Positive and Negative Timelines: A Technique for Restorying

Families or individuals requesting therapeutic consultation often present in the context of an overwhelming history of stressful and negative life events. Frequently, the pressure of such events obliterates memories of strengths and successes. This is particularly true by the time people reach inpatient psychiatric settings. This article outlines a technique designed to help people bring these events into perspective and to develop positive life stories. The use of Positive and Negative Timelines helps to reinforce competency-based themes in people's lives. A clinical case is used to highlight the technique.     

The Unencumbered Child: Family Reputations and Responsibilities in the Care of Relatives with Alzheimer's Disease

Using a grounded theory methodology in exploratory interviews with noncaregiving and caregiving adult children, differences were found in their experience of burden, their focus, their suffering, and their sense of responsibility. Childhood reputations appeared to follow siblings into adulthood, and they describe finding their adult positions in the family clearly circumscribed and entrenched because of family legacy. Children who were in some way different and excused from family responsibilities in childhood because they were, for example, “spoiled,” a “problem child,” the “intellectual,” or “flaky,” appeared to be unencumbered as adults when faced with caregiving responsibilities for a relative with Alzheimer's disease. Although these uninvolved and unencumbered children seemed to take less caregiving responsibility, they describe their loss and suffering in relation to a loss of identity and selfhood, whereas other children describe their burden and the overwhelming pulls and demands made on them. These preliminary findings suggest the need for systematic scientific inquiry about families, including multiple relatives, family history, impact of family-of-origin legacy, family reputations, and family negotiation patterns.     

PERSONALITY, INTEGRITY, AND WHITE COLLAR CRIME: A CONSTRUCT VALIDITY STUDY

This study examined the construct validity of personality scales, a personality-based integrity test, and homogenous biodata scales as reflected in their ability to discriminate white collar criminals from other white collar employees. The sample included 365 prison inmates incarcerated in 23 federal correctional institutions for white collar offenses, and 344 individuals employed in upper-level positions of authority. A cross-validated linear discriminant function ( DF ) based on 16 variables selected in the developmental sample produced a large difference (1.83 standard deviation units) between the two sample groups. The pattern of score differences revealed the offenders as having greater tendencies toward irresponsibility, lack of dependability, and disregard of rules and social norms. This study indicates that there are large and measurable psychological differences between white collar offenders and nonoffenders, and that the major construct underlying these differences is "social conscientiousness." The best measure of this difference was a personality-based integrity test.     

Assessing relationship quality across cultures: An examination of measurement equivalence

Researchers are increasingly studying close relationships across cultural contexts. One issue that arises when applying scales originally developed in Western countries to a different cultural context is measurement invariance. Researchers often do not examine whether scales show invariance across cultures and thus can be used with confidence. The goal of this article is to discuss the importance of measurement invariance, to discuss what testing invariance involves, and to test the measurement properties of scales of relationship satisfaction, commitment, intimacy, and trust across 4 samples (United States, Canada, Indonesia, and China). Analyses indicated that weak measurement invariance was met for all 4 scales, and assumptions of strong measurement invariance had to be relaxed for only a few items in each scale. Findings are discussed and recommendations are made regarding using these or other scales that have been shown to meet assumptions of invariance across different cultural groups.