Office or kitchen? Wellbeing consequences of role participation depend on role salience

In light of the emerging trend of men and women sharing work and family roles, the goal of this study is to investigate which individuals will experience a role as depleting or enriching their energy levels. We apply self-discrepancy theory and propose that role salience explains when a role will lead to exhaustion versus engagement. Exhaustion is likely when participating in a role for which salience is low, while engagement is likely when spending time on a role for which salience is high. We test this idea using a diary study whereby participants logged time spent on work and family tasks on seven consecutive days, while reporting feelings of exhaustion and engagement in the morning. For individuals with high work salience, time spent on work increased exhaustion less, and increased engagement more, as compared to individuals with low work salience. Spending time on family tasks increased exhaustion less, and increased engagement more, when work role salience was low as compared to high. Our findings suggest that wellbeing consequences of role participation depend on work role salience. We discuss how these findings advance theoretical thinking in the work–family literature and give leads for managerial practice.     

The relation between work-family balance and quality of life

We examined the relation between work-family balance and quality of life among professionals employed in public accounting. Three components of work-family balance were assessed: time balance (equal time devoted to work and family), involvement balance (equal involvement in work and family), and satisfaction balance (equal satisfaction with work and family). For individuals who invested substantial time in their combined work and family roles, those who spent more time on family than work experienced a higher quality of life than balanced individuals who, in turn, experienced a higher quality of life than those who spent more time on work than family. We observed similar findings for involvement and satisfaction. We identified the contributions of the study to the work-family balance literature and discussed the implications of the findings for future research.     

DEFINING DISABILITY FOR WOMEN AND THE PROBLEM OF UNPAID WORK

National policy and much of scholarly research on disability overlook the importance of unpaid family work and instead focus on disability in paid work, largely in male samples. Because of societal expectations about appropriate social roles for men and women, women tend to assume responsibility for unpaid work in the family and also tend to have paid work that is characterized by low pay and limited autonomy. This article discusses the political, theoretical, and methodological issues relating to defining and measuring paid and unpaid work disability for women and men within the context of these structural factors. The results of a study analyzing disability in both paid work and unpaid family work among a sample of 206 women with rheumatoid arthritis are presented. The study demonstrates the feasibility of measuring disability in family work and shows that women experience significant limitations in homemaker functioning as well as in paid work roles.     

GENDER, JOB AND FAMILY CONDITIONS, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SYMPTOMS

This study examined the hypothesis that gender differences in psycho-logical distress are mediated by job and family role conditions. Previous research has failed to directly test such mediational hypotheses but rather has inferred effects of role conditions from simple role-occupancy variables. The sample consisted of full-time employed married respondents including 161 women with full-time employed spouses, 142 men with nonemployed spouses, and 126 men with full-time employed spouses. Although the sample reported low psychological symptomatology overall, the women in dual-earner families reported more psychological symptomatology than did either group of men. Hierarchical regression equations indicated that work and family conditions fully attenuated this gender differential. Women in dual-earner families also reported less job enrichment, less time at work, and more household labor inequity than did either group of men. They also reported more childcare difficulty than did men with nonemployed spouses. Work-family interference predicted psychological symptomatology and partially accounted for its relationship with some job and family conditions. We discuss processes through which gender affects psychological distress.     

The Subjective Basis of Kant's Judgment of Taste

Kant claims that the basis of a judgment of taste is a merely subjective representation and that the only merely subjective representations are feelings of pleasure or displeasure. Commentators disagree over how to interpret this claim. Some take it to mean that judgments about the beauty of an object depend only on the state of the judging subject. Others argue instead that, for Kant, the pleasure we take in a beautiful object is best understood as a response to its qualities, and that, accordingly, feelings of pleasure or displeasure are no different from other representations, such as colors or smells. While I agree that the judgment of taste is best understood as asserting a claim about an object's qualities, I argue that the distinction Kant makes between feelings of pleasure or displeasure and other representations should not be ignored. I show that one's liking or disliking for an object is merely subjective in the sense that its significance depends on what one has made of oneself through one's aesthetic education. The judgment of taste, then, is merely subjective because one must first become the kind of person whose feelings have the right significance at the right time before one can determine whether an object's qualities make it beautiful.     

