. Some of these actions may be cognitive, but they should in such instances have lasting meaning for individuals’ lives. Too often, PTG represents the belief that one has grown in some deep way, without validation of that depth of experience. Il nous faut repondre aux commentateurs qui soulevent plusieurs questions importantes. Les points d’accord concernent la necessite d’introduire de nouveaux concepts sous la notion generale de developpement post-traumatique (PTG), de mieux cerner les contextes ou le PTG peut avoir une influence positive, negative ou limitee et d’evaluer les dimensions des personnes et des populations susceptibles d’exploiter le PTG de differentes facons. Le desaccord majeur porte sur la definition originelle du PTG qui implique que celui-ci contribue au bien-etre de facon universellement positive, ou meme qu’il est en lui-meme source de benefices. L’illusion peut avoir des retombees positives, mais nous restons convaincus qu’elle est plus efficace quand elle s’investit dans l’action. Certaines de ces actions peuvent etre d’ordre cognitif, mais elles doivent en ce cas revetir une signification durable pour l’existence de l’individu. Trop souvent le PTG se resume a la conviction que l’on a muri en profondeur sans qu’il y ait la moindre preuve de cette evolution profonde.

Conservation of resources theory (S. E. Hobfoll, 1988, 1999) hypothesizes that loss of resiliency resources can contribute to abused women's posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, which, in turn, contribute to a further loss of resources, which can make abused women even more vulnerable to future stressors. This study investigates the impact of PTSD symptoms on abused women's future loss of resources-resources that women both value and need to aid their ongoing adjustment. Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms contributed to future resource loss in abused women, even when controlling for the effects of prior resource loss and depression. Emotional numbing symptoms of PTSD accounted most for women's resource loss. Findings highlight the importance of research and intervention that more directly examines the link between emotions and resource loss.

The authors interviewed by phone 2,752 randomly selected individuals in New York City within 6 to 9 months after the attacks of September 11, 2001 on the World Trade Center, and 1,939 of these were reinterviewed at a 12- to 16-month follow-up. It was hypothesized that resource loss would significantly predict probable posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and probable depression since September 11, and that resource loss's impact would be independent of previously identified predictors relating to individuals' demographic characteristics, history of stressful event exposure, prior trauma history, peritraumatic experience, and social support. Second, it was predicted that reported traumatic growth would be related to greater, not lesser, psychological distress. The authors' findings supported their hypotheses for resource loss, but traumatic growth was unrelated to psychological outcomes when other predictors were controlled.

Studies suggest that the difficult transition of the Russian economy has led to decreased physical health among Russians. However, the impact of economic turmoil on Russians' psychological health has not been examined. We used Hobfoll's (1988; 1998) Conservation of Resources (COR) theory to examine how economic losses deteriorate personal and social resources (e.g., mastery and social support), and how these deteriorated resources, in turn, impact psychological well being. Participants were Russian women working in the retail (n = 99) and medical (n = 99) fields, two poorly paid sectors. Structural equation modeling indicated that economic loss negatively impacted mastery, but not social support. Women with greater mastery and social support resources, in turn, reported less psychological distress. Economic loss had both direct and indirect effects, through mastery, on women's psychological distress. Results supported COR theory and point to the importance of building and sustaining personal and social resources in the face of major economic stress. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Past research has examined the stress resiliency of individuals high in sense of personal-mastery. However, it has been theorized that within more collectivist cultures, a sense of shared efficacy, which we call communal-mastery, may be more central to people's resiliency in the face of challenging life circumstances. We compared the impact of sense of self-mastery (ie., "I am the key to my success") to that of communal-mastery (ie., "I am successful by virtue of my social attachments") in a prospective study among a group of rural 103 Native American women residing on Indian Reservations in Montana. We found that women high in communal-mastery experienced less increase in depressive mood and anger, especially when faced with high stress circumstances, than women who were low in communal-mastery. In addition, the beneficial impact of communal-mastery was found to be more effective than self-mastery for these women.

In 2 experiments, we examined the effect of social influence (discussion and modeling) on men's and women's perceptual and affective reactions to a sexually violent film scene depicting gang rape. In Experiment 1, women who discussed the film rated the perpetrators as more responsible compared to participants in all other conditions. Men who did not discuss the film reported higher levels of positive affect compared to participants in all other conditions. In Experiment 2, men and women were affected by the social influence manipulation similarly. As predicted, participants differed in their attributions of responsibility depending on a confederate's response to the film scene. Participants who heard a confederate say that the men in the film were responsible for the rape rated these men as relatively more responsible than did participants in a neutral confederate condition or in a condition in which the confederate said that the woman in the film was responsible for the rape.

