Job seeking, reemployment, and mental health: a randomized field experiment in coping with job loss

Cognitive theories of adherence to difficult courses of action and findings from previous survey research on coping with a major life event--job loss--were used to generate a preventive intervention, tested by a randomized field experiment. The aim was to prevent poor mental health and loss of motivation to seek reemployment among those who continued to be unemployed and to promote high-quality reemployment. Ss were 928 recently unemployed adults from southeastern Michigan, representing a broad range of demographic characteristics; they were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control condition. The experimental intervention included training in job seeking with a problem-solving process emphasizing inoculation against setbacks and positive social reinforcement. A pretest was administered, followed by posttests 1 and 4 months after the experiment. The experimental condition yielded higher quality reemployment in terms of earnings and job satisfaction, and higher motivation among those who continued to be unemployed.     

Word frequency and children's stuttering: The relationship to sentence structure

This study investigated the relationship between word-frequency level and stuttering within the context of four slected sentence types. Fifteen stuttering children, aged 8–12, read 48 sentences of four different transformational types, and three word-frequency levels 12 simple active-affirmative-declarative (SAAD), 12 negative, 12 passive and 12 negative-passive. All sentences were identical in terms of underlying swings and variations of the SAAD sentences. Results agreed with Ronson's study with adults (1976) in that when the group rating was severe and the sentence type was negative, stuttering increased significantly as word-frequency level decreased. It appears that children's stuttering in relationship to word-frequency level is a different response that is subject to variables of sentence type and the severity rating of stuttering.     

Work and community

Conclusion I have argued that research and action in the world of work can be a central concern and a major opportunity for community psychologists. Work is central to well being and identity. It is an arena of rapid and turbulent social change where our values are expressed and lived out. Furthermore, work is not a separate life domain, but interpenetrates family and community life. Work is a source of the psychological sense of community and can be made more so. Experiences at work can spill over to family and community and vice versa. Recognizing the myriad paths of this interdependence is an ecological insight that has the possibility of real consequences for well being in our communities. We have only to act on our insight.This article is based on the Presidential Address for Division 27, Community Psychology, of the American Psychological Association, Toronto, Canada, August 26, 1984.