We've come a long way,maybe: College students' plans for work and family

Young men and women today face considerable choices as they plan for family and work. We explore college students' educational preparations, as well as their attitudes, orientations, and expectations for work and family. Although we find some changes toward a more gender-equal society, we also find potential conflicts which these individuals will have to face as they attempt to combine work and family roles. Women and men are doing equally well in college, both men and women have equal commitments to work roles, and both value family. However, both men and women expect that women will play a more prominent role in the family and men a stronger role in the workplace. The orientation and plans of these college students do not anticipate symmetrical relationships in which both men and women share household and work responsibilities.We are grateful to Brenda K. Hawks, Sue Curry Jansen, and Judith Lasker for their careful readings of earlier drafts of this paper. Special thanks go to the students in SR377/477 for their major contribution in collecting the data which are analyzed herein.     

Married with children: How family role identification shapes leadership behaviors at work

In this paper, we explore the question of how an employee's family role identification, as driven by family structure (marital and parental status combined), affects their leadership behaviors at work. Using survey data from working professionals and executives pursuing a Master of Business Administration degree, we found that, as expected, those respondents who were both married and had children reported higher levels of family role identification relative to other respondents. Also, we found evidence of an indirect effect of family structure on leadership behaviors such that being married with children was indirectly associated with higher supervisor ratings of the respondents’ leadership behaviors via family role identification and the transfer of resources from the family role to the work role. Further, this indirect effect was stronger for women than for men. Contrary to traditional expectations, and consistent with enrichment theorizing, our findings suggest that investment in the family role can enhance employees’ display of valuable leadership behaviors in the workplace.     

Pleasure,displeasure, and mixed feelings: Are semantic opposites mutually exclusive?

Are pleasure and displeasure opposite markers of a single dimension, or are pleasure and displeasure two separate feelings? The present article argues that the existing evidence proved inconclusive for four reasons: (a) assessment of affect in unspecified situations, (b) assessment of affect at one moment in time, (c) use of inappropriate statistics, and (d) lack of theoretical predictions. The present article presents a study in which affect was assessed before and after an induction of mild displeasure via unpleasant pictures. Furthermore, pleasure and displeasure ratings are compared to ratings of feeling hot and cold. Results indicate that hot and cold ratings represent opposite ends of a single hot-cold dimension. Pleasure ratings could not be represented along a single pleasure-displeasure dimension. Methodological implications for future research on the structure of affect are discussed.     

GENDER AND WORK HISTORY IN THE PLACEMENT AND PERCEPTIONS OF ELDER COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERS

This study explored factors that determine the types of volunteer jobs older adults are placed in, as well as factors that define the meaning of their roles. With a sample of 169 elder community volunteers (mean age, 73 years), we investigated the patterns of job perceptions of women and men in two types of volunteer positions: jobs that involved leadership and jobs that did not. A two-way MANOVA with gender and leadership as independent variables revealed that there was a significant interaction effect. When men are leaders, their sense of interpersonal feedback is higher than when they are non-leaders, but their sense of influence and autonomy is lower. Women in leadership jobs feel more influential and autonomous than their peers in non-leadership jobs. Subsequent analyses probing differences in job placement suggested that work history was a significant predictor of leadership jobs for men, but not for women. Correspondingly, men with prestigious preretirement work histories perceived their volunteer roles as less influential than men who had been in lower status jobs before retirement. Work history was not a predictor of job perception for women. These placement and perception issues are discussed within the context of an historical perspective on paid work, with special emphasis on gender.     

Attitudes Towards Work and Family Roles and Their Implications for Career Growth of Women: A Report from India

This paper explored attitudes towards work and family roles of professional men and women in India. Ninety-two husband–wife pairs from salaried, upper middle class, dual-career families in India participated in the study. Propositions based on adult development theories of men and women, regarding reward value derived from and commitment made to occupational, parental, marital, and homemaker roles over the life cycle, were tested. Results indicated that there was no change with age, in attitudes towards occupational and homemaker roles. Instead, gender-based differences in attitudes towards these roles were observed. Attitudes towards the marital and parental role varied across the life cycle, although not in keeping with propositions based on the adult development theories of men and women. There was no reversal in attitudes towards work and family roles of men and women after midlife. Rather, some reversal in attitudes appeared to occur between the marital and parental role, over the life span of both men and women. Results are reviewed within the Indian cultural context and their implications for the career development of women are discussed.     

Work, Family, and Religious Involvement for Men and Women

Do family formation and social establishment affect religious involvement in the same way for men and women, given increasing individualism and rapid changes in work and family roles? Using a random sample of adults from upstate New York (N = 1,006), our research builds on previous work in this area by using multiple measures of religious involvement, using multiple measures of individualism and beliefs about work and family roles, placing men and women in their work context, and looking at the relationships separately by gender. Men’s religious involvement is associated with marriage, children, and full‐time employment, signaling social establishment and maturity. Women’s involvement is higher when there are school‐aged children in the home, but it is also more intertwined with the salience of religion and with an assessment that religious institutions are a good fit with their values and lifestyles, including egalitarian views of gender. For men and women, views of religious authority and the role of religious institutions in the socialization of children are associated differently with religious involvement at different life stages. We call for further research to understand the gendered nature of religious involvement and the role of beliefs about work, family, and religion in explaining why individuals choose to be involved in religious institutions.     

Gender Differences in the Importance of Work and Family Roles: Implications for Work–Family Conflict

In this study we explored between- and within-gender differences in the importance of life roles and their implications for work–family conflict. In earlier research (Cinamon & Rich, 2002) we found 3 profiles of workers who differ in attributions of importance to work and family roles: persons who assigned high importance to both the work role and the family role (“Dual” profile); participants who ascribed high importance to the work role and low importance to the family role (“Work” profile); and participants who attributed high importance to the family role and low importance to the work role (“Family” profile). We used these profiles to clarify the relationship between gender and work–family conflict. Participants were 126 married men and 87 married women who were employed in computer or law firms. Significant between- and within-gender differences were found in the distribution of participants to profiles. Men were equally distributed throughout the profiles, whereas women were underrepresented in the Work category. More women than men fit the Family profile, and more men than women fit the Work profile. No gender differences were found for the Dual profile. Women reported higher parenting and work values than men did. Between-gender differences in work–family conflict were apparent, as were within-gender differences across profiles. Results demonstrate the value of examining both between- and within-gender variation in studies of gender and work–family conflict.     

Dynamic Stereotypes of Power: Perceived Change and Stability in Gender Hierarchies

Despite widespread change in gender roles, women continue to have less power than men. From the perspective of social role theory, this gender difference in power should be perceived as eroding as women gain access to male-dominated roles typically associated with power. Study 1's open-ended reports nearly unanimously projected an increase in women's power over the next 50 years, whereas responses were equally split between projecting stability or a decrease in men's power. Study 2's quantitative findings illustrated that participants perceived women as gaining in political, economic, occupational, individual, and relational power from the past into the future. In contrast, men were perceived as decreasing in relational power but maintaining levels of other forms of power over time. Despite the projections of increases in women's power, women were not projected to reach parity with men by 2050. We examine the implications of these beliefs for future social change.     

Work and Family Commitment and Decision-Making Status Among Emerging Adults

This study was designed to investigate work–family attitudes among emerging adults. Participants were 46 male and 49 female college juniors and seniors. Men and women had similar levels of work and family commitment. For women there was a negative correlation between work and family commitment. Exploratory analyses indicated different relationships between work decision-making status and commitment and family decision-making status and commitment. In addition, whereas men were more likely than women not yet to have thought about family roles, women were more likely than men to have decided about family roles. Implications of these findings for our understanding of the processes and meanings of emerging adult men's and women's decisions about entry into and commitment toward work and family roles are discussed. Although earlier literature employs the term “young adults” to refer to individuals in the emerging adult stage of development, for the sake of consistency we use the term “emerging adults” throughout this article.     

Work–nonwork boundary management profiles: A person-centered approach

The goal of this paper is to advance the measurement and theory of work–nonwork boundary management styles. Boundary management styles are defined as the approaches individuals use to demarcate boundaries and attend to work and family and other nonwork roles, given identity centralities and perceived boundary control. We argue that research should be augmented with a person-centered approach, which examines how psychological measures are integrated into configurations. Integrating role and boundary theories, we identify three main characteristics of work-nonwork boundary management: (1) cross-role interruption behaviors (work to nonwork, and nonwork to work interruptions); (2) identity centrality of work and family roles, and (3) perceived control of boundaries. Using a variable-centered approach, we refined and validated these measures to create an assessment (Work–Life Indicator) that captured boundary management profiles. The profiles reflect how interruption behaviors, identity centralities, and boundary control interrelate to cluster into profiles, a set of psychological characteristics organized into a pattern of work–nonwork boundary functioning. We identify boundary management profiles and examine their relationships to key work-family outcomes. Regardless of the level and direction of interruption behaviors and centrality of work–family identities, we found that low control boundary management profiles (reactors, job warriors) tended to experience more negative work and family outcomes than did high control profiles (fusion lovers, dividers, family guardians, eclectics).     

Kant on animal and human pleasure

Feeling, for any animal, is a faculty of comparing objects or representations with regard to whether they promote its vital powers (pleasure) or hinder them (displeasure). But whereas these comparisons presuppose a species-concept in non-rational animals, nature has not equipped the human being with a universal principle or life-form that would determine what agrees or disagrees with it. As humans, we must determine our mode of life for ourselves. Contrary to other interpretations, I argue that this places the human capacity for pleasure and displeasure outside of nature and in a realm of spirit.     

Rational suicide: a test of the prescriptions of Epicurus concerning suicide

The purpose of this research was to test the hypothesis that the individual who believes death is the end and who expects to experience more displeasure than pleasure over the remainder of his life will choose suicide. College students (N = 272) completed questionnaires measuring their beliefs about after-life, expectations of pleasure and displeasure should certain negative events happen to them, and expectations of suicide should these negative events happen to them. Support was not found for the hypothesis. The students who believed that death was the end stated that they would choose to live even if negative events promised them a life of greater displeasure than pleasure.     

Role conflict and perceptions of gender roles (the case of Israel)

The present study focuses on work—family role conflict among Jewish women employed in a female-typed occupation (secondary school teachers) and a male-typed occupation (university professors). The major hypotheses of the study are that women who work in different occupation types employ different strategies to reduce role conflict and that family roles contribute more to role conflict than work roles. The findings support the hypotheses and show that women in a male-typed occupation spend less time on family and domestic roles, and increase their hours of work. Consequently, their burden at home decreases while their burden at work increases. Because the burden at home contributes more to role conflict than the burden at work, women in male-typed occupations report less role conflict than women in a typically female occupation.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics Conference, Paris, 1994. We wish to acknowledge our gratitude to Dafna Izraeli for her insightful critique. We also thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. This research was funded jointly by Schein Institute and The Eshkol Foundation.     

Nonstandard career paths and profiles of commitment to life roles: A complex relation

The career paths (ascending, interesting, uninteresting, descending) of 124 White Canadian francophones (62 men, 62 women) who had experienced nonstandard and precarious work for the last three years were examined in relation to the participants’ profiles of commitment to three life roles (work, family, and duality, that is, investment in both career and family). The paths were derived from the content analysis of the data collected through semi-structured individual interviews. Quantitative tools were used to assess the importance of life roles and to compare the career paths as well as the commitment profiles with respect to specific and general anxiety. Among other results, a significant relationship was found between unsatisfying career paths and the duality profile, on the one hand, and higher levels of specific and general anxiety, on the other. The results are discussed with respect to the scientific literature. Implications for career counseling are suggested.     

Valence focus and the perception of facial affect

Individuals differ in the extent to which they emphasize feelings of pleasure or displeasure in their verbal reports of emotional experience, an individual difference termed valence focus (VF). This multimethod study indicates that VF is linked to heightened efficiency in perceptual processing of affective stimuli. Individuals higher in VF (i.e., who emphasized feelings of pleasure/displeasure in reports of emotional experiences) were more sensitive to changes in negative facial expressions than individuals lower in VF. The effect was not accounted for by current affective state or other personality characteristics. Implications for the validity of self-reported experienced emotion are discussed.