Conservation of Resources (COR) theory predicts that resource loss is the principal ingredient in the stress process. Resource gain, in turn, is depicted as of increasing importance in the context of loss. Because resources are also used to prevent resource loss, at each stage of the stress process people are increasingly vulnerable to negative stress sequelae, that if ongoing result in rapid and impactful loss spirals. COR theory is seen as an alternative to appraisal-based stress theories because it relies more centrally on the objective and culturally construed nature of the environment in determining the stress process, rather than the individual’s personal construel. COR theory has been successfully employed in predicting a range of stress outcomes in organisational settings, health contexts, following traumatic stress, and in the face of everyday stressors. Recent advances in understanding the biological, cognitive, and social bases of stress responding are seen as consistent with the original formulation of COR theory, but call for envisioning of COR theory and the stress process within a more collectivist backdrop than was first posited. The role of both resource losses and gains in predicting positive stress outcomes is also considered. Finally, the limitations and applications of COR theory are discussed.

The relationships among level of personal mastery economic stress number of sexual partners pregnancy status and perceived partner engagement in HIV-risk behaviors (i.e. intravenous drug use imprisonment and sex with other partners) were studied in a sample of 1069 single inner-city women. African American and European Americans were equally represented. We predicted that greater economic stress a lower sense of personal mastery and more sexual partners would be associated with greater perceptions of partner engagement in HIV-risk behavior. We also predicted that personal mastery would serve as a moderating variable in the presence of life stressors (e.g. being pregnant having multiple sexual partners). The findings supported the hypotheses. Women with more economic stress multiple sexual partners and lower personal mastery reported higher perceived partner engagement in HIV-risk behavior than women with lower economic stress one sexual partner and higher personal mastery. Personal mastery had a greater impact for women with multiple sexual partners and for those who were pregnant. These findings were qualified by womens ethnicity. (authors)

We examined the differential impact of chronic versus acute economic stress on depressive mood among a sample of 1241 low-income, single, European and African American women. Based on Hobfoll's (1988, 1989) conservation of resources (COR) theory, we predicted that acute resource loss would be more distressing than chronic economic lack. That is, although chronically impoverished conditions are stressful, the attendant resource losses created will be more distressing. We further predicted that mastery and social support would be more beneficial in offsetting the negative consequences of acute resource loss than the negative consequences of chronic economic lack, because acute loss creates identifiable demands that resources may address. Hence, we hypothesized that mastery and social support would show stress buffering effects only for material loss, not chronic lack. The findings generally supported the hypotheses, but mastery buffered only European American women's resource loss and social support buffered only African American women's resource loss. The findings are discussed in light of implications for prevention within theoretical and cultural contexts.

I explore the role that may be played by an ecological view of AIDS prevention and AIDS-related social concerns. The study of AIDS risk behavior and interventions designed to prevent AIDS have challenged Health Psychology's typically individualistic perspective. Issues of empowerment, psychological sense of community, interpersonal ties, resources, and culture are central to an understanding of risky sexual behavior and helping people to guard themselves from the threat of AIDS. However, despite Community Psychology's historical expertise in these areas, the field has only recently become involved in AIDS prevention efforts. I outline how resource-based, ecological theories may prove more helpful in addressing the AIDS pandemic than the individual, cognitive theories that have typically been adopted. Sexual behavior and associated risk are tied not simply to people's personal behavior and thoughts but to the likelihood of disease exposure in their ethnic group, the power and choices associated with power in that group, and the alternative means available of meeting their overall sexual, romantic, economic, and social goals. As such, AIDS research and intervention must simultaneously address the individual, social, and cultural spheres if insights that can translate to meaningful change can be expected to occur.

We discuss the process underlying the success of an HIV-prevention project for young, inner-city women. The intervention was based on the concepts of empowerment and culturally sensitive skill building. Four critical points relevant to the translation of HIV prevention knowledge into behavioral change among the sample are examined: (1) integrating the important issues of the participants' lives into the HIV prevention program, (2) utilizing a group format to encourage cohesiveness and support, (3) engaging group facilitators to promote mutuality and equality, and (4) promoting ongoing, authentic relationships among the participants and staff members. Points are illustrated with vignettes reconstructed from the group facilitators' experiences with the participants.

