Placing Our Counseling Texts in Context: A Reply to Lyddon

Following Lyddon (1995), contextualist understandings of development, including dialectical change and cognitive construction, are distinguished from organismic perspectives on the basis of the distinction between formal and final causation. Life-span developmental and postmodern contextualist trends are offered as a viable framework for emerging counseling theories that seek to capture the diversity of human development.     

Boundaries as Distance Regulators in Personal Relationships

Received wisdom suggests that boundaries are, or should be, important in intimate relationships. In this essay, we focus primarily upon the beliefs and phenomenology relating to a variety of boundaries, and provide a discussion of some conceptual issues, in order to understand better the development, facilitation, and maintenance of, as well as restraints upon, intimacy. Although we attend mainly to dyadic relationships, we believe that our observations and suggestions have application to larger groups.     

Personal Standards in Professional Relationships: Limiting Interpersonal Harassment

An attempt is made to define abusive actions by offering criteria against which the behaviour of individuals can be considered. These criteria are based on whether the behaviour is avoidable, the appraisal of an objective observer and the impact of the behaviour on the ‘psychological contract’ between employer and employee. Particular abusive actions, identified by these criteria, are described and are contrasted with what are termed ‘reasonable expectations’ of one person's behaviour towards another. It is argued that only by translating these expectations into personal commitments, against which one's own behaviour can be compared, will interpersonal harassment be limited. It is also proposed that the size of consensus about what constitutes abusive actions measures the integrity of an organization's culture. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Forms and Functions of Intimate Play in Personal Relationships

Two studies are reported on intimate play in same-sex friendships and in opposite-sex romantic relationships. In Study 1, a typology of eight play forms was derived: private verbal coding, role-playing, teasing, prosocial physical play, antisocial physical play, games, gossiping, and public performances. Study 1 also modified the Betcher PQII paper-and-pencil measure of perceived playfulness for use in nonmarital relationships, finding playfulness a strong correlate of relationship closeness. Study 2 examined the multidimensional structure of the play typology, finding three underlying dimensions for the play forms: verbal versus nonverbal, antisocial versus prosocial, and assumed-identity versus self-identity. Study 2 also examined perceptions of the functions performed by the types of play, finding differences among the eight play forms on the functions of indexing intimacy, lessening interpersonal risk, distancing self from the interaction, and conflict management.     

Placing Community Psychology in the Context of the Social, Health and Educational Sciences: Directions for Interdisciplinary Research and Action

Building on Maton, Perkins and Saegert’s framework on inter-disciplinary work related to community psychology, this article addresses two questions about community psychology in the context of the social, health and educational sciences: (1) What can community psychology learn from other disciplines? and (2) What can community psychology uniquely contribute to other disciplines?     

Attitudes Toward Divorce: Embeddedness and Outcomes in Personal Relationships

Divorce attitudes, attitude embeddedness, parental marital status and conflict, and personal relationship outcomes were examined in a sample of 289 undergraduate students. Results indicated that highly embedded divorce attitudes were more predictive of evaluations of divorce issues and relationship scenarios than were less embedded attitudes. Consistent with findings that divorce attitudes influence personal relationships ( Amato & DeBoer, 2001 ), participants with embedded divorce attitudes reported greater conflict and influence of relationship partners. Recollections of high parental conflict were associated with greater relationship conflict; and individuals from high-conflict intact families reported greater relationship closeness, conflict, and embedded divorce attitudes. Consequences of parental divorce and conflict for offspring divorce attitudes are discussed, as well as future research on divorce attitudes and their strength.     

When One Plus One Equals Three: The Role of Relationships and Context in Community Research

This paper explores the role of relationships within and between the community of the researchers and the community of the research participants, as they relate to qualitative, community psychology research. Although relationships are salient to all research, their role is particularly prominent in qualitative research, in which a closer rapport is established between researcher and research participant than in quantitative research, and the impact of both sides of this interaction on the research process is acknowledged. Instead of merely looking at the community and relationships of the participants, the usual focus of research, this paper also explores the often-overlooked community and relationships of the researchers and then goes on to look at the impact on the research process of the interaction of these two separate communities. This inside story, while seldom explicitly explored or articulated, has implications for community research in general and particularly for applied research.     

Manipulation in Close Relationships: Five Personality Factors in Interactional Context

This research had three basic goals: (a) to identify manipulation tactics used in close relationships; (b) to document empirically the degree of generality and specificity of tactical deployment across relationship types (mates, friends, parents); and (c) to identify links between five major personality dimensions and the usage of manipulation tactics. Twelve manipulation tactics were identified through separate factor analyses of two instruments based on different data sources: Charm, Reason, Coercion, Silent Treatment, Debasement, and Regression (replicating Buss et al., 1987), and Responsibility Invocation, Reciprocity, Monetary Reward, Pleasure Induction, Social Comparison, and Hardball (an amalgam of threats, lies, and violence). The Big Five personality factors were assessed through three separate data sources: self-report, spouse report, and two independent interviewers. Personality factors showed coherent links with tactics, including Surgency (Coercion, Responsibility, Invocation), Desurgency (Debasement), Agreeableness (Pleasure Induction), Disagreeableness (Coercion), Conscientiousness (Reason), Emotional Instability (Regression), and Intellect-Openness (Reason). Discussion focuses on the consequences of the five personality factors for social interaction in close relationships.     

Some Functional Relationships Informing the Structure of Personal Constructs

Cromwell (2010) incorporated into his general theoretical system a formal model of interpersonal judgment developed by Adams-Webber (1997). The purpose of this discussion is to elaborate some predictive implications of this model that are logically relevant to Cromwell's theory, and to review specific empirical evidence that supports these hypotheses, including several of Cromwell's own findings.     

Attachment,Mental Health,and Verbal Aggressiveness in Personal Relationships

This study examined the association between verbal aggressiveness and individual differences in attachment orientations and mental health, defined as a state of emotional well-being. One hundred and thirty-two college-aged students completed measures assessing their attachment orientations, mental health, and verbal aggressiveness. Results indicated that security in attachment was negatively associated with verbal aggressiveness, and preoccupation with relationships was positively associated with verbal aggressiveness. In addition, mental health was negatively associated with verbal aggressiveness. Results indicated support for a statistical model in which mental health mediated the association between attachment orientations and verbal aggressiveness.