Three studies are described in which measures of perceived social support from friends (PSS-Fr) and from family (PSS-Fa) were developed and validated. The PSS measures were internally consistent and appeared to measure valid constructs that were separate from each other and from network measures. PSS-Fr and PSS-Fa were both inversely related to symptoms of distress and psychopathology but the relationship was stronger for PSS-Fa. PSS-Fr was more closely related to social competence. PSS-Fa was unaffected by either positive or negative mood states (self-statements), but the reporting of PSS-Fr was lowered by negative mood states. High PSS-Fr subjects were significantly lower in trait anxiety and talked about themselves more to friends and sibs than low PSS-Fr subjects. Low PSS-Fa subjects showed marked verbal inhibition with sibs.

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Seventy‐one doctoral programs in professional psychology were surveyed with respect to the incidence of studentS' professional deficiencies and related procedures. Professional deficiencies, particularly limited clinical skills and personality/emotional problems, were reported by 89% of the respondents, twice the number that have official policies for dealing with such problems. Incidence of limited clinical skills was related positively to interviewing applicants and use of practicum grades for evaluation and related negatively to using recommendation letters and reliance on clinical supervisor's assessment. Responses to deficiencies reflected appropriate due process concepts and were most likely to include terminating students and psychotherapy referral. Recommendations are made for definitions of professional competencies, development of policies, and research on the reliability and validity of screening and evaluation mechanisms.

The previously unexplored relationship of self-actualization to life stress and perceived social support from family and from friends was investigated. Measures of all variables were administered to 54 female and 52 male adult undergraduate students (age range of 18-81 years). The relationship of each variable to psychological adjustment (depression) also was assessed. As predicted, correlational results revealed self-actualization to be related positively to perceived social support and inversely to depression and life stress. Social support was inversely related to depression, and life stress was related positively to depression. Significant sex differences discovered in the relationship of selfactualization to perceived social support are discussed in terms of possible sex differences in the developmental process of self-actualization.

The extent to which introductory psychology students' self-selection into experiments produced biased samples was assessed in two experiments. As part of the normal sign-up procedure, students chose between apparently different experiments with quite different descriptions and between individual and group sign-up slots. Upon arriving at the laboratory, all students filled out personality questionnaires. Results demonstrated that students sorted themselves into experiments as well as into individual group sign-up slots inrelation to personality dimensions. The resulting samples in each experiment were thus non-representative of even the restricted introductory psychology subject population. Implications and recommendations for the use of such populations were discussed.