Conservation of resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 1988, 1989) was applied to social intervention and research. COR theory depicts resource loss as disproportionately weighted in comparison to resource gain. COR theory further posits that to prevent resource loss or establish resources, other resources must be invested. Resources contribute to further resource gain, whereas lack of resources contributes to ongoing resource loss. Consequently, people, groups, or organizations that are endowed with strong personal or social resource reserves should better resist the deleterious effects of stress and withstand everyday challenges. One of the basic principles of the theory—that loss is disproportionately weighted compared to gain—was tested in two samples and strongly supported. Implications of the model for intervention were discussed.

Evaluated the applications of principles of resource conservation and management in community interventions and compared these to a more individual, perception-based psychological perspective. Conservation of resource theory suggests that promotion of well-being and prevention of disease depend on the availability and successful management of resources. When resources are lacking, lost, or when invested without consequent gain, people become vulnerable to psychological and physical disorder and debilitated functioning. Resources, in this context, are defined as those things people value or those things that may help people obtain that which they value. Conservation of resource theory further suggests that resources are to a large extent common to all people, more common within a given culture and time in the developmental cycle, and only to a small extent idiographic. Further, conservation of resource theory posits that resources operate within an ecological context where feedback, sharing, and exchange operate between the individual, social context, and environment. Given these principles, it is reasoned that community interventions must acknowledge the solid base of most problems and accept that interventions must target resources and be intensive enough to change the ecology in which resources operate.

The contribution to emotional distress of mastery, intimacy, received social support, and discomfort in seeking support was examined over a year period among 107 Israeli mothers of well, acutely ill, or chronically ill children. The following was found: (a) Women initially high in mastery experienced less psychological distress and benefited more from social support than did women low in mastery. (b) The greater social support women generally received the lower their psychological distress. (c) Independent of the level of generally received support, women who experienced greater distress received greater social support at the time of crisis. (d) Intimacy with spouse was related to better stress resistance, but the opposite was found for intimacy with family. (e) Women who felt uncomfortable seeking support were more distressed at the time of initial crisis than women who were more comfortable seeking support and became less intimate with significant others.

The relationship of self-concept (self-esteem and mastery) and social support to psychological distress was studied among 68 Israeli women immediately prior to undergoing biopsy for suspected cancer (acute stress) and 3 months later for the noncancer group (everyday stress). It was predicted that women with stronger self-concepts and more social support would experience less state depression and state anxiety during the acute crisis than women with weaker self-concepts and less social support. It was further predicted that self-concept would be more critical than social support due to the acute nature of the event. Finally, self-concept was predicted to be related to psychological distress both during the acute and everyday stress situations (a direct effect), while social support was predicted to be related to psychological distress only during the acute stress situation (a buffering effect). The hypotheses were generally confirmed. However, self-concept and social support were seen as complexly related to psychological distress during the acute phase, one not necessarily being more critical than the other. The selective employment of available resistance resources to fit the situation and implications for preventive intervention were discussed.

Summary The predictive validity of ‘traditional’ tools utilized in the selection of medical students was evaluated in a ‘non-traditional’ selection paradigm, where a wide range of previous-academic ability was represented. The validity of the use of pre-academic grades and examination scores in the prediction of success in clinical performance was examined in a medical school which de-emphasizes these indicators and emphasizes personal characteristics assessed via interview ratings in student selection. Grades and examination scores were found to have no relation to clinical ratings which have an added interpersonal and community emphasis during the fourth-sixth years of medical school. A positive trend was found for interview ratings with clinical performance, but the skewed nature of interview scores was seen as limiting investigation of this variable. The meaning of these results vis-a-vis the continued use of academic and examination related selection criteria was discussed.

The effect of prior stressful events and mastery on psychological distress during and following a threat to life was examined, and three competing models concerning the effect of prior stressful events on reactions to severe life crisis were compared. The stressful events model suggests that prior stressful events increase vulnerability to new threatening events. The traditional crisis model suggests no such effect of prior stressful events on crisis reaction due to the overwhelming effect of the crisis at hand. A facilitator model predicts that prior events decrease vulnerability to crisis due to a “practice effect.” Fifty-five Israeli women (not found to have cancer) were studied just prior to and 3 months following biopsy for suspected cancer. Those with greater prior stressful events were significantly more state depressed at both times than those experiencing fewer events, supporting the stressful events model. It was also found that mastery moderated the extent to which women were depressed and the period of time they remained depressed. However, mastery did not limit the stressful life event — depression relationship. Implications for research and intervention are discussed.

Personality characteristics were studied among a group of candidates chosen to study medicine in a selection process determined in large part by personal interview ratings. These personality characteristics were examined further with regard to their relation to student performance in an interpersonally community-oriented school of medicine. Seven scales taken from the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) were studied in regard to their relationship to interview ratings, cognitive and clinical performance and an overall rating by a team of teaching staff. 'Dominance', 'Self-acceptance', 'Well-being'., 'Tolerance', 'Responsibility' and 'Achievement via conformance' were found to be significantly, albeit modestly, correlated to interview ratings, while 'Achievement via independence' was not. All seven CPI scales, except Responsibility significantly differentiated between contrasted groups on cognitive examination scores and overall teachers' ratings, but not on clinical ratings. Discriminant analyses suggested that 'Achievement via independence', 'Self-acceptance', 'Dominance' and 'Achievement via conformance' were the best overall predictors of congnitive performance and teaching staff ratings. Implications for selection of training of interpersonally, community-oriented professionals in medicine and allied helping fields are discussed.

Tile research findings with regard to the personality traits of undergraduate volunteer mental health workers indicate that they were more nurturant and sensitive toward others than nonvolunteers (Chinsky, 1969). Such personality traits have been associated with therapeutic helping (Carkhuff & Truax, 1966). Volunteers were also found to be more prosocially oriented than nonvolunteers and more tolerant toward client populations (Cowen, Zax, & Laird, 1966). But other investigators have observed that volunteers were less morally tolerant than nonvolunteers (Holzberg, Gewirtz, & Ebner, 1964), and did not differ from nonvolunteers in self-acceptance (Holzberg et al., 1964) and prosocial attitudes (Chinsky, 1969; Gelineau & Kantor, 1969). Following the experience of working with client populations, undergraduate volunteers have been found to increase on variables such as empathy (Chinsky, 1969) and self-acceptance (Cowen et al., 1966; Holzberg et al., 1964). In several studies in which volunteers worked with children, they showed attitude changes in the direction of more positive regard for the client (Chinsky, 1969; Cowen et al., 1966). The two major goals of this study were (a) to compare the personality and attitudes of undergraduate volunteer mental health workers with those of nonvolunteers in order to determine if a more "purely" defined group of volunteers presented the prosocial personality and attitude profile found in some previous research and (b) to examine changes in these characteristics as a function of working as tutors with 4and 5-year-old children in an inner-city preschool program designed to facilitate reading readiness.

Interracial commitment of female undergraduates who volunteered to work as tutors with inner-city preschool children was compared with female nonvolunteer practicum students who also worked as tutors, and female undergraduates who had no contant with the children. The relationship between personal characteristics of the volunteer and the nonvolunteer tutors and tutor-child interaction was also investigated. Following work with the children, volunteer tutors were found to increase in interracial commitment, while nonvolunteer tutors decreased. Tutors who had tolerant, nondogmatic personalities and favorable attitudes towards ghetto persons and welfare recipients were more likely to be highly involved in their interaction with the children they tutored than were tutors with less favorable attitudes. High involved tutors were also found to be more critical of institutions which serve these client populations than were less involved tutors. Implications for future programs involving undergraduate mental health workers and selection of effective, involved mental health workers were discussed.

The relationship between war-related stressors and emotional and behavioral adjustment during the Israel-Lebanon war was studied on a sample of 220 Israeli students, many of whom had been in combat. Mastery had direct effects on the well-being of both sexes. There was limited support for the stress-buffering effect of intimacy for men, such that those who had less intimate ties were increasingly negatively affected by greater exposure to war-related stressors, whereas those with more intimate relationships were relatively unaffected; the buffering effect applied both to emotions and behavior. No stress-buffering effect of intimate ties was found for women, but women were not affected by war-related stress at this time. The diagnosis post-traumatic stress disorder is examined in terms of the fact that normally healthy populations may be at increased risk of long-term adjustment difficulties following exposure to extreme stress if the threat of recurrence of the stressor continues. Implications for Vietnam veterans are also discussed.