Costs and satisfaction in close relationships: The role of loss–gain framing

Two studies were conducted to clarify the pattern of mixed results found in past research regarding the association between costs and satisfaction in close relationships. Insights from Prospect Theory (D. Kahneman & A. Tversky, 1979, 2000) suggested the importance of gain–loss framing in understanding costs. When costs are attached to valued outcomes, they are perceived as gains or investments; otherwise they are perceived as losses. Appreciation by one's partner for communal behaviors and family chores provided the basis for exploring costs as gains versus losses. We hypothesized that when costs were appreciated, the greater the costs, the greater the relationship satisfaction; whereas when they were not appreciated, the greater the costs, the lower the relationship satisfaction. Further, we expected appreciation to be associated with perceived motives for incurring the costs: positively with “want” perceptions and negatively with “should” perceptions. These hypotheses were supported in research with both dating couples and women in long‐term marital or cohabiting relationships and using two types of communal behaviors: Partner Favors and more tedious Family Chores. In general, the greater the number of communal behaviors and family chores, the greater the relationship satisfaction when appreciated; the greater the number, the lower the satisfaction when relatively unappreciated.     

Comments on Terkelsen's “Schizophrenia and the Family: II. Adverse Effects of Family Therapy”

These comments supplement Kenneth Terkelsen's paper by expanding on the ethical and moral issues faced by families of the chronically mentally ill in the current era of deinstitutionalization.     

Detection of errors in statistical problem solving

Ten subjects were asked to think aloud while solving two statistical problems. The subjects were instructed after each substep of his/her problem solving, to check in various ways the solution of the previous substep. The subjects detected 25 out of a total of 56 errors when they solved the problems. About half of the detected errors were computational errors. Nine errors were eliminated in response to the checking instructions. The think aloud data indicated that subjects' most common way of detecting their own errors was by noting that computations resulted in extreme values. Subjects also detected errors by (a) "spontaneous discovery"; (b) discontent with other aspects of a solution than the numerical value of the answer; (c) repeating a solution. The last mentioned type of error detection only occurred when subjects responded to the checking instructions. Finally it was found that subjects had a strong tendency to respond to the checking instructions either in a routinized or in a non-elaborated way. It was discussed how the formulation of checking instructions can be improved in order to avoid this effect.     

Adult Education and Counseling: An Emerging Synthesis

Adult education and counseling are needed facilitative and helping functions for a nation growing older. The current challenge seems to be to make counseling and educational services more widely available to people of all ages. Fulfilling adult needs and helping them adjust to new life circumstances will stretch the counseling system far beyond its traditional settings in schools and public service agencies. Present trends highlight the need for accessible, even convenient, resources for stimulating lifelong learning, adjustment to change, and personal development. In fact, the need structure of most adults seems to be weighted far more heavily in the direction of developmental counseling and learning more effective ways to fulfill their needs. Opportunities for adult education, career planning and assessment, and counseling services head the list of needed resources.     

Perception: The interface between cognition and the external world

In contrast to researchers who emphasize the distinction between perception and cognition it is claimed that the perceptual system is closely intertwined with cognition and with our comprehension of the external world. This claim is supported by evidence for two characteristic features of human information processing. One of these features is the use of mental models. If mental models are assumed to be anchored in the perceptual system it will not be necessary to assume a "little man in the head" who reads off the model. Moreover, perceptually based mental models will provide a referential semantics by anchoring mentally represented concepts in the external world. The other feature is the use of perceptually based perspectives in cognition, such as actor or observer perspectives in social cognition. It is concluded that human beings consistently interact within the real world--also when they are just thinking--and that this becomes possible via perceptual processes.     

Is constructional apraxia primarily an interhemispheric disconnection syndrome?

Abstract.— An attempt is made to show that the errors traditionally associated with the constructional activity of patients with left- or right-sided cerebral lesions correspond closely to the faults observed in drawings by the left and right hand of split-brain patients. Based on this evidence, it is discussed whether unilateral lesions may cause callosal disconnection to such an extent that constructional apraxia will appear. Finally, some major objections to the hypothesis that constructional apraxia is an interhemispheric disconnection syndrome are evaluated.