AFFECTION AND RECIPROCITY IN SELF-DISCLOSING COMMUNICATION

Affection for and reciprocated disclosure by the other are generally thought to increase a person's willingness to engage in self-disclosing communication. The relationship between affection and disclosure is not consistently supported by the data, however, and the relationship between reciprocity and disclosure may well be an artifact of a confounded conceptualization of dyadic relations. Wright's model of same-sex friendships is proposed as more adequate than simple affection as a conceptualization of interpersonal relationships, and an adapted form of Chaffee and McLeod's coorientational paradigm is employed as a model of reciprocated disclosure. The hypotheses that affection accounts for less variance in disclosure than other criteria of friendship and that disclosure varies as a function of perceived rather than actual similarity were strongly supported. Although male and female subjects disclosed differently, hypotheses about sex differences in disclosure were not supported, failing to replicate previous findings. The implications of these data for further studies of self-disclosing communication are discussed.     

Power as the Achievement of Ends: A Problematic Approach in Family and Small Group Research

Most conceptions of power refer to the relative ability of persons to achieve individual ends in interpersonal contexts in which their ends conflict. Within groups, such as the family, which are characterized by functionally disuse and ongoing relations, there are serious methodological problems with determining actors' ends. This has led to the use of a variety of substitute procedures that allow one to talk of power without assessing the particular ends of specific persons. This paper critically examines these substitute procedures and suggests their inadequacy for the study of families and similar small groups. It is suggested that an alternative to power must be found in order to proceed with the work for which that concept has been used. The sketch of one alternative is presented and its implications discussed.     

Behavior Modification in Marital Conflict: A Case Report

The ability of marital partners to directly change an unhappy marriage to a happy one may be a function of each individual's conscious awareness of the topography, frequency, and other parameters of his own behavior, as well as his awareness of the consequences these behaviors have on his spouse. This paper reports an attempt to combine the use of relevant behavioral awareness and a token economy to rehabilitate a marriage in crisis. An initial two-month follow-up indicated, both from the data and the couples' subjective report, that the relationship was now much more reinforcing and both partners were satisfied with the marriage.     

Aspects of Communication in Families with Young Children

The subjects for this study were 16, non-pathological, four-person families, each with a child three or four years old and a child six or seven. Half the children were male and half female. The interactions studied involved both parents with one child and then with the other. The content of each remark was studied through a system of language-usage categories. This analysis indicated that older children sent and received a wider variety of messages than younger children did. Also, female children received a higher ratio of positive feedback to negative feedback from parents than males did. Who talks to whom, and who talks the most were also studied. These measures showed the formation of strong same-sex coalitions between parent and child. A number of the findings support a general systems interpretation of family interaction.     

Using communication exercises in groups

The group leader who uses communication exercises without an adequate rationale may be taking unnecessary risks and jeopardizing the effectiveness of the group. This article presents a rationale for using communication exercises in groups for the purposes of initiation, facilitation, and termination and describes the means by which they are introduced into the group.     

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EXPECTANCIES AND JOB BEHAVIOR FOR WHITE AND BLACK EMPLOYEES

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between effort-reward expectancy (Porter and Lawler, 1968) and job behavior for white and black employees. It was found, first, that the blacks in this study tended to see a greater connection between hard work and rewards than did the whites. However, the ethnic groups did not differ in the rated importance they attributed to these rewards. It was also found that the relationship between expectancy and work motivation criteria was generally low for both samples. The interpretation of expectancy-criterion correlations as possible indicators of importance was explored.     

School counselors,leave home

This article discusses the dilemma of the “noncounseling counselor,” and suggests that the counselor be relocated at an organizational base external to the school since there are factors inherent in many school systems which influence the counselor to compromise his counseling objectives. Removed from the school, the counselor might operate more effectively as an agent of a more comprehensive community organization such as a human development center.