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The training and personality style of emergency responders prepares them to deal with high drama situations. However, this exposure has an impact on their emotional and psychological well-being. This chapter discusses the symptoms of post-traumatic stress and the various levels of symptoms that people can experience from mild distress to symptoms that significantly affect function. Factors associated with higher levels of symptoms based on previous research are also reviewed. The coping mechanism most frequently described by emergency responders involves the deliberate use of cognitive strategies such as conscious attempts to shut out the emotional reactions of family members of the victim, visualizing the next technical step to be accomplished, and shutting down their own emotions. Other types of strategies involve having a positive personal life, talking to family, exercise, and blowing off steam with colleagues. The effectiveness of various strategies for self-care and coping are discussed.

Adaptation and coping with parenting stress involve a number of psychological processes. This chapter evaluates the effectiveness of some coping strategies that may reduce parenting stress and improve children's developmental outcomes. Some of these strategies include problem- and emotion-focused coping, cognitive approach strategy, and relationship-focused coping. The chapter also reviews intervention studies that promote adaptation and reduce parenting stress.

A person's ‘relationship with reality’ (RwR) is defined as the characteristic coping style each individual has in response to various stimuli. Accumulated over time, a person's cognitive-behavioural strategies in dealing with the stresses of real life can have substantial effects on a person's well-being. This chapter revisits two phenomena related to a person's ‘flight’ reaction to stimuli – that of escapist fantasizing and wishful daydreaming – which, when abused, may have detrimental effects on a person's real-life well-being. The key features of the theory are presented in the first part of the chapter through a case study. The types of cognitive-behavioural processes – reality-investing, quick-fixes, and reality-evading – are then discussed in relation to positive and negative RwR. RwR theory then posits that finding a healthy ratio between the three strategies is key in developing well-adjusted behaviours and mindsets. The remainder of the chapter reviews the existing literature concerning fantasy and daydreaming.

An alternative approach to the management of patients with brain damage is the rehabilitation of behavioural and psychological skills. Rehabilitative approaches have been developed in particular in the context of treatment and recovery of non-progressive brain damage, as for example occurs in stroke and trauma, rather than for progressive neurodegenerative disorders. This chapter reviews such approaches. Rehabilitation addresses both the development of behavioural and cognitive strategies that can allow patients to develop alternative strategies to achieve their goals, and the fact that behavioural experience and training can alter the course of the structural reorganisation itself.

This chapter is based on a theoretical framework for the study of adult cognitive plasticity and on empirical findings from the COGITO Study. The design and analyses of the study include key features for producing and detecting transfer effects at the level of cognitive abilities. Among the features are: (a) an intensity and dosage of training that is likely to induce an enduring mismatch between functional supply and demand, which is conducive to plastic changes in cognitive abilities, and (b) a multivariate and heterogeneous battery of transfer tasks and sufficiently large samples to allow for the investigation of transfer of training at the level of latent factors. Younger adults showed short-term and long-term transfer effects for reasoning and episodic memory, whereas older adults showed only short-term transfer on a working memory (WM) latent factor composed of tasks that resembled the practiced tasks, something that younger adults did as well. The chapter discusses possible interpretations of the findings in terms of increases in WM capacity, improvements in the efficiency of material-independent or material-specific processes or strategies, and improvements in motivation and self-concept.

This chapter discusses music performance anxiety (MPA). MPA may be defined as a state of arousal and anxiety occurring before or while a person is performing non-anonymously in front of an audience producing a valuable or evaluated task touching on his/her self-esteem. Among the symptoms are palpitation, intestinal problems, tremor, difficulty concentrating, dry mouth, wet hands, difficulty with intonation, unreliable memory, increased sweating, and irregular breathing. The chapter also discusses its causes, prevalence, and treatment strategies. Cognitive-behavioural strategies are used by many musicians to cope with MPA: positive thought, visualization and distraction, muscle relaxation, deep breathing, proper nutrition and exercise.

This chapter considers the mechanisms responsible for the pop-out phenomenon. The evidence from magnetoencephalography suggests that both dorsal and ventral attention systems participate, simultaneously, when one specific item so captures visual attention. Disengaging attention is also fundamental.

This chapter discusses moral habilitation. Moral habilitation refers to the process by which individuals are morally remade in the image of certain ideals regarding appropriate social and ethical conduct so that they become “fit” to be among other people. The first psychoeducational group that the men experience after orientation that starts the process of moral habilitation is Cognitive Strategies. “Cog” Strategies, as they typically refer to it, represent an introduction to the basic philosophy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)—an approach to helping participants change their behavior by correcting their errors in thinking. This includes an examination of how thought and feelings determine behavior. According to the Treatment Manual, Participants develop an awareness of how perceptions, self talk, and distorted thiking influence their offending behavior, and begin to change their distorted thinking patterns.