Newly constructed scales of decisional procrastination were validated as a precondition for assessing similarities and dierences between decisional and task avoidant procrastination. The two behavioral dispositions and their concomitant aective reactions (tension during decision making and discomfort about postponing tasks, respectively) were found to be independent. Each disposition was general rather than speci®c with a high inter-correlation of indecisiveness on matters of minor as well as major importance and a high inter-correlation of postponing life routines as well as postponing academic assignments. Two of the ®ve Costa±McCrae personality factors accounted for most of the explained variance in the two kinds of procrastination, Neuroticism for decisional procrastination and Conscientiousness for task avoidance procrastination, respectively. These ®ndings were consistent with theoretical formulations by Lazarus (Appraisal± Anxiety±Avoidance Model) and Kuhl (Action Control Theory).

A task force on war-related stress was convened to develop strategies for prevention and treatment of psychological, psychosocial, and psychosomatic disorders associated with the Persian Gulf War and other extreme stressors facing communities in general. The task force focused on the return home, reunion, and reintegration of service personnel with their families and work. Although the Persian Gulf War was won with relative ease, negative psychological sequelae may develop in some individuals because of the stress of war, family disruption, financial difficulty, and changes in family routines. Typical stress reactions and modes of coping that are usually unsuccessful or destructive were outlined, and suggestions were made for monitoring these. In addition, guidelines for successful coping were developed. Special attention was given to children's reactions and needs. Recommendations were made for outreach and intervention on the policy, systems (e.g., schools, businesses, governmental agencies), family, and individual levels.

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Two groups of Israeli boys and girls in Grades 4-8, one intellectually gifted with a mean WISC IQ of (N = 182) and one nongifted (N = 310), were compared on several indices of personal-social adjustment. As predicted, the gifted group showed more positive self-concept, more internal locus of control, a lower level of general anxiety, and a still lower level of test anxiety. The few results on self-concept, unfavorable to the older gifted children, were attributed to a shift in the attitudes of gifted and nongifted children toward each other as they enter adolescence and their abilities and interest patterns diverge. Gifted girls were as well adjusted as gifted boys and better adjusted than nongifted girls.