On the record

"We all have a choice as to how to respond to stressful situations. Take losing one's luggage. We can respond with humor: 'Has my luggage gone somewhere interesting? Is it out having a good time?' or we can take it as a calamity. When you're stressed, your heart pounds, pupils dilate and catecholamines pour into the bloodstream and suppress immunity. So it's probably physiologically helpful to have a sense of humor."

--Dan Shapiro, PhD, clinical psychologist and author of "Mom's Marijuana: Insights About Living," commenting on how he dealt with his battle with Hodgkin's disease. The New York Times, May 15.

"[Invoking a higher order] is a good way for everyone to assuage their guilt for being so self-absorbed."

--Jill M. Stein, a social psychologist commenting on a Los Angeles-based fad of including faith and deities in health and beauty environments. Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, May 12.

"There is the element of curiosity, people's natural interest to learn things kept secret for decades. [Janos Kadar's] rule, lasting from 1956 to 1988, was a large chunk of our lives."

--Ferenc Pataki, psychologist and one-time communist activist commenting on the recent interest of Hungarians in discussion and in best-selling novels about the secrecy surrounding the life of the late Hungarian communist leader. Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, May 14.

"The implication to some may be that if you return home, it's a diminishment of your independence, but they don't have to be mutually exclusive. It depends on the nature of the relationship. If the return is a re-creation of adolescence, it's one thing. But if it's two adults sharing space, then it's different."

--Frank Ghinassi, psychologist and chief of adult services at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic commenting on adult children living with their parents. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 13.

--K. HEWLETT