Younger Adults' Communication Experiences and Contact With Elders and Peers

Intergenerational communication research has overemphasized dissatisfying experiences and treated elderly conversation partners as an undifferentiated category. To redress these limitations, the authors surveyed 100 younger adults' (16–46 years) satisfying and dissatisfying experiences with both family and nonfamily elders, and compared these with own-age peers. Measures of social contact were also taken. As hypothesized, positivity of experiences and contact increased from nonfamily to family elders and to peers. Barriers of communication with nonfamily elders were due to contact more than experiences. For family elders and especially for peers, most measures of contact and experiences were positive. The authors also tested for effects due to respondents' gender and culture (New Zealanders of Chinese or European descent). Females had more positive experiences and contact on some of the measures. Views about elders held by Chinese were more favorable, yet this did not translate into improved experiences or contact.     

Some Evident Truths About Conversations in Everyday Relationships All Communications Are Not Created Equal

This article presents a program of studies that map out daily conversations and so establish a geography of everyday communication. A new method (the Iowa Communication Record) is offered to extend research using diary methods and focus the researcher on communication in daily life. Three studies collectively show (a) consistent sex differences in the quality and nature of conversations across different types of relationships, (b) a consistent rank ordering of relationship types that differs from that intuitively included in previous models of relationship formation, and (c) a consistent difference between conversations held on different days of the week, with Wednesdays associated with greater degrees of conflictive communication. Self-disclosure is much less frequent in everyday life than assumed on the basis of laboratory work, and the predominant form of communication in intimate relationships is not only nonintimate but not simply distinguishable from communication in other relationship types. Communication quality distinguishes female from male partners, suggesting that previous findings on preference for female partners are truly founded in communication variables, which have previously been underrated. The article shows that closer attention must in future be paid to communicative variations created by daily events and circumstances, and the role of routine communication in daily life must be explored in future studies of social participation.     

ADJUSTING SALES RESULTS MEASURES FOR USE AS CRITERIA

The use of objective criterion measures in validation research raises the issue of criterion contamination. Several methods of treating sales measures in the empirical keying of a biodata instrument are compared. The relative contaminating effects of local economic conditions and company factors are evaluated. This study is an example of how practitioners can use their knowledge about the selection context to develop acceptable criterion norming strategies.     

Evaluating Therapist Competency and Adherence to Behavioral Family Management with Bipolar Patients

The present study assessed fidelity to the behavioral family management (BFM) model for treating bipolar disorder patients and their families. The BFM Therapist Competency/Adherence Scale (BFM-TCAS) was developed to evaluate clinicians' competency and adherence to BFM, as outlined by Miklowitz' (1989) BFM Manual for use with bipolar patients. Therapist competency and treatment adherence was also evaluated with regard to two family characteristics: overall level of family difficulty and family expressed emotion (EE) status. The BFM-TCAS was used to code 78 videotaped sessions of 26 families with a bipolar member, selected from a larger treatment study of bipolar disorder patients. The findings suggest that, overall, clinicians adhered closely to the BFM manual. Specific areas in which there was high competency and treatment adherence were (a) skill in conveying factual information about bipolar illness, (b) establishment of a therapeutic environment, and (c) ability to take command of therapy sessions. The one area in which there was less compotency and relatively weak adherence to the manual was the use of between-session homework assignments to assist families in mastering the BFM exercises. Results of this study also suggest that, for the most part, therapist competency and adherence ratings were not related to overall level of difficulty or to family EE status.     

Relationships and the self‐concept

Progress in the study of relationships has depended in part on the recognition that relationships have properties not relevant to interactions or to the behavior of individuals, and may require additional principles of explanation. This has led to an emphasis on relationships as linking individuals. In this article we argue that relationship processes occur in the heads of individuals, with the participants having their own idiosyncratic views of the relationship as well as a shared one. The relationship is both affected by and affects the self‐concepts of the participants, so that the influences of the self‐concept may be critical for understanding the properties and dynamics of relationships Furthermore, consideration of the self‐concept can assist in the integration of different but not necessarily incompatible explanations for the same relationship phenomena.     

Relationship experiences and change in attachment characteristics of young adults: The role of relationship breakups and conflict avoidance

This study examined whether close relationship experiences predict change in individuals’attachment Characteristics. Partners from 301 dating couples each rated their attachment characteristics and their conflict avoidance. Five months later 184 women and 138 men reported whether their relationships were intact or broken‐up, and they rated their attachment characteristics again. Women became less secure after a breakup and more secure after remaining together. There was a similar result for men who initially had insecure attachment characteristics. Additionally, women low in conflict avoidance became more secure over time, and those high in conflict avoidance became less secure. For men whose relationships remained intact, conflict avoidance was not related to change in attachment characteristics. For men whose relationships ended, however, initial conflict avoidance predicted increased attachment security. These results extend previous research on the stability of attachment characteristics by exploring predictors of change.     

Demographic Profiles on AFDC Mothers Successfully Placed in Competitive Employment

The purposes of this study were to research demographic characteristics of participants in a government work incentive program for AFDC recipients and to identify those characteristics that lead to successful employment through the program. Implications of the results for clients and staff members of work incentive programs are discussed, and limitations of the study are identified.     

The Transition to Parenthood: III. Incorporation of the Child into the Family

The major focus of this article is the relationship of the parents' marital relationship structure to the incorporation of the child into the family. Our central hypothesis is that couples who have evolved more competent marital structures prenatally are more likely to incorporate the child successfully into the family.