When you're not the Brady Bunch: Identifying perceived conflicts and resolution strategies in stepfamilies

This study was a qualitative analysis of interviews from 58 members of 17 stepfamilies regarding the sources of conflict and conflict resolution strategies. The majority of conflicts resulted from negotiation of family boundaries and were manifested in the following ways: (a) disagreements over resources; (b) loyalty conflicts; (c) individuals holding a “guard and protect” ideology; and (d) conflict with extended family members Wide arrays of resolution strategies were used, and some, but not all, resulted in positive outcomes.     

成熟马克思异化观疏证

只要涉及异化,人们就会在成熟时期的马克思的论述中,遇到某种令人困惑之处。对那些断言马克思的著作中存在某种令人欣慰的断裂的人来说,与异化这个概念联系在一起的术语的用法太多了。然而,由于成熟马克思对异化的说明,处于极其次要和零散的状态,所以,这种说明无法构成真正清楚的、对于这里不存在任何断裂的具体证明。那些支持存在这种断裂的人,都在很大程度上忽视了成熟马克思所撰写的、在其中反复运用异化这个术语的论述段落。而那些支持不存在这种断裂的人——他们当中的绝多数人都显然是用英文写作的马克思评论家,则在很大程度上利用这些论述段落来“证明”,异化在成熟马克思著述中确实居于核心地位.     

Multidimensional Scaling in Counseling Research and Practice

The authors briefly describe the use of multidimensional scaling (MDS) in counseling. They discuss types of data that have been analyzed using MDS, kinds of MDS analyses, and the interpretation of MDS results and review MDS research relevant to vocational, family, group, and individual counseling. They also briefly discuss potential applications in counseling practice.     

Usefulness of Gati's Hierarchical Model of Vocational Interests for Career Counselors

Career counseling is complicated and involved, requiring counselors to use a conceptual framework to help guide them through the process. Using a case study, the author demonstrates how Gati's hierarchical model of vocational interests can assist counselors in working with clients concerned about their careers.     

A Comparison of Two Approaches to Counselor-Free Career Exploration

This study was conducted to advance previous research in the use of computer-based, counselor-free career guidance systems instead of conventional counselor-free systems. The participants, Undergraduate college students (20 men and 20 women), were asked to rate their reactions to using the DISCOVER II microcomputer career guidance system and the Self-Directed Search. The majority of the participants preferred the DISCOVER II as a vocational exploration program.     

ATTITUDES AND EFFECTIVENESS: EXAMINING RELATIONS AT AN ORGANIZATIONAL LEVEL

Recent evidence has suggested that attitudes-organizational effectiveness relations may exist. Relations between employee attitudes, organizational unit performance, customer satisfaction, and turnover were examined at the branch level for a large automobile finance company. Using data from 142 branches in 2 consecutive years, several significant relations between attitude factors and performance were observed. In addition, causal analyses conducted at the branch level suggested that customer satisfaction led to employee attitudes, rather than the opposite. Additional analyses to explain this result suggested that economic conditions and related factors might be the causal mechanism at the aggregated level. Other potential interpretations of these findings and caveats about generalizing organizational-level findings to the individual level are discussed.     

Attachment styles,shame, guilt,and collaborative problem-solving orientations

The present study explored relations among adult attachment styles, shame- and guilt-proneness, and several measures of relationship problem-solving attitudes and behaviors. Participants were 142 undergraduates (32 males, 110 females) who completed both categorical and continuous measures of adult attachment, as well as self-report measures of the other constructs under investigation. Most participants (93%) were currently involved in either exclusive or casual dating relationships at the time of the study. Controlling for respondents’dating status, results indicated that participants’attachment styles were significantly related to both shame-proneness and collaborative problem-solving, Preoccupied and fearful students were more shame-prone than were their secure and dismissive peers, and secure participants reported significantly higher collaboration scores relative to their fearful counterparts. As expected, shame and guilt scores were differentially related to collaborative problem-solving, and participants’attachment security significantly moderated observed shame-guilt correlations. Finally, respondents’guilt and shame scores partly mediated observed relations between adult attachment styles and collaborative problem-solving orientations.     

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WORK EXPERIENCE AND JOB PERFORMANCE: A CONCEPTUAL AND META-ANALYTIC REVIEW

A gap in the conceptual development of the work experience construct was addressed by creating a framework specifying two dimensions along which work experience measