Attitudes of Employed Women Toward Parents Who Choose Full-Time or Part-Time Employment Following Their Child's Birth

Perceptions of married parents were examined as a function of their gender and their employment status following their child's birth. Women employed in hourly staff positions at a university (92% White, 8% African American, Asian American, or Hispanic American) evaluated a briefly described married employed parent on thirty-one 7-point bipolar scales that described nurturance behaviors, job performance characteristics, role overload variables, and personal adjustment characteristics. Each participant rated one of four parents portrayed as either a mother or a father who, following their child's birth, either continued to work full-time or reduced her/his work hours. Full-time employees were perceived as experiencing more stress and as being less family-oriented than reduced-hour employees. Mothers were viewed as better adjusted but as experiencing more stress than fathers.     

Personality Type Differentiation of Employed Versus Unemployed Clients

The 16 Personality Factors (16 PF) Test was used to determine if personality variables were significantly different for employed and unemployed clients. The results of the study indicate that demographic data failed to demonstrate any significant difference but that four factors on the 16 PF were found to be significant. Results should be of great interest to all professionals concerned with evaluation, adjustment, and/or placement of rehabilitation clients.     

Potential Social Action As A Function Of Expectation-Outcome Discrepancies Among Employed And Unemployed University Graduates

Full-time employed (N = 255), partly employed (N = 48), and unemployed (N = 43) male and female university graduates completed a questionnaire that included measures designed to assess expected job levels and current job levels and two measures of potential social action (willingness to volunteer actions and hours to a fictional Campaign to Assist Unemployed Youth). Comparisons between groups and the results of multiple regression analyses provided mixed support for the prediction that larger negative gaps between expected and current employment status would be associated with a greater willingness to assist the Campaign. The unemployed respondents tended to volunteer more actions and more hours to the Campaign than did the other two groups. A multiple regression analysis showed that the current level by expected level interaction term was statistically significant as predicted, but only for the fully employed graduates. Within the full-time employed group, female graduates and those from the humanities/social sciences/education schools expressed more willingness to assist the Campaign than did male graduates and those from the sciences/medicine schools of the university. Results were discussed in relation to current research on relative deprivation and reported affect and to recent studies of job satisfaction.     

Social Security and Well-Being of the Unemployed in 42 Nations

It is generally believed that life is better in nations with a high level of social security. Yet earlier studies have found no difference in average health and happiness between nations that differ in state welfare effort. While these previous studies focused on general population averages, the subjects of this study are the unemployed. As the unemployed are likely to benefit most from a high level of social security, one would expect the unemployed to be happier in nations with a generous social security system than in nations where the government is less open handed.Data for 1990 are available for 42 nations. Social security is indicated as the expenditures in percentage of GDP. Well-being is measured by self-reports of health, overall happiness, life satisfaction, and mood.Again hardly any relation was found between well-being and social security expenditures: on three of the four well-being indicators the unemployed in welfare states reported about the same levels of well-being as the unemployed in non-welfare states. When the analysis is restricted to 23 first world nations, the outcome is about the same. Comparison over time reveals that in typical welfare states changes in social security expenditures are related to changes in well-being levels of the unemployed, but such a pattern is not so obvious in nations with less generous state welfare. It is concluded that in general the level of social security has hardly any beneficial (or detrimental) effect on the well-being of the unemployed. Possible explanations for this outcome are explored.     

Emotional Support from Parents and In-Laws: the Roles of Gender and Contact

After the birth of a child, new mothers and fathers commonly have a substantial amount of contact with their parents and in-laws. However, this contact may not always result in emotional support. We tested if contact, rather than geographical distance, influenced emotional support received from parents and in-laws and whether there were gender differences in these associations. Online questionnaire data were collected in 2008 from a community sample of U.S. first-time mothers (n?=?93) and fathers (n?=?93) who were in a heterosexual relationship and living together. Results indicated that for new mothers, greater contact with own parents and in-laws was related to receiving more emotional support. However, for mothers, greater contact with parents also was related to less emotional support from in-laws. For new fathers, contact was not related to emotional support from either parents or in-laws. These findings suggest that receiving support as a result of contact with family members may be gendered, particularly for new mothers’ and fathers’ relationships with their in-laws. The current study highlights the importance of reducing stigmas about men and their emotional needs and of encouraging new fathers to seek and receive support from family during the transition to parenthood.     

