Use of Self: A Brief Report

One of the effects of crisis in a family is that the members become fixed in rigid attitudes with strong, narrow limits imposed on the free flow of feelings. A way for the family therapist to free up the members of such a system is to introduce his own affect into the structure. A child may be required to help the therapist gain entry.     

Cognitive Style, Schizophrenia, and the Family: Methodological Implications of Contextual Effects

The study of a single case of a family with one schizophrenic daughter is reported here. A variety of measures were used in the study and it was carried out in a number of different contexts. The study has substantive interest in regard to the inter-connections of schizophrenia and of individual and familial patterns of cognition and perception. In addition it raises important methodological considerations stemming from the variability of the measures across differing contexts.     

Empirically Unbinding the Double Bind: Review of Research and Conceptual Reformulations

This article reviews the empirical research on the double-bind concept and describes the conceptual and methodological limitations of the studies. Because of the difficulty in defining and operationalizing the concept, most studies have not adequately tested substantive issues related to the double-bind hypothesis. The relationship of the concept to other family dynamics concepts is discussed and a reformulation of some of the basic tenets are presented. The article also attempts to clarify several of the theoretical and methodological issues related to the double-bind hypothesis, and specific recommendations are made regarding future research on this topic.     

Underachievement is many-sided

The concept of underachievement, though widely used and voluminously researched, is still ill-defined. The reason seems to be that underachievers are defined merely in terms of the discrepancy between their predicted and earned grades. So classified, the groups are too heterogeneous to be psychologically meaningful. There are different types of achievers and underachievers who need to be identified and different educational climates that need to be studied, if the concept of underachievement is to become productive in our thinking about high school and college students     

Men's sociosexuality is sensitive to changes in mate availability

Correlational research has linked mate availability to human sexual behavior, whereby unrestricted sociosexuality seems to be most common under conditions of female abundance. In this study, 71 heterosexual men were randomly assigned to one of two mate availability priming conditions, mate scarcity or mate abundance, and subsequently completed measures of sociosexuality as well as infidelity intentions. Results indicated that men in the mate abundance condition reported stronger sociosexual attitudes and desires, and among those currently in relationships, stronger infidelity intentions. These findings were contrasted with those from a separate sample of 66 heterosexual undergraduate women. Mate scarcity had no effects on women's sociosexuality or infidelity intentions. Findings suggest that when mates are scarce, men will adopt a sociosexual orientation aimed at maintaining a single partner.