Theories of Family Adaptability: Toward a Synthesis of Olson''s Circumplex and the Beavers Systems Models

Two typologies of family process, Olson's Circumplex Model and the Beavers Systems Model, are discussed, focusing particularly upon their definitions of family adaptability. It is argued that the two typologies are not simply "separate but equal" (11), but, rather, that there is an ambiguity in the Circumplex Model that disguises a fundamental theoretical overlap between the two. Olson's definition of adaptability is founded upon the concepts of morphogenesis and change; Beavers builds upon the concepts of negentropy and competence. It may be shown, however, that both understandings are necessitated by the theoretical writings of Olson and his colleagues. The nature of this ambiguity in the Circumplex Model is critically explored, and a higher-order model that attempts to synthesize these two theories is proposed.     

New approaches to the ‘crucial’ test of the causation and selection hypotheses in a Northern Irish sample

This paper examines the relationship between minority/majority status and psychological adjustment, as measured by the GHQ‐12. Rather than using religious labels in Northern Ireland to define minority/majority status, the authors hypothesized that such status is more contingent upon the local area context. Using a purer operationalization of minority/majority status, the authors found no evidence of an ‘ethnic density effect’. Implications for the questionable validity of the ‘crucial test’ of the selection and causation hypotheses are discussed. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

AN INTEGRAL APPROACH TO SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION AND WASTE REDUCTION

This article aims to demonstrate how the Integral approach can be utilized to understand and potentially resolve a particular human-ecological issue. It arises out of a research project that involved examining the factors inhibiting sustainable consumption and waste reduction in the community of Calgary. The Integral approach aims to ensure that no fundamental dimensions of the problem are neglected. It beckons us to consider body, mind, and spirit in the personal, cultural, and social realms of reality.     

Multidimensional Family Therapy HIV/STD Risk-Reduction Intervention: An Integrative Family-Based Model for Drug-Involved Juvenile Offenders

Drug and juvenile justice involved youths show remarkably high rates of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/sexually transmitted disease (STD) risk behaviors. However, existing interventions aimed at reducing adolescent HIV risk behavior have rarely targeted these vulnerable young adolescents, and many approaches focus on individual-level change without attention to family or contextual influences. We describe a new, family-based HIV/STD prevention model that embeds HIV/STD focused multifamily groups within an adolescent drug abuse and delinquency evidence-based treatment, Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT). The approach has been evaluated in a multisite randomized clinical trial with juvenile justice involved youths in the National Institute on Drug Abuse Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment Studies ( http://www.cjdats.org ). Preliminary baseline to 6-month outcomes are promising. We describe research on family risk and protective factors for adolescent problem behaviors, and offer a rationale for family-based approaches to reduce HIV/STD risk in this population. We describe the development and implementation of the Multidimensional Family Therapy HIV/STD risk-reduction intervention (MDFT-HIV/STD) in terms of using multifamily groups and their integration in standard MDFT and also offers a clinical vignette. The potential significance of this empirically based intervention development work is high; MDFT-HIV/STD is the first model to address largely unmet HIV/STD prevention and sexual health needs of substance abusing juvenile offenders within the context of a family-oriented evidence-based intervention.     

Reflections on Parenting: A Multigenerational Perspective

This paper presents some of the underlying patterns of parenting that have emerged from six years of ethnographic field research into the role of the family in children's acquisition and use of reading and writing skills. The research has provided some insights into the many complex and interrelated ways that children's literate activities are mediated and affected by multigenerational family patterns and by their personal experience of everyday life both within and outside the family. Two central themes are discussed: the spirit of change, which breaks the patterns of the past and brings new interpretations into the present, and the spirit of conservation, which maintains the continuation of family patterns from one generation to the next. Also described are the important parental attitudes of social flexibility and resiliency that are frequently evident in these processes of conservation and change of multigenerational patterns. One specific family story provides the background for the theoretical issues that are explored.     

A clinical contribution to the etiology of lesbianism

Lesbianism may be viewed as an attempt to rectify malfunctioning in the original mother/daughter dyad. This paper discusses how failure of the girl child to establish female identification is preceded by failure to individuate, causing regression to an earlier symbiotic stage, resulting in feelings and desire for merging. It is this failure in development, regression to the symbiotic stage and wish to merge which may be a crucial component in the lesbian personality. The course of treatment of a young woman, who was not sure whether she was lesbian or not, is described with focus on her request for a hypnotic session, which was done by another therapist.     

DETECTING JOB DIFFERENCES: A MONTE CARLO STUDY1

A monte carlo computer study was conducted where the statistical power of the univariate repeated measures ANOVA design proposed by Arvey and Mossholder (1977) to detect job differences was investigated. Also investigated was the relative value and usefulness of omega-squared estimates to indicate job similarities and differences. Job profile means and covariance structures were generated by using data from six relatively similar jobs and six dissimilar jobs based on Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) data bank information. Different combinations of job differences (4 conditions), number of job raters (2 conditions), and violations of statistical assumptions (3 conditions) were generated (1000 sets for each of the 24 combinations) and each data set analyzed using the ANOVA design. Results indicate that testing for statistical significance is not as useful in determining job differences as examining the omega-squared estimates. Specifically, the omega-squared estimates for the interaction of the Jobs × Dimension effect is a relatively sensitive and stable indicator of job differences regardless of the number of raters and violations of the statistical assumptions.     

Language transfer and blocking in second language vocabulary learning

The influence of different vocabulary instructional techniques upon the acquisition of different language words was examined in two experiments. In Experiment 1, comparisons were made between the learning of Chinese and French words employing both paired-associate presentations and spacing procedures. The results supported the view that language transfer affects the acquisition of second language words, with more French words being learned than Chinese words. The superiority of the spacing procedure over the paired-associate presentation found in these results suggested that the spacing method diminished the adverse effects of blocking and thus enhanced learning. However, no significant interaction between the teaching procedures and different language words was detected. That is, under the spacing procedure, greater improvement in learning of Chinese words was not found. The experiment was thus modified by substituting the spacing procedure with aural feedback in Experiment 2. In this experiment, a significant interaction between these two factors was detected. That is, the recall for French was more than Chinese in the paired-associate condition, however, under the aural feedback, performance in Chinese was statistically equivalent to that in French. Hence, these findings may contradict the prediction of language transfer. It appears that the phenomenon of language transfer may be far less important in vocabulary learning than the use of a method of instruction which neutralises the negative effects of blocking.     

The effect of aural feedback in second language vocabulary learning

We examined instructional procedures in the teaching of second language vocabulary, using a paired-associate paradigm. Four presentation methods were investigated, including simultaneous standard, simultaneous reversal, aural feedback, and visual feedback. The study involved 16 grade 7 school children as subjects. Subjects were tested on 28 second language words during the post-test stage. Orthogonal comparisons were carried out for the obtained data. The two feedback conditions proved to be the most beneficial and the more favourable out of these was the aural feedback condition. Also, reversing the two inputs proved to be better than the conventional paired-associate (e.g. presenting the second language word first with the first language word second). Based on the results of this study, it is advocated that the feedback procedures, in particular, be used in second language learning with aural feedback replacing visual feedback.