The Experience of Underemployment

The authors conducted an exploratory study of male college graduates who experienced underemployment to discover significant events occurring during this experience and the feelings attached to those events.     

Relabeling and Reframing Reconsidered: The Beneficial Effects of a Pathological Label

Traditional labeling theory usually contends that pathological labels contribute to pathology and benign labels help alleviate it. However, it is likely that the role of pathological labels as the cause of pathology has been overstated and over-generalized. Family therapists have probably overused the practice of substituting a benign label for a pathological label—relabeling. In fact, there are many families in which a pathological label applied to one family member may have beneficial impact on the family system, including that member. Five such cases are presented, and labeling theory is reviewed. Definitions of the terms reframing and relabeling are suggested, and the differing implications of diagnosis and labeling theory are discussed.     

CONCEPTUAL INTEGRATION AND EMPIRICAL TEST OF JOB DESIGN AND COMPENSATION RELATIONSHIPS

A conceptual integration of job design and compensation draws on interdisciplinary job design, job evaluation, and labor economic theory. It is argued that job design influences the number and level of skills required and the degree to which jobs are physically aversive or hazardous. External labor markets also respond to skill and physical requirements. Job evaluation links job design and market forces by analyzing jobs'compensable factors that reflect these requirements, and then relating them to the market through wage surveys across firms. An empirical examination presents relationships between job design and pay or job evaluation measures. Strongly supportive results replicate in two separate samples (total n = 213 jobs) which differ in industries, job types, skill levels, job design measures, job evaluation measures, and labor markets. Motivational job design had higher job evaluation measures reflecting higher skill requirements, and mechanistic and perceptual/motor design had lower evaluation measures reflecting lower skill requirements. Biological design had lower evaluation measures reflecting physical requirements.     

PERCEPTIONS OF INFORMATION SEQUENCING IN RELATIONSHIP DEVELOPMENT1

Randomly selected adult residents (N = 204) of a Chicago suburb sorted 150 statements along a time continuum according to their estimate of when each statement would first be made during a two-hour conversation between two strangers. Analyses were conducted on the items employing the following variables: self-esteem, birth order, number of close friends, economic status, desired number of friends, age, sex, and education. Only the latter four variables produced significant differences.     

SCHIZOPHRENIA AS DIALOGUE AT THE ENDS OF ITS TETHER: THE RELATIONSHIP OF DISRUPTIONS IN IDENTITY WITH POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE SYMPTOMS

Changes to definitions and theories of psychopathology result less from scientific advances and more from changes in social and cultural values. Herein, the historical and contemporary diversity in definitions and theories of anorexia nervosa is used to illustrate this point. First, we offer a discussion of diachronic diversity (diversity over time) and synchronic diversity (diversity at a given point in time) in conceptions and theories of psychopathology in general. Second, we elaborate a social constructionist perspective on psychopathology in general. Third, to illustrate this perspective, we provide a diachronic and synchronic analysis of definitions and theories of anorexia nervosa. Fourth, we discuss the implications of this analysis for clinical practice. We conclude that whatever view eventually prevails will depend not on which one is better at rooting out some hidden truth about anorexia nervosa but, rather, on which one is viewed as more compatible with evolving social and cultural standards, views, and norms regarding health and illness in general and self-starvation in particular.     

Marital Problems Occurring in Midlife: Implications for Couples Therapists

The ability of therapists to adequately address the presenting problems of couples impacts the process and outcome of therapy. Although research has examined the types of problems that couples commonly experience, little is known about problems among midlife couples. Midlife marital problems were examined using data from a national random sample of 632 married people between the ages of 40 and 50. The results indicated that the most common problems were financial matters, ways of dealing with children, and sexual issues. Values, commitment, spiritual matters, and violence were the least common problem areas. There were few differences when gender, remarriage, and length of marriage were considered.