Should I stay or should I go?: Penalties for briefly de-prioritizing work or childcare

We examined penalties against individuals who temporarily de-prioritize their employee or parenting role. Experiment 1 (N = 488) utilized vignettes depicting a mother/father who briefly left their child with a babysitter to engage in work/self-care/did not leave (control). Both mothers and fathers were viewed as less parentally competent, likeable, dedicated to their family (and putting their child at greater risk) when they very briefly de-prioritized their caregiving role by leaving their child for either reason, relative to controls. Experiment 2 (N = 494) utilized vignettes depicting a female/male employee who briefly left work to engage in childcare/self-care/did not leave (control). Both male and female employees were rated as less professionally competent, likeable, dedicated to their work and deserving of organizational rewards (and more deserving of organizational penalties, and putting their organization at greater risk) when they very briefly de-prioritized their employee role by leaving work for either reason, compared to controls. However, employees who left for self-care were viewed more negatively than those who left to engage in childcare. Unexpectedly, results did not reveal target gender differences; they were also largely unaffected by participant gender. This suggests that parents and employees face penalties when they must de-prioritize either of these important roles for even very short periods. Implications for well-being, work-life balance, and productivity are discussed.     

Changing Me,Changing Us: Relationship Quality and Collective Efficacy as Major Outcomes in Systemic Couple Therapy

We examine the sensitivity to change in the Evaluation of Social Systems (EVOS) scale, which assesses relationship quality and collective efficacy. In Study 1 we conducted a waitlist‐control, short‐term couple therapy RCT study (N = 43 couples) with five systemic therapy sessions treating communication and partnership problems; our intent was to provide high external validity. Construct validity of EVOS was assessed by comparison with additionally applied scales (Family Scales; Outcome Questionnaire, OQ‐45.2). In Study 2, N = 332 individuals completed an experiment with high internal validity in order to verify sensitivity to change in three different social contexts. Results from Study 1 revealed a significant increase in relationship quality in the treatment group directly after treatment, as compared to the control group. Sensitivity to change was slightly better for EVOS than for other measures. While this positive change could not be fully sustained between posttreatment and a 4‐week follow‐up, EVOS score did not fall below baseline and pretreatment levels, supporting moderate‐to‐large sensitivity to change. Study 2 supported high sensitivity to change in EVOS for couple relations, family relations, and work‐team relationships. Therefore, EVOS can be used as an outcome measure to monitor the process of systemic interventions focusing on relationship quality and collective efficacy. Due to its sensitivity to change, EVOS can provide evidence for treatment success with regard to relationship aspects.     

Max Ernst,Sedona

Walking through the guarded gate of CERN. a center for peaceful atomic research near Geneva, Switzerland, one finds oneself in what seems to be a typical industrial park Upon coming to thefirst corner, one has a sense of the surreal tofind pleasant signs marking it as the intersection of Einstein and W. Pauli streets. Ambling along a bit further, one comes to a quiet, treeshaded building housing the office of theoretical physicist, John Stewart Bell, whose work on “nonlocality” is regarded by some as fermenting yet another conceptual revolution in our world view. With an almost shy Irish brogue from his native Dublin, however, Bell modestly disavows any such significance to what is called “Bell's Inequality” in the literature of quantum physics.

In this interview, our editor queried Bell on the relevance of his work for Jung's view of synchronicity as a non- causal factor in human affairs. Bell cautions that everything he says here is only his “opinion of the mystery and muddle of it all.”     

Reasoning strategies: the role of working memory and verbal-spatial ability

Evidence increasingly suggests individual differences in strategies adopted on reasoning tasks and that these are either verbal-propositional or visuospatial in nature. However, the cognitive foundations of these strategies remain uncertain. Experiment 1 examined the relationship between the use of working memory resources and strategy selection for syllogistic reasoning. Verbal and spatial strategy users did not differ on working memory capacity, but confirmatory factor analysis indicated that while verbal reasoners draw primarily on verbal working memory, spatial reasoners use both this and spatial resources. Experiment 2 investigated the relationship between strategies and verbal and spatial abilities. Although strategy groups were similar in overall ability, regression analysis showed that performance on a spatial ability measure (Vandenberg mental rotation task) predicted syllogistic reasoning performance, but only for spatial strategy users. The findings provide converging evidence that verbal and spatial strategies are underpinned by related differences in fundamental cognitive factors, drawing differentially on the subcomponents of working memory and on spatial ability.     

Religious disagreement: internal and external

Philosophers of religion have taken the assumption for granted that the various religious traditions of the world have incompatible beliefs. In this paper, I will argue that this assumption is more problematic than has been generally recognized. To make this argument, I will discuss the implications of internal religious disagreement, an aspect of this issue that has been too often ignored in the contemporary debate. I will also briefly examine some implications of my argument for how one might respond to the existence of religious diversity.     

Psychiatric Patients' Responses to MMPI Religion Items

Responses of Jewish and Protestant psychiatric Ss to 10 MMPI religion items were found to differ in the manner expected on the basis of Jewish and Protestant normals' ratings of the unfavorability of item endorsement. Education and private vs. public hospitalization were independently associated with item rejection rate. However, sex of S and psychotic vs. non-psychotic diagnosis were not related to item rejection. The differential response rate of Jewish and Protestant patients provides validity generalization for Gynther, Gray and Strauss' (1970) conclusion that social desirability values of MMPI items vary with relevant subject background characteristics as well as with item content.     

Intercultural Model of Ethical Decision Making: Addressing Worldview Dilemmas in School Counseling

The role of school counselors has expanded and deepened over the past few decades, just as the K–12 student population has become more diversified. Professional school counselors regularly encounter ethical dilemmas related to the intersection of their transformed role and students' needs. School counselors, therefore, need assistance and support to develop the skills and problem‐solving strategies to effectively, ethically, and respectfully negotiate these dilemmas. The authors propose the Intercultural Model of Ethical Decision Making as a practical, user‐friendly tool to help school counselors meet these complex challenges.     

Family measurement techniques

Abstract

This is the first issue in which the Family Measurement Techniques section appears in The American Journal of Family Therapy. I hope that you, the readers of the journal. will find it helpful in your clinical work with couples and families. In each issue, instruments, procedures and assessment techniques will be reviewed by clinicians who have expertise in the areas of marital/family measurement and evaluation. Reviewers have been asked to consider two issues: instrument construction and clinical utility. Instrument construction deals with the theoretical underpinnings of the technique or procedure, the adequacy with which major theoretical concepts and constructs have been operationalized, the sampling procedures used in instrument construction, and the reliability and validity of the measurement technique. Clinical utility deals with issues of importance for practicing therapists, for example, length of time required for administration and scoring, degree of expertise or training needed for administration and interpretation, and overall clinical utility of the measure.

I hope that the information provided in these reviews will make it easier for the busy practitioner to select instruments for use in assessment, diagnosis and outcome evaluation.