The spontaneous cognitive strategies employed by 75 patients undergoing dental extractions or mandibular block injections were elicited using a structured interview. Interest focused on the relationship between these strategies and several personality variables, including state and trait anxiety, locus of control, and absorption. In addition, the effect of strategy utilization on perceived pain and stress was assessed. Fourty-four percent of the patients employed cognitive strategies designed to minimize pain and stress, while 37% catastrophized, engaging in cognitive activity which exaggerated the fearful aspects of their experience. Only 19% of the patients denied any cognitive activity during the clinical procedure, and many of these used noncognitive coping strategies. Discriminant analysis revealed that situational anxiety was associated with the use of cognitive coping strategies. Catastrophizing was associated with increasing age, past dental stress, and higher levels of stress vulnerability (high trait anxiety and external locus of control). Copers reported less stress than catastrophizers but not less pain.

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This paper tests the hypothesis that access to digital technology alone guarantees development of crucial literacies and that "new media" are more critical in the developmental process than older electronic and print media (the "digital natives" thesis). Secondly, that the context of access and mediation provided by parents (as "digital immigrants") are no longer crucial in guiding the acquisition of foundational literacy skills, including ICT literacy. There is very little research on young children and new media. In the absence of large-scale empirical data some writers have assumed that new media will resemble television in its effects of on the development of a child's language abilities. The research presented in this paper uses an longitudinal data to disentangle the effects of access, context, time "exposed" to different media, including reading, on the child's language skills at different stage of their development, while controlling for family socioeconomic resources. Methods Methods Methods Methods This paper uses data from the first three waves of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) (Soloff, Lawrence & Johnstone, 2005). Briefly, LSAC is a national longitudinal study which follows two Australian cohorts born in 1999 and 2003 at two year intervals starting in 2004. The 2003 cohort (n=5107) and the 1999 cohort (n=4983) were aged 0-1 and 4-5 years respectively in 2004. Data were obtained using a combination of a face-to-face interview, self complete questionnaires, a child's time use diary; and, for the 1999 cohort

Pain magnitude and pain tolerance for arm immersion in ice water were assessed during a baseline and posttest session. Before the posttest half the subjects received (and half did not receive) an analgesia suggestion. On the basis of their written testimony, subjects were classified as having either predominantly coped (e.g., imagined events inconsistent with pain; made positive self-statements) or predominantly exaggerated (e.g., worried about and exaggerated the noxious aspects of the situation) during each immersion. On both immersions copers reported less pain and exhibited higher pain tolerance than exaggerators. Moreover, the suggestion was associated with reductions in reported pain only when it transformed baseline exaggerators into posttest copers. Theoretical implications are discussed.

The present investigation examined the efficacy of two types of imaginal strategy treatments relative to a placebo control group on cold pressor pain and migraine. One imaginal strategy group (response group) was trained to imagine pleasant scenes which included their own responses (e.g., muscular relaxation, deep breathing). The other imaginal strategy group (stimulus group) was trained to imagine scenes with many stimulus details. All imagery subjects were instructed to use their strategies if they had a headache, felt a headache coming on, or found themselves engaged in a negative line of thinking (catastrophizing). The imagery treatments were clearly superior to the placebo control group both on experimentally produced pain, and a general measure of headache activity, but were not different from each other. Improvement was maintained through a 2 month follow-up. Successful treatment outcome was predicted by the frequency of imaginal strategy use. Possible underlying mechanisms for the treatments' efficacy and issues for future research were discussed.

This study assessed the impact of structural characteristics on quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) outcomes in an Australian national study. Data from the Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) repository of National Quality Standard (NQS) ratings were used to identify long day care services that had improved from Working Towards NQS to Meeting or Exceeding NQS or had no change over two assessments. QRIS outcomes were examined for state/territory jurisdiction, urban–rural location, community socio-economic status, type and size of provider organisation, centre size and stability of centre owner/provider using multinomial logistic regression analyses. Controlling for jurisdiction, results showed that improvement to Meeting NQS was more likely for not-for-profit versus for-profit providers and for large multi-site provider organisations versus small, stand-alone providers. Improvement to Exceeding NQS was also associated with not-for-profit and larger provider organisations, as well as larger versus smaller centres, and centres that had stable ownership.

Recent reports suggest that hypnosis may be a useful technique for the treatment of sexual dysfunction. Five distinct strategies for the utilization of hypnosis in sex therapy can be identified: (1) as a diagnostic tool, (2) to improve self-confidence, (3) as an adjunct to behavior therapy, (4) for the direct removal of symptoms, and (5) to facilitate the resolution of neurotic conflicts. Case reports documenting these applications of hypnotic procedures typically fail to include significant information regarding patient variables, symptomatology, the nature of the therapeutic intervention, and criteria for improvement. Although the conclusions provided by these case studies are encouraging, it is essential that the efficacy of hypnotic techniques in sex therapy be evaluated by controlled studies.

Pain magnitude when subjects immersed an arm in ice water was assessed by means of a magnitude estimation procedure during baseline and posttest sessions. Before the posttest session, subjects either received or did not receive an analgesic suggestion. Best-fit functions were linear, though power fits were also good. Analgesic suggestions had no effect on the rate of change in pain intensity. When subjects were classified as copers or catastrophizers on the basis of written testimony, pain intensity increased more rapidly for catastrophizers than for copers during the posttest session but not during the baseline session. Subjects who kept their arm immersed for more than 240 s were classified as high in tolerance. High-tolerance subjects experienced a slower rate of growth in pain intensity than low-tolerance subjects. Theoretical implications of the results are discussed.