Affective Synchrony in Dual‐ and Single‐Smoker Couples: Further Evidence of “Symptom‐System Fit”?

Couples in which one or both partners smoked despite one of them having a heart or lung problem discussed a health-related disagreement before and during a period of laboratory smoking. Immediately afterwards, the partners in these 25 couples used independent joysticks to recall their continuous emotional experience during the interaction while watching themselves on video. A couple-level index of affective synchrony, reflecting correlated moment-to-moment change in the two partners' joystick ratings, tended to increase from baseline to smoking for 9 dual-smoker couples but decrease for 16 single-smoker couples. Results suggest that coregulation of shared emotional experience could be a factor in smoking persistence, particularly when both partners in a couple smoke. Relationship-focused interventions addressing this fit between symptom and system may help smokers achieve stable cessation.     

ON THE PURPOSES AND ENDS OF NATURAL RHETORIC

Despite traditional viewpoints that see rhetoric as nothing more than a techné or bios , rhetoric may be viewed as being capable of instantiating basic human goods. This paper proposes that rhetoric motivates our capacities for action and brings the processes involved in action – including the bearing of practical reason on them – into accord with virtue, enabling us to exercise practical wisdom in and through prudential judgments so that when these judgments have a direct bearing on others we may say that they are just.     

Global Assessment of Relational Functioning Scale (GARF): II. Reliability and Validity in a Sample of Families of Bipolar Patients

The companion article by the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP) Committee on the Family (see p. 155, this issue) describes the development of the Global Assessment of Relational Functioning (GARF) scale. The present study evaluated the reliability and concurrent validity of a manualized version of the GARF in recently episodic bipolar patients (N = 73 ) participating with family members in laboratory interaction tasks. The GARF was applied with high reliability by raters with little clinical experience. GARF ratings discriminated between families rated high and low in expressed emotion, with families rated as high in emotional overinvolvement showing the lowest relational functioning scores. GARF scores also correlated with affective negativity scores derived from the interactional task-based affective style and coping style coding systems. However, relational ratings were independent of levels of concurrent symptoms or illness chronicity among individual patients. GARF ratings may inform the treatment plans for patients with psychiatric disorders, but the optimal methods of data collection and rater training must be determined.     

SEX DIFFERENCES IN OCCUPATIONAL CHOICE, PAY, AND WORTH: A SUPPLY-SIDE APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING THE MALE-FEMALE WAGE GAP

The purpose of this study was to explore the utility of adopting a supply-side approach to understanding the nature of wage differentials between men and women. Using an expectancy theory framework, a sample of 272 job applicants evaluated a set of job outcomes and rated the instrumentalities and expectancies for each of eight jobs that varied in terms of sex dominance, pay, and worth. Preferences for each job also were obtained using a paired comparison procedure. The results suggested that much of the wage gap between men and women can be explained by (1) evaluations of multiple outcomes other than pay and (2) gender-related differences in expectancies, instrumentalities, and valences with respect to these outcomes. Both the theoretical and practical utility of approaching the issue of comparable worth from a supply as well as a demand side are discussed.     

“I'd Rather Be Dead Than Gay”: Counseling Gay Men Who Are Coming Out

Until recently, most articles about gay men have focused on etiology or cure. This article focuses on the initial phase of counseling male clients who have a negative gay identity and want help accepting their homosexuality. The article includes some basic concepts in gestalt therapy and how they can be applied when working with men who are acknowledging their homosexuality. It also includes tools and guidelines for therapists who want to work effectively with gay men desiring a positive gay identity.     

Religious Attributions of Responsibility: A Review of Empirical Literature and Development of an Instrument

A critical review of the religious attribution literature is presented. Two overriding critiques are that the field lacks adequate instruments to measure religious attributions, and that attributions related to problem cause are confused with attributions about problem solution. Consequently, an instrument was developed to measure religious attributions of responsibility for problem cause and solution. An exploratory, principal-axis factor analysis conducted on data generated by 457 university students revealed the theorized factors of cause and solution. High internal consistency and test—retest reliability were obtained. A subsequent confirmatory factor analysis on a separate sample of 179 students provided evidence of construct validity for the instrument. Research questions are presented that would advance current understanding of religious attributions, and limitations of the instrument are noted.     

Negative Life Events, Patterns of Positive and Negative Religious Coping, and Psychological Functioning

Religious coping may or may not be adaptive depending upon whether such coping is positive or negative. We investigated the potential moderating effects of positive and negative religious coping patterns on the relationship between negative life events and psychological functioning. Questionnaires included measures of negative life events, positive and negative religious coping, and psychological functioning, and were completed by 336 adult, Protestant church members. Even after controlling for religious participation, negative events were related to increased use of positive and negative religious coping and decreased psychological functioning. Moreover, negative events and positive religious coping produced an interaction effect on depression, such that the high use of positive religious coping buffered the deleterious effects of negative events.     

Till death do us part: Terror management and forgiveness in close relationships

Two experiments extended terror management theory to investigate forgiveness in close relationships. We hypothesized that mortality salience would elicit less forgiveness in less committed relationships. In Experiment 1, participants were primed with either mortality salience or a physical pain control condition, recalled a recent hurtful interpersonal offense, and reported their degree of forgiveness. Mortality salience evoked less forgiveness in less committed relationships. In Experiment 2, participants were assigned to recall an offense that occurred in a low‐commitment or high‐commitment relationship. Again, mortality salience elicited less forgiveness in less committed relationships; it elicited more forgiveness in more committed relationships. Moreover, this interaction was mediated by empathy. Existential considerations may play an important role in the functioning of close relationships.