Ex-Partner,Family, Friends,and Other Relationships: Their Role Within the Social Network of Long-Term Single Mothers1

This study explores various aspects of support in the social network of long-term single mothers: the nature of expected help and of offered support, the attitudes behind support, the strategies for requesting help, the reluctance to ask, the efficacy of received help, the perceived refusals, and the behaviors judged as harmful. Thirty women separated for at least two years with a child aged under 10 were chosen following the snowball technique, and participated in this study. The content analysis of the semi-structured interviews shows how the dynamics of social support varies according to the relationship to the target person: ex-partner, family, friends, or “other relationships”. For instance the ex-partner, when mentioned, rarely offered the expected support and was perceived as harmful. Family members often lived up to their expectations, but women were generally very reluctant to ask them for help. Friends were the most efficient helpers and were the main persons from whom mothers expected cognitive support. The “other relationships” offered a certain amount of help, especially at the instrumental level but, as with the ex-partner, they were frequently perceived as harmful. Finally, we advocate for an “ecological” approach to measure social support in the context of the interaction in which it occurs.     

The Impact of ‘the Dream’ on Women's Experience of the Midlife Transition

Daniel Levinson's claim for the universality of age-linked periods is considered highly controversial considering that his theory evolved from a study consisting of males only. Theories relating to women's development, particularly at midlife, are somewhat scarce and restricted. Using Levinson's theory of adult development as a framework, the present study retrospectively examined the Dream and its impact on women's psychological health and adjustment to the Midlife Transition. Three hundred midlife women completed a questionnaire examining Dream Status, Dream Content, Dream Success, and the psychological health variables, depression, anxiety, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. Dream Success was significantly related to psychological health on dimensions of well-being and composure, and interesting changes were observed in Dream Content across the early and current Dream. Our findings revealed that, despite the overall greater complexity of women's Dreams, Levinson's theory is largely applicable to women's development.     

Altering Beliefs About the Importance of Strategy: An Attributional Intervention1

The study reported in this paper describes an attributional intervention designed to change maladaptive beliefs for failure from uncontrollable causes to a lack of strategy attribution. Rather than an academic setting, the context for this research was the heath field and subjects were 52 physical therapists experiencing role strain (failure) in their professional interactions with physicians. Half of these health professionals were randomly assigned to a 3-week intervention where they were trained to attribute their failures to poor choice of strategy, rather than to uncontrollable factors such as low ability or physician bias. Relative to a control group, subjects who participated in the attribution retraining program were more likely to endorse strategy attributions and expected greater success in their interactions with physicians at the conclusion of the intervention. At a 6-month follow-up, trained subjects also received more actual job promotions. These findings have implications for attribution retraining to strategy in a variety of domains.     

Perceptions of women: Influence of performance,marital and parental variables

The purpose of this study was to examine whether level of job performance interacts with marital and parental status to influence evaluations of employed women. College students (104 females and 104 males) evaluated a stimulus person on 24 scales describing personality traits and job performance characteristics. Each participant rated 1 of 8 employed women depicted as either an outstanding or below-average worker, divorced or married, with one or no children. Compared to below-average workers, outstanding workers were rated as better-adjusted (especially if they were mothers) and more professionally and socially competent (especially if they were not mothers). Married women were perceived as better-adjusted than divorced women. Mothers were viewed as more nurturant than nonmothers.Portions of this paper were presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, New Orleans, Lousiana, August 1989.     

On being a whistleblower: the Needleman case

We believe that members of the scientific community have a primary obligation to promote integrity in research and that this obligation includes a duty to report observations that suggest misconduct to agencies that are empowered to examine and evaluate such evidence. Consonant with this responsibility, we became whistleblowers in the case of Herbert Needleman. His 1979 study (Needleman et al., 1979), on the effects of low-level lead exposure on children, is widely cited and highly influential in the formulation of public policy on lead. The opportunity we had to examine subject selection and data analyses from this study was prematurely halted by efforts to prevent disclosure of our observations. Nevertheless, what we saw left us with serious concerns. We hope that the events here summarized will contribute to revisions of process by which allegations of scientific misconduct are handled and that such revisions will result in less damage to scientists who speak out.     

Robbing a Man of His Illusions: Response to Herbert Fensterheim and Stanley Messer

The suggestions made by Fensterheim and Messer regarding increasing ego strengths and pointing out patterns of interaction were found to be useful ones in treating this angry patient. Some other interventions derived from an integrative perspective are also described. The author is still grappling with the problem of stripping this man of his illusions.