ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

This paper describes the family dynamics of the identified patient with manic-depressive illness. Method included chart review of 53 families in which the identified patient had bipolar, manic-depressive illness; of these 57, 43 were married. Of these 43, eight participated in two, sequential, post-hospital, psychotherapy groups. Clinical observations noted were: (a) the threat of recurring mania, (b) hostility between spouses, (c) massive denial, (d) symbiosis and dependency, (e) weak or absent father. Therapy implications were discussed.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

This theoretical essay offers a critique of individual psychotherapy versus the advantages of family therapy. Theories of family pathology, models, techniques, and indications, are reviewed and the relationship of family therapy to behavior therapy, multiple-impact therapy, home visits, crisis therapy, network therapy, and multiple-family group therapy are discussed.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

Fifteen are described and compared, training programs for family therapists, using a scale published by the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry that identifies the theoretical spectrum of each of the centers. Results indicate that the centers vary from experiential to structural (with a few in the middle that combine both orientations). It was concluded that training programs as they now exist suffer from the absence of an adequate diagnostic nomenclature for family therapy and from an insufficiently designed conceptual framework.     

A family therapist in the People's Republic of China

The author, a psychiatrist, recently visited the People's Republic of China, and reports some impressions about the status of the Chinese family, Chinese psychiatry, and the current use of the family model.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

A discussion of family therapy emphasizing the indications for and the goals of this type of treatment. Differences between family and group therapy are presented with the suggestion that group treatments exists for individual improvement and growth and family treatment for improvement of relationships and growth of the family unit.     

Ambivalent Sexism and Attitudes Toward Wife Abuse in Turkey and Brazil

Men and women in Turkey and Brazil completed the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (Glick & Fiske, 1996) and measures of attitudes about wife abuse. In both nations hostile sexism (HS) and benevolent sexism (BS) positively correlated with attitudes that legitimize abuse. Regression analyses revealed that HS accounted for unique variance, but BS (once HS was controlled) was unrelated to wife abuse attitudes. These results: (a) add to the evidence for the cross–cultural validity of ambivalent sexism, (b) suggest that HS supports the justification of violence against wives, and (c) imply that the ostensible protectiveness of BS is contingent, failing to shield women from abuse if they are deemed to have challenged a husband's authority or violated conventional gender roles.     

Hostile and benevolent reactions toward pregnant women: complementary interpersonal punishments and rewards that maintain traditional roles

A naturalistic field study investigated behavior toward pregnant (vs. nonpregnant) women in nontraditional (job applicant) and traditional (store customer) roles. Female confederates, who sometimes wore a pregnancy prosthesis, posed as job applicants or customers at retail stores. Store employees exhibited more hostile behavior (e.g., rudeness) toward pregnant (vs. nonpregnant) applicants and more benevolent behavior (e.g., touching, overfriendliness) toward pregnant (vs. nonpregnant) customers. A second experiment revealed that pregnant women are especially likely to encounter hostility (from both men and women) when applying for masculine as compared with feminine jobs. The combination of benevolence toward pregnant women in traditional roles and hostility toward those who seek nontraditional roles suggests a system of complementary interpersonal rewards and punishments that may discourage pregnant women from pursuing work that violates gender norms.     

Universal dimensions of social cognition: warmth and competence

Like all perception, social perception reflects evolutionary pressures. In encounters with conspecifics, social animals must determine, immediately, whether the "other" is friend or foe (i.e. intends good or ill) and, then, whether the "other" has the ability to enact those intentions. New data confirm these two universal dimensions of social cognition: warmth and competence. Promoting survival, these dimensions provide fundamental social structural answers about competition and status. People perceived as warm and competent elicit uniformly positive emotions and behavior, whereas those perceived as lacking warmth and competence elicit uniform negativity. People classified as high on one dimension and low on the other elicit predictable, ambivalent affective and behavioral reactions. These universal dimensions explain both interpersonal and intergroup social cognition.