Twenty-nine soloist and principal dancers (mean age, 29.08 years) from America's two most celebrated ballet companies were administered questionnaires measuring personality (API), occupational stress (OES), strain (PSQ), and coping mechanisms (PRQ), and injury patterns. The results revealed that male dancers demonstrated significantly more negative personality traits and psychological distress than female dancers or men in the general population. In addition, physical stress and personality traits, characteristic of the "overachiever," distinguished injured dancers. It is suggested that classical ballet's emphasis on the ballerina may be at odds with a masculine identity in male dancers. Furthermore, the qualities that lead to success in this profession may contribute to injuries if carried to an extreme.

Rats were either individually preexposed to an open field or not and then observed in pairs. Preexposed rats were much more gregarious on their first test in pairs than nonpreexposed pairs, but the latter group became more gregarious with repeated testing. Prolonged absence from the open field led to decreased affiliation. In a second experiment, rat pairs were observed for four days in either a black or a white open field and then switched to the other field. Gregariousness increased in either open field, but decreased on switching. Both experiments show that rats are most affiliative in familiar environments, and suggest that fear or curiousity about novel environments may compete with social attraction.

Eighty-eight out of 120 people referred for psychiatric evaluation by the Workmen's Compensation Board were found to suffer from catastrophic disability although their residual physical impairment was minimal. A smaller sample of claimants suffering from this “disproportionate disability” syndrome were compared with a psychiatric control group. It was found that the claimants had a statistically significant inability to solve verbal similarities. This specific cognitive limitation leaves them vulnerable to the severe and chronic disorganization that is the hallmark of the syndrome. They seem unamenable to psychodynamically oriented psychotherapy. and may respond more favorably to supportive treatment and environmental manipulation.

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