Language and problem solving ability: A comparison between deaf and hearing adolescents

Two groups of subjects, one deaf and one hearing, were tested in pairs on problem solving tasks. The poorer performance of the deaf observed in other studies has been explained as due to difference in language ability between the two groups. This finding was not replicated in the present study where use of language was required to solve tasks of different complexity. It is suggested that sign language may be as effective a tool for problem solving as spoken language. The postulated supremacy of spoken language to other forms of communication with regard to logical and symbolic functioning is thus questioned.     

Creating closeness: Discerning and measuring strategies for fostering closer relationships

This project examined the strategies people use to create closeness in personal relationships and developed a measure of closeness that can be coupled with a measure of distance to provide a measure of affiliation (degree of closeness and distance in a relationship) that incorporates both closeness and distance. Study 1 used a factor analysis of tactics people can utilize to create closeness and found three underlying strategies: openness, attention, and involvement. Studies 2 and 3 tested the items for psychometric adequacy as an index of closeness, using both student and nonstudent samples. The items performed satisfactorily. Together, these studies clarify the strategies people use to enhance closeness in relationships, and they offer a useful measure of affiliation.     

Attachment insecurity and inducing guilt to produce desired change in romantic partners

Three studies examined the links between attachment insecurity and the use and effectiveness of inducing guilt to produce change in romantic partners (negative‐indirect partner regulation strategies). Individuals higher in attachment anxiety engaged in more negative‐indirect partner regulation strategies (Studies 1–3), but the effectiveness of negative‐indirect strategies depended on targeted partners' attachment avoidance. Targets higher in attachment avoidance reported regulation agents were less successful (Study 1) and reported less motivation to change across time (Study 2) when agents used more negative‐indirect regulation strategies. Negative‐indirect strategies during couples' conflict discussions were also associated with lower problem resolution when targets were higher in avoidance (Study 3). These results provide the first demonstration that target characteristics moderate the effectiveness of negative‐indirect regulation strategies.     

I.C.E. World Information,Consciousness, Energy

There is underway a worldwide shift in society from an industrial‐based to an information‐based metaindustrial way of living and working. This will require innovative organization and management. Three factors are described as propellers of this industrial transformation: technological innovations, technology transfer, and global marketplace. Trends in post‐industrial organizations are mapped out, and a profile of metaindustrial organization culture is created.?     

Some Historical Conditions of Narrative Work

Written to honor the immense contribution of Michael White as a leader in the development of narrative therapy, this historical essay contrasts the origins of psychoanalysis, family therapy and narrative therapy. Changes in the understanding of therapeutic strategies, methods of training and supervision, styles of leadership, the involvement of audiences in the therapeutic and training processes, and conceptions of the nature of the mind are described. A style of direct demonstration of methods, especially of the formulation of questions, is important in narrative work. The central master-role of the therapist in analysis and family therapy is replaced in narrative work by eliciting local knowledge, and the recruitment of audiences to the work. This is consistent with narrative therapy's "de-centered" image of the therapist.     

The Misuse and Use of Science in Family Therapy

The wish to adopt ideas and metaphors from science can have a constricting effect on thinking about family therapy theory and practice. We describe three examples from the recent literature. The two problems describe: (a) borrowing the prestige and certainty of scientific ideas and metaphors and using them as cultural representations of reality, and (b) embracing certain philosophically comprehensive systems of thought. We then recommend some appropriate borrowing from the natural history tradition of science, and give some examples of ways in which that tradition has widened rather than narrowed the range of ideas that are used in family therapy.     

Attributional self presentation for actors and observers in success and failure situations

Attributions are an important part of self-presentation strategies. In order to favorably control their interpersonal environment, people are motivated to seek social approval in their self-presentations. Social norms determine which types of attributional self-presentations will result in social approval and which will not. A regression analysis was performed which showed that actor-observer conditions interact with success-failure conditions to produce different attributional patterns depending on the particular combination of at-tributor perspective and task outcome. These results are interpreted to mean that different attributional norms exist for actors and observers in success and failure situations. It is concluded that a normative self-presentational approach to attributions which includes both motivational and cognitive factor can help to explain inconsistent findings in the relevant research literature.