处于不支持行为压力下的下岗人员的心理中介研究

本研究以 3 2 4名下岗人员为被试 ,考察不支持行为、应付方式、控制感与心理健康之间的关系。结果表明 ,情感不支持 ( β =0 .46)可以直接影响心理健康 ,同时情感不支持 ( β=0 .2 6)又通过自责 ( β =0 .3 1 )和发泄 ( β =0 .1 4 )两种应付方式和人际关系控制感 ( β=-0 .1 0 )而间接影响心理健康 ,下岗人员的应付方式和控制感在不支持行为和心理健康之间起重要中介作用。     

The Measurement of Self-Esteem, Stress-Related Life Events, and Locus of Control Among Unemployed and Employed Blue-Collar Workers

The purpose of this study was to measure the self-esteem, stress of life events, and locus of control among unemployed and employed blue-collar workers. It was hypothesized that (a) being unemployed decreases an individual's self-esteem, (b) being unemployed increases an individual's stress level by experiencing significant life changes, and (c) being unemployed increases an individual's external locus of control orientation. The study was conducted in a production/manufacturing organization, utilizing a systematic random sampling procedure that yielded 562 subjects. The results from the collected data did not support Hypothesis A or C. A significant change with stress in conjunction with life events was found but was mediated by several factors, including age and a nonsignificant correlation between time laid-off and stress levels. The study suggests that an individual's reaction to unemployment does not appreciably affect their self-esteem and locus of control when compared to the employed.     

Attitudes and Social Support: Determinants of Job-Seeking Behavior and Well-Being among the Unemployed1

What determines job-seeking behavior following a job loss? What are the mental health consequences of an unsuccessful job search? These questions were addressed in a longitudinal panel survey of 297 recently unemployed people, over a four-month period of their lives. In support of the Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) attitude-behavior model, intention to try hard to seek reemployment was the main significant predictor of job-seeking behavior during the subsequent four months. Intention, along with affirmation support from a significant other regarding the value of job search, accounted for 24% of the variance in job-seeking behavior. The attitude toward job seeking and the subjective norms (perceived social pressure to seek reemployment) were the main determinants of the intention, accounting for 69% of its variance. The unemployed person's attitude toward job seeking and subjective norms were, in turn, determined by (a) perceived instrumentality (expectations that job-seeking will lead to reemployment), (b) perceived economic hardship, (c) social support from the significant other (usually the spouse) in the form of affirmation of the value of job-seeking activities, and (d) the significant other's perception of the instrumentality of various job-seeking behaviors and of subjective norms regarding job-seeking. Other analyses showed that social support can counteract the negative effects of unsuccessful job search on mental health and that such effects are particularly pronounced among the more highly motivated job seekers. The implications of these findings for intervention programs are discussed.     

Social Structure, Self-Conception and Well-Being: An Examination of Four Models with Unemployed People

A cross-sectional questionnaire design ( n = 88) was used to investigate the relationship between social structure, self-conception and well-being. Distinctions were drawn between public and private self-esteem and, within private self-esteem, between self-evaluation and self-affection. Significantly poorer public and private self-esteem scores were observed for unemployed subjects than for an employed control group. The predictions of four accounts of psychological well-being/distress that draw upon these self-concept dimensions were tested. Results supported symbolic interactionist and self-discrepancy theory and, to a lesser extent, self-enhancement theory. No support was found for a self-verification theory approach. Implications of the study for social psychological research on the consequences of unemployment and for accounts of negative affect are outlined.     

Helping Teenage Parents: The Independent and Collaborative Roles of Counselor Educators and School Counselors

In recent years, the leadership of the American Counseling Association (ACA) has posed an earnest and urgent challenge to the counseling profession to develop and apply collaborative approaches to solve the complex problems of society. Teenage parenthood is one example of a major societal concern requiring cooperative, professional interventions. The purpose of this article is to recommend independent and collaborative roles for counselor educators and school counselors in addressing the many needs of teenage parents. In addition, this article serves as a model of how the counseling specialties can work together to resolve other critical social issues.     

Social Support and Job Search Intensity Among Older Unemployed Workers: Implications for Employment Counselors

A total of 54 unemployed workers over the age of 50 were interviewed in order to examine the relationship between the quality of social support provided by family and friends for their job search efforts and their job search intensity. The findings indicate that receiving positive social support for job search activities was significantly related to job search intensity. In addition, older workers perceived the supportive messages provided by unemployed friends as more positive than the support messages provided by employed and retired family or friends. Implications of these findings for assessing the presence of positive social supports and for developing successful job search assistance programs for older unemployed workers are discussed.     

