The psychological states of patients with diabetes mellitus were compared with those of patients suffering from other chronic diseases and people with no diagnosed chronic diseases. These states were assessed by applying content analysis scales to transcripts of their descriptions of their current experiences. Analyses of the diabetics' scale scores re vealed a pattern characterized by much anxiety, depression, anger expressed both direct ly and indirectly, together with feelings of helplessness. The sources of anxiety which proved to be of most importance to them were fears of death and...

Focusing on language and the assessment of its meaning, this volume concentrates on a method of content analysis developed by the author and Goldine Gleser. Applicable to transcripts of speech or verbal texts, this method uses the grammatical clause as its smallest unit of communication, considers whether or not a verb is transitive and involves an object, or is intransitive and describes a state of being. It derives scores on many scales that have been tested for reliability of scoring and for construct validity with concurrently administered measures, such as rating and self-report scales...

The prospective reader may well ask about the particular merits of this volume, especially in view of several dozen similar offerings, each with its own excellences, and of the easy availability of symposia, conferences, con- ventional reviews, abstract journals, and serial research reports. In spite of such other attractions, it seems to me that these 34 essays are among the most informative and stimulating which are now available in the areas cov- ered. The editors have been successful in attracting new articles from many of the most prominent investigators now actively working at research...