TEARS AND WEEPING AMONG PROFESSIONAL WOMEN: IN SEARCH OF NEW UNDERSTANDING

Crying among adult professional women is a phenomenon experienced far more often than it is studied or publicly discussed. Guided by Sherifs (1982) theoretical work on gender identity, socialization, reference groups, and power, the authors explore several factors central to the topic. Among them are: the origins of conflict between women's experience of emotional expression and "public" tears; gender-related differences in crying and responses to crying; the role of reference groups in conflicting attitudes toward crying; and power in the workplace as influencing the meaning of crying. The role of images and imagery during times of conflicted and heightened emotion is discussed. It is suggested that most imagery related to crying in adults derives from perceptions of crying in infancy and that most responses to adults who cry are linked to an understanding of appropriate responses to a crying infant or child. Lewin's construct of behavior as a person-environment transaction is employed as a means of exploring the images experienced by the crier and the observer when female crying occurs in a professional situation. New images to guide more productive approaches to emotional expression in the workplace are suggested.     

PSYCHOLOGY RECONSTRUCTS THE FEMALE 1968–1988

Recent work on the psychology of gender is pluralistic, stemming from varied specialty areas within psychology, grounded in several intellectual frameworks, and reflecting a spectrum of feminist perspectives. This article is a critical appraisal of diverse approaches to the study of women and gender. It first describes prefeminist or "womanless" psychology, then analyzes four co-existing frameworks that have generated recent research. The four frameworks are: Exceptional Women , in which empirical research focuses on the correlates of high achievement for women, and women's history in the discipline is re-evaluated; Women as Problem (or Anomaly ), in which research emphasizes explanations for female "deficiencies" (e.g., fear of success); the Psychology of Gender , in which the focus of inquiry shifts from women to gender, conceived as a principle of social organization that structures relations between women and men; and a (currently relatively undeveloped) Transformation framework that reflexively challenges the values, assumptions, and normative practices of the discipline. Examples of research programs within each approach are described, and the strengths and limitations of each approach are critically examined.     

PERSONALITY CORRELATES OF AGE AND LIFE ROLES IN ADULT WOMEN

The association between age/family stage, career role, and personality traits was studied using a multivariate statistical approach. Young adult, midlife, and older women from four role groups—homemaker, married career, single career, and student—were compared on a number of personality measures including achievement motivation, affiliation, autonomy, cultural sex role characteristics, self esteem, and adjustment. While some of the expected group differences did not appear, some significant age and role differences were found. Older women showed less achievement motivation and had a greater need for affiliation than young adult and midlife women. Career women had a more internalized locus of control than homemakers and students. When age and role were considered together, the age-role groups were differentiated on autonomy, femininity, and adjustment. There were no differences between either age or role groups on measures of self-esteem, well-being, socialization, or other personality variables.     

Response to Intervention for Middle School Students With Reading Difficulties: Effects of a Primary and Secondary Intervention

This study examined the effectiveness of a yearlong, researcher-provided, Tier 2 (secondary) intervention with a group of sixth-graders. The intervention emphasized word recognition, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension, Participants scored below a proficiency level on their slate accountability test and were compared to a similar group of struggling readers receiving school-provided instruction. All students received the benefits of content area teachers who participated in researcher-provided professional development designed to integrate vocabulary and comprehension practices throughout the school day (Tier 1). Students who participated in the Tier 2 intervention showed gains on measures of decoding, fluency, and comprehension, but differences relative to students in the comparison group were small (median d = +0.16). Students who received the re searcher-provided intervention scored significantly higher than students who received comparison intervention on measures of word attack, spelling, the state accountability measure, passage comprehension, and phonemic decoding efficiency, although most often in particular subgroups.