This study attempted to predict postoperative pain from preoperative level of anxiety and the amount of information patients possessed regarding their surgery. Pain was assessed via the McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) and a measure of pain complaints--number of analgesics taken. High levels of state anxiety and a high degree of information predicted the Present Pain Intensity measured of the MPQ, but did not predict the Pain Rating Index portion of the MPQ. The number of analgesics taken was predicted from the amount of information but not the level of presurgical anxiety. Biographical variables were unrelated to postoperative pain. The results were discussed in terms of State-Trait Anxiety theory, Janis' curvilinear prediction model and a contextual perspective of information imparting.

The way in which learning goals are structured determines the studentstudent and teacher-student interaction patterns in the classroom, which in turn greatly affect the outcomes resulting from instruction. The effects of two methods of structuring learning goals--cooperatively and individualistically-were compared on a series of attitudinal and performance variables. An advanced math class for 5th and 6th grade white students (N = 30 boys and girls) in a suburban, upper-middle-class school was divided randomly into cooperative and individualized conditions (controlling for math ability) for studying math one hour a day for 50 days. The results indicate that cooperative learning promoted more positive attitudes towards heterogeneity among peers; higher self-esteem; more positive attitudes toward the teacher, fellow cooperators, and conflict; more internal locus of control; and higher daily achievement.

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The present study sought to ameliorate two major deficiencies in the literature on treating response to surgery, viz., the failure to compare clearly delineated treatments, alone and in combination; and the failure to examine treatment X coping style interactions. Information imparting and brief relaxation were examined in this study as they interacted with an avoidance-sensitization coping style. No differences were found between treatments or coping styles. Sensitizers, on the other hand, were found to profit most from the relaxation training. Avoiders appeared to do well when they were left alone. The interaction effect was demonstrated for both self-report measures of pain and a behavioral measure of potency of medications ingested. The effects on self-report of pain were more evident on the second postsurgical day than on the fourth postsurgical day. The results indicate that brief relaxation training, often the only kind available to the medical psychologist dealing with surgical patients, is best confined to patients with a sensitizing coping style. Further, the results of this study, in conjunction with a reanalysis of previous studies, cast considerable doubt on information imparting when presented alone as a viable technique for reducing the distress consequent on surgery.

Single-sex cooperative, mixed-sex cooperative, and individualistic learning situations were compared to determine if they promoted systematic differences in relationships between male and female students and handicapped and nonhandicapped students. One-hundred-fifty-four 5thand 6th-grade students were assigned to conditions on a stratified random basis controlling for ability, sex, grade level, homerooms, and handicap. They participated in a study for 45 minutes a day for 21 days in science class. The results indicate that cooperative learning situations, compared with individualistic ones, promoted more positive cross-sex and cross-handicap relationships. Males achieved higher and had more positive attitudes toward science than did females.( 1) The impact of cooperative and individualistic learning experiences on relationships between handicapped and nonhandicapped students.