The Roles We Make Others Take: Thoughts on the Ethics of Arguing

Feminist argumentation theorists have criticized the Dominant Adversarial Model in argumentation, according to which arguers should take proponent and opponent roles and argue against one another. The model is deficient because it creates disadvantages for feminine gendered persons in a way that causes significant epistemic and practical harms. In this paper, I argue that the problem that these critics have pointed out can be generalized: whenever an arguer is given a role in the argument the associated tasks and norms of which she cannot fulfill, she is liable to suffer morally significant harms. One way to react to this problem is by requiring arguers to set up argument structures and allocate roles so that the argument will be reasons-reflective in as balanced a way as possible. However, I argue that this would create to heavy a burden. Arguers would then habitually have to take on roles that require them to divert time and energy away from the goals that they started arguing for and instead serve the goal of ideal reasons-reflectiveness. At least prima facie arguers should be able to legitimately devote their time and energy towards their own goals. This creates a problem: On the one hand, structures that create morally significant harms for some arguers should be avoided—on the other hand, arguers should be able to take argument-roles that allow them to devote themselves to their own argumentative goals. Fulfilling the second requirement for some arguers will often create the morally significant harms for their interlocutors. There are two possible solutions for this problem: first, arguers might be required to reach free, consensual agreements on the structure they will adopt for their argument and the way they will distribute argumentative roles. I reject this option as both fundamentally unfeasible and practically unrealistic, based on arguments developed by theorists like Krabbe and Jacobs. I argue that instead, we should take a liberal view on argument ethics. Arguers should abide by moral side constraints to their role taking. They should feel free to take roles that will allow them to concentrate on their argumentative goals, but only if this does not create a situation in which their interlocutors are pushed into a role that that they cannot effectively play.

     

Parents as Social Skills Trainers and Evaluators of Children

This study evaluated the effects of a 4-week group parent training program on parents' conceptual knowledge regarding social skills and perceptions of their children's social competence and psychosocial adjustment. It also examined the concordance prior to parent training between the parent measures and independent sociometric measures of children's acceptance by peers. Participants were 79 normal children enrolled in second grade and 45 parents. A group pretest-posttest design compared experimental and wait-list control parent groups before and after parent training for the experimental group. Parent training produced a significant effect in parents' conceptual knowledge and perceptions of children's social skills over time, and follow-up assessment 6 weeks later suggested maintenance of training effects. Psychosocial adjustment levels were within the normal range before and after treatment. Correlational analyses between parent measures and peer acceptance ratings indicated significant positive relationships between parents' and peers' perceptions on most measures. The findings support the potential value of parents as trainers and evaluators in programs to enhance children's social skills.     

One Personality, Multiple Selves: Integrating Personality and Social Roles

ABSTRACT How do people maintain multiple, role-specific self-conceptions as well as a consistent sense of self? In a sample of middle-aged women, we examined three issues: (a) the ways in which people view themselves as both different and similar across social roles (e.g., parent, friend, worker), (b) how role-specific self-conceptions and general self-conceptions are related, and (c) the merits of predicting role-specific criteria from role-specific and general self-conceptions. Results showed that subjects' self-conceptions were specific to role contexts, yet highly correlated across those same role contexts. In addition, role-specific self-conceptions were more similar to the general self-concept for roles with which the individual was more satisfied. Finally, as predicted from the bandwidth-fidelity trade-off, ratings of the general self correlated moderately with outcomes across all role domains, whereas ratings of role-specific self-conceptions correlated strongly with outcomes for the same role, but not in other roles.     

Living a Lie: Self-Deception, Habit, and Social Roles

In this paper I give an account of self-deception by situating it within the theory of human conduct advanced by American pragmatists John Dewey and George Herbert Mead. After examining and rejecting the two most prevalent explanations of self-deception - namely, Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic interpretation and Jean-Paul Sartre's phenomenological one - I provide a brief sketch of some of Dewey's and Mead's fundamental insights into the inherently social nature of mind.I argue that one of the main forms of self-deception involves unreflective acceptance of a belief that impartial inspection would readily expose as spurious. In this instance lying to oneself arises from the failure to analyze an appealing idea from the perspective of the generalized other which we acquire through participation in the universe of rational discourse. I conclude by pointing to certain features of contemporary social life that may indirectly promote such self-dissimulation.     

We,Heirs of Enlightenment: Critical Theory,Democracy and Social Science

Abstract

My goal here is to come to terms with the Enlightenment as the horizon of critical social science. First, I consider in more detail the understanding of the Enlightenment in Critical Theory, particularly in its conception of the sociality of reason. Second, I develop an account of freedom in terms of human powers, along the lines of recent capability conceptions that link freedom to the development of human powers, including the power to interpret and create norms. Finally, I show the ways in which the social sciences can be moral sciences in the Enlightenment sense. This account provides us with a coherent Enlightenment standard by which to judge institutions as promoting development, understood in terms of the capabilities necessary for freedom. The relevant social science in this area might include the robust generalization that there has never been a famine in a democratic society.