Later stages in Experiential Marital Therapy

This is the second of two papers dealing with symbolic-experiential treatment of marital issues. The first—Early Stages in Experiential Marital Therapy — discussed three early stages. This paper discusses regressive work with couples, including engagement with the family of origin.     

Wilderness family therapy: Experiential dimensions

This paper describes the process in which families participate in a wilderness experience. Metaphors such as climbing or paddling a canoe are translated into daily living patterns to deepen individual and family self-knowledge, self-esteem, and intimacy.     

“Marital trap analysis”—incompetence,complementarity, and success traps: Identifying potential future dysfunctions based on a couple's current collusive agreements

This paper describes three types of traps or collusive marital agreements-incompetence traps, complementarity traps, and success traps-in which the mates renounce or forgo competent functioning in vital areas of marital roles and experience. It is suggested that responsible clinical work with the couple should include a careful evaluation of such traps and the potential breakdown or dysfunction inherent in each one, and a decision as to whether or not to attempt therapeutic penetration into such collusive agreements even before the couple complain directly about their arrangement.     

Motivations for parenthood among young adult college students

Two hundred and sixty three young adult college students responded to openended questions assessing their specific intentions, motives, and plans for having children. The most commonly stated motives for childbearing reflected a strong interest in establishing an identity and social network. Financial, marital, and emotional stability were identified as important factors influencing the timing of parenthood. Several significant sex differences were found for both motives and the timing of parenthood. These findings are discussed in terms of changing social norms regarding parenthood and changing sex role expectations.Portions of this research were presented at the Eastern Regional Psychological Association Convention in New York, April 1986. This research was funded by a grant from Trenton State College, Committee for Faculty and Institutional Research and Sabbatical Leave.     

Rules versus cognitive structure as bases for children's performances on probability problems

The present study compared two hypotheses about children's solutions to Piaget and Inhelder's (1975) two-set alternative choice probability problems. The first was that children follow rules that specify a temporally ordered sequence of tests and decisions (Siegler, 1981). One prediction of rules is that children who know strategies that combine variables within sets (e.g., ratio or subtraction strategies) will only use them on problems that require such strategies (conflict problems), whereas lower level (nonconflict) problems will be solved by directly comparing the values of variables between sets. The second hypothesis was that once children develop knowledge of within-set solutions to probability problems, they apply them to both conflict and nonconflict problems. The results supported the latter hypothesis. The majority of children who solved conflict problems using within-set strategies explained at least one nonconflict problem by referring to within-set combinations. Results were discussed in terms of their implications for cognitive development and for instruction.     

Multiple regression analysis of twin and sibling data

DeFries and Fulker (1985) employed a multiple regression analysis of twin data in which a cotwin's score is predicted from the proband's score, the coefficient of relationship (R = 1.0 for monozygotic twins and 0.5 for dizygotic twins), and their interaction to yield direct estimates of heritability (h²) and the proportion of variance due to common or shared environmental influences (c²). The purpose of the report is to extend this model to allow for the analysis of data from more than two familial relationships simultaneously. Data from identical twins, fraternal twins, and siblings pairs, in which one member of each pair was selected based on low reading performance, were analyzed. To analyze the data simultaneously, additional coefficients were added to the regression equation in order to differentiate shared environmental influences of twins and siblings. When the model was applied to the combined cognitive data, significant estimates for heritability were obtained in three of the six tests analyzed. The results also indicated a lack of justification for the separate twin and sibling environmental parameters, and a discussion of more parsimonious models is included.     

Divorce in the kibbutz: Past and present

In the kibbutz today, there are no ideological or economic barriers to prevent a couple from deciding to divorce. Both husband and wife are assured continued economic security and equal opportunities for co-parenting, thus reducing fears of disruption in the daily contact with the children. In spite of these favorable circumstances, marital breakups in the kibbutz are less frequent than in the larger cities in Israel. In recent years, however, at a time when a stronger and more intensive family life has gained legitimacy within the kibbutz structure, there is a marked tendency toward a rise in the rate of divorce. In this article we analyze the possible causes of the variations in the frequency of divorce within the kibbutz framework.The authors express appreciation to Esther Mivtzari, a psychologist on the staff of the Kibbutz Child and Family Clinic and a member of the religious kibbutz Ein-Tzurim, for assistance in gathering data on divorce in the religious kibbitzum.     

Love preferences and ideals: A comparison of homosexual,bisexual, and heterosexual groups

Homosexuals, bisexuals, and heterosexuals were compared on self-reported love preferences and ideals. In general, the three groups tended to agree on ideal characteristics of love objects, love relationships, and love related beliefs. Nevertheless, the groups differed significantly on preferences and beliefs related to love-object sex, residential proximity, ethnic background, physical intimacy, freedom from feelings of jealousy, sexual fidelity, emotional intimacy, and the importance of religious or legal acknowledgment.An early version of this paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Council on Family Relations, in San Francisco, October 1984, Journal Series No. 2973 of the Hawaii Institute of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.     

Variables differentiating affective interaction in a family therapy and a control group: Father-child welfare and mother-child emergency affect

In this study of 37 pre-therapy and 23 matched control families who never sought family therapy, father-child welfare affect and mother-child emergency affect were significantly higher in the control families. Control families were found generally to express more Welfare and Emergency emotion. Affective expression between parents did not significantly differentiate the groups.This study has been supported by Grant No. MA-4510 of the Medical Research Council of Canada and was presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Psychiatric Association, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, September 1983. The authors wish to express their thanks to Toby Schwartz, Harriet Gold-Kaats, and Terry Tannenbaum-Dascal, who acted as coders and research assistants; Joseph Beltempo, BSc, who helped in the statistical analysis; and James Robbins, PhD, who gave much valuable advice.     

Morning and evening people: Examination of an identifying scale and of social- and self-perceptions of personality differences

An experiment was conducted aimed first at establishing the reliability and validity of a measure of individual differences in sleeping schedules. Two samples of subjects completed a questionnaire concerning their sleeping behavior which was scored according to the diurnal or nocturnal pattern of their responses. The scores were then used to classify subjects as morning people or evening people. Both the internal reliability and cross-time reliability of the scale were assessed and found to be high. In addition, three indices of construct validity, obtained 4 months after the administration of the scale, supported its validity. In a second part of the experiment, subjects classified as either morning or evening people rated themselves on a set of behavioral and personality dimensions. Another sample of subjects indicated their perceptions of morning people and evening people in general, along the same dimensions. It was found that subjects did have strong beliefs about personality and behavioral differences between morning people and evening people. However, the self-perceptions of the actual morning and evening people did not differ, thereby casting doubt on the validity of popular stereotypic perceptions about the two groups.