When adults enter university after several years of work and life experience, they must negotiate their identity as mature students and their friendship with other students. In this interpretative study, I examined the tensions experienced by 15 such students (aged 28-54) at a university in Ireland where they were attempting to integrate…

Applying the theoretical framework of social capital, this article investigates whether adolescents' popularity among their peers during junior high school protects them against a financially marginalized position (as indicated by unemployment, social assistance reception and low educational attainment) in young adulthood. Based on a Norwegian…

Research has shown inclusive education to be extremely beneficial for students with developmental disabilities. One reported benefit is the increased accessibility to typical peers with the implication of increased opportunities to develop meaningful friendships. Many researchers and educators have developed strategies to help facilitate the…

As people consider the critical importance of inner control in the development of human functioning, it might be wise to reexamine a fundamental insight from cultural psychology: from the very beginnings of life the growth of the individual mind is a reflection of and response to the minds around people, including the stimuli to which those…

Higher education is rapidly changing and university instructors are presented with new types of students for whom technology is a significant influence. They perceive technology as a way of life and express a need to feel connected at all times. With increasingly diverse university classroom, technology integration is both a challenge and an…

The focus of this study was to identify whether there was a pattern of instability within the friendship bonds of a group of young girls aged between 10 and 12-years-old. Changes were monitored over 16 months within friendship clusters of dyads, triads and larger groups. Research has shown a trend towards gender difference in preferred forms of…

This paper considers how issues of adolescent development might be brought into conversation with dilemmas in sex education. Here, sex education is larger than information, affirmation or prohibition. In its address to the most intimate aspects of life--love, loss, vulnerability, power, friendship, aggression--sex education is necessarily…

Focusing on the meaning/function of a man's personal relationships with his fellow workers and other work-related people in comparison with friendship and kinship relationships, this study indicates Japanese company employees distinguish personal work-related relationships from friendship and engage in after-hour socialization with colleagues out…

The purpose of the study was to investigate the life experiences of a group of South African adults who stutter and the impact of stuttering on their quality of life. Participants were 16 adults with a mean age of 28.9 and ranging from 20 to 59 years. Methods involved individual interviews designed to explore the life domains of education; social…

This article discusses Cathedral High School's peer program that involves seniors serving as mentors to freshmen students to help them transition to high school. Students pour into Cathedral from more than 60 different grade schools, and the administration saw a need to connect these students with their peers in order to retain them. The program…

Noting that teasing can have damaging and lasting effects on children, including low self-esteem, chronic stress, anxiety, dislike of school, and aggressive behavior, and that children need concrete ways to cope with teasers and the emotional turmoil teasing can cause, this book presents a program to teach children and parents how to deal…

This paper explores the role of social rejection and peer identification in the development of deaf community, by analyzing interactions through which deaf people are alienated from hearing people and identify with other deaf people. Life history interviews were conducted with 25 graduates of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. The…

We are delighted to welcome you to the International Psychological Applications Conference and Trends (InPACT) 2016, taking place in Lisbon, Portugal, from 30 of April to 2 of May, 2016. Psychology, nowadays, offers a large range of scientific fields where it can be applied. The goal of understanding individuals and groups (mental functions and…

Describes three studies conducted to inquire into the potential functions that teacher bars might serve relative to the worklife of teachers. Results showed that teachers congregate at specific bars as a release of tension at the end of the week; to find camaraderie; and to find a supportive atmosphere. (CT)