Assessing the Development of Relationships: A New Measure

This paper describes the development and application of a procedure (The Relationship World Index) to measure the development of intimate relationships. Grounded in symbolic interaction theory, the Relationship World Index is a measure of agreement on important aspects of relationships between members of intimate dyads. The development of the measure was guided by assumptions inherent in symbolic interactionism that predict the emergence of a shared construction of reality that bonds relationship members. Research results are presented providing evidence for the reliability and validity of the measure.     

REINFORCEMENT OF DISTRESS VOCALIZATION BY PRESENTATION OF AN IMPRINTED STIMULUS

For one group of ducklings distress calls were reinforced using brief presentation of an imprinted stimulus as the response contingent (reinforcing) event. For a second group of ducklings presentation of an imprinted stimulus was contingent upon a more traditional operant (the pecking response). Regardless of which response was being reinforced, the same pattern ensued. Bursts of responding were separated by periods of little or no responding. When subsequently subjected to repeated presentation and withdrawal of the imprinted stimulus under conditions in which neither response was being reinforced, ducklings with a history of reinforcement for distress calls emitted many more calls than ducklings with a history of reinforcement for pole pecks.     

Some Sociopsychological Characteristics of Student Political Activists

A variety of hypotheses regarding the motives, values, attitudes, intelligence, and sociological backgrounds of leftist student activists were tested by comparing Yale undergraduate signers of a pledge to resist induction into the Armed Services, with a representative sample of nonsigners. Contrary to previous findings, the signers neither were better students nor more sociologically privileged than their nonsigning peers. The decision to sign the pledge appeared to be a single manifestation of an anti-institutional, yet nonfatalistic and nonauthoritarian life style which is highlighted by a marked concern with developing helpful, protective, intimate relationships and a devaluation of achievement, deference to authority, and self-restraint. The implications of these and other findings for the student protest movement are discussed.     

On the Problems of Eclecticism: A Call for Epistemologic Clarification and Human-Scale Theories

This paper addresses several contemporary theoretical issues in the family therapy field: clinicians' and students' selection of a theoretical orientation in light of the political struggles of competing schools of thought; problems of eclecticism for the practicing family therapist; the role of theory in clinical practice; and size and scope issues in theory-building. Finally, the paper suggests a periodic activity, termed an Epistemologic Declaration, designed to help therapists clarify and refine their basic therapeutic beliefs.     

Family of Origin and Current Relationship Influences on Codependency

This study investigated codependency in Caucasian individuals within the framework of Bowen's Family Systems Theory. The sample consisted of a group of couples, in which one member of the couple was a recovering alcoholic in an aftercare program, and a group of matched, comparison couples. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire, the Friel Co-dependency Assessment Inventory, and the Personal Authority in the Family System (PAFS) Questionnaire. The findings confirmed that codependency levels were higher in clinical than in comparison couples. Moreover, within the clinical group, there was little difference between alcoholics and their spouses with respect to dysfunction in their families of origin, current families, or their codependency levels. The findings further suggested that the etiology and function of codependency are different in clinical and nonclinical families. In the clinical sample, the family of origin and current relationship characteristics were related to codependency in patterns consistent with previous theory and research. For the nonclinical sample, however, the findings contradicted conventional codependency theory. The findings suggest that, in contrast to clinical populations, codependency in nonclinical populations has some links with favorable characteristics of family functioning.     

The Slovak-American “Swaddling Ethos”: Homeostat for Family Dynamics and Cultural Continuity

This paper explores the systemic relationships among cultural ethos, family dynamics, personality configuration, and child-rearing patterns among multi-generation Slovak-Americans. The “swaddling ethos” is posited to serve as a homeostat whose regulatory function can be discerned through the analysis of family structure and process, in particular through the explication of values, affective patterns, roles, boundaries, and structural units within the family. The core of the ethos is a dependency-security complex that attaches the individual to an extended family network of obligation, indebtedness, and reciprocity (ethnic, Slovak); induces rebellion against such attachment (mainstream, American); and undermines efforts toward separation-individuation, resulting in the perpetuation of an ethnic tradition.     

The California Family Health Project: VII. Summary and Integration of Findings

In a series of reports, we have observed the relationships between four domains of family life (World View, Emotion Management, Structure/Organization, Problem Solving), and the health of husbands and wives in a community-based sample of 225 families. In this final article of the series, we provide an overview and summary of the results, by gender, including the structure and patterning of variables both within each family domain and among all four family domains analyzed together. In addition, we review the associations between each family domain and adult health (unidomain analyses), and among all four family domains taken together and adult health (multidomain analyses). Prominent differences in family and health relationships based on gender are described from the perspective of socially and culturally supported sex-role expectations and behavior. The results support the use of a multidimensional family assessment framework in health research that can lead to the further development of empirically based models of family process.     

Steps Toward a Science of Free Will

A conceptual confusion might lie at the heart of the free will-determinism controversy. Reconceptualizing the issue by positing two independent bipolar dimensions (determinism versus nondeterminism and self-determination versus nonagentic mechanism), instead of the single free will versus determinism dimension, seems to create the conceptual space for belief in both free will and determinism. A number of recent agentic theories of human action, and a growing body of research with humans, suggest the joint action of agentic self-determination and nonagentic causation in the genesis of human behavior. Implications for counselors are offered.