The Search for Employment: Motivation to Engage in a Coping Behavior1

The search for employment was examined as coping through engagement in motivated behavior. A model predicting social networking and employer contact behavior was tested with a sample of persons anticipating college graduation. Proposed relations among behavioral antecedents were primarily drawn from Ajzen's (1985) theory of planned behavior, with the addition of cognitively appraised challenge. Structural equations analysis revealed general support for hypothesized relations among attitude, norms, perceived behavioral control, intentions, and behaviors. Cognitively appraised challenge partially mediated the effects of perceived behavioral control on job search intentions. Significant variance in job search attitude was attributed to a valence by outcome expectancy interaction. Findings may be useful in promoting job search efforts, as well as furthering theoretical delineation of the search process.     

Boundary regulation in family and personal systems: Perceptions of late adolescents

Examination of boundary regulation can provide family therapists with a framework to describe both the functioning of family systems and personal systems (i.e., the intrapsychic functioning of individual family members). In the present study, late adolescents' perceptions of boundary regulation within their family systems (i.e., ratings of family health, communication, leadership, expressiveness, cohesion, and family conflict) were related to regulation of their personal boundaries (i.e., self-reported personal competence, distress, and patterns of defense mechanism use). In addition, personal system variables reliably discriminated between adolescents who described their families as psychologically healthy versus psychologically unhealthy.     

The effects of memory load and the contrast of the rod signal on partial report superiority in a Sperling task

Subjects participated in a Sperling task. The independent variables included delay of report cue, dark background field vs. a light background field intense enough to nearly saturate the rod system (duration of rod icon), and whether or not subjects were required to retain a list of letters or words (memory load) while performing in the Sperling task. Partial report superiority is normally taken as an indication of iconic memory. However, the main result was that memory load, which presumably does not affect the duration of the icon, increased partial report superiority. The effect of luminance of the background field was to reduce the partial report superiority. The results show that the existence of a partial report superiority and/or a decaying partial report curve does not necessarily imply the existence of an icon or visual storage.     

Decoding effects of cognitive complexity,tolerance of ambiguity,and verbal–nonverbal inconsistency1

The effects of inconsistency between the verbal and nonverbal components of a message were investigated. Subjects were 72 females who rated the attitudes of encoding confederates who communicated either consistent or inconsistent messages. Verbal and nonverbal components were varied as either positive or negative and each of the four possible combinations served as an experimental condition. The nonverbal cues of amount of eye contact, postural orientation, forward–backward lean, and head nodding were found to influence the judgment of the total message. Verbal and nonverbal components were found to have interactive rather than additive effects. Inconsistent nonverbal cues had a stronger effect when accompanying a positive verbal message than when accompanying a negative verbal component. The effects of decoders' levels of cognitive complexity and tolerance of ambiguity were also assessed. Evidence suggests that both complexity and ambiguity tolerance have effects on the utilization of inconsistent nonverbal cues. Low complexity/low tolerance subjects were less influenced by nonverbal cues in the positive verbal–negative nonverbal condition. These subjects were also found to differentiate less between supplied rating dimensions than other groups.     

TRANSITIONS IN CHILDREN'S ROLES AND CAPABILITIES*

Stage theories and empirical studies have concentrated on a few periods of childhood (e.g., age 5 to 7 years) as important times of transition. On the basis of ethnographic suggestions that the age period 8 to 10 years also involves interesting changes, the authors carried out a search of published empirical studies for findings of transitions in capabilities at 8 to 10 years. An annotated bibliography is provided summarizing the studies found in a 5-year period in three journals. The authors discuss possibilities for characterizing the transition at age 8 to 10, as well as how such a transition meshes with the concept of stage.     

Feminist orientation and job-seeking behavior among dual-career couples

This study examined the relationship between feminist orientation and job-seeking behavior in dual-career couples. Initial and final job-seeking decision rules were assessed, as well as choices to simulated incidents about joint job seeking. Feminist orientation was more pronounced in influencing simulated than actual job-seeking behavior. As employment possibilities in the simulations became increasingly constrained, the relationship between feminism and non-traditional behavior attenuated first among men, then among both sexes. In terms of actual behavior, feminist orientation in men, but not in women, was significantly related to the type of job-seeking strategy initially chosen. However, there was no significant relationship between feminist orientation and final job decision for either sex, probably because of situational constraints affecting the final decision.     

Modified group psychotherapy with chronic renal dialysis patients

Renal dialysis is a life saving, chronic medical procedure for those patients whose kidneys no longer function. However, the psychological reactions to this procedure, which necessitates a state of passivity for several hours, often overshadow the medical implications, and, in some instances, are decisive in terms of the patient's adjustment to treatment. Frequently, patients are unable to utilize individual psychotherapy to its maximum because of their need to perceive their illness as only medical. Group therapy however provides a less threatening psychological milieu and tends to give rise to peer support and mutual interaction.Barbara Halin Willinger, M.S.W., A.C.S.W., was the social work supervisor of the Renal Dialysis Unit at Metropolitan Hospital at the writing of this paper. She is a private psychotherapist and is affiliated with a mental health clinic where she also practices individual and group psychotherapy.The author wishes to thank Martin Saltzman, M.D. and Haley Glazer, M.S.W. for their suggestions.     

Validity of teacher nominations of child behavior problems

The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of teachers' identification of problem children. Ninety-five third-grade children served as subjects. Teachers nominated children as a conduct problem, withdrawal problem, or normal, resulting in 16, 14, and 65 children being assigned to the three groups. Behavioral observations, peer sociometric ratings, and academic achievement scores were collected. The results indicated that conduct problem children differed from normal children on behavioral, sociometric, and academic measures, whereas withdrawn children differed from normals on the latter two measures. Conduct problem and withdrawal problem children did not differ on any of the dependent measures. The results suggest that teachers can identify children who are having difficulties in class but may be less accurate in differentiating between different types of problem children.This research was supported in part by NIMH grant MH-28859-01. Data reported in this article are part of a larger project assessing the social skills of children.     

Sex-role self-concept and attitudes related to occupational daydreams and future fantasies of college women

This study explored the relationship of sex-role self-concept and general attitudes toward women's roles to patterns of career preferences and to career salience among 50 undergraduate women. Sex-role self-concept was measured by the Bem Sex-Role Inventory, and attitudes by the Attitudes Toward Women Scale. Patterns in career preferences were determined by studying the degree of gender dominance in past occupational daydreams as well as in present college major and intended future occupation. Career salience was measured using a content analysis of written future fantasies. Sex-role self-concept was related to past occupational preferences, with masculine-typed women showing a pattern of nontraditional daydreams compared to those of feminine-typed women. Attitude variables were related to present career choices, with liberal women in more male-dominant fields than conservative women. Both self-concept and attitude variables were related to career salience, measured by the proportion of fantasies about the future devoted to work themes. Masculine women showed evidence of more career salience than androgynous or undifferentiated women, and liberal women more than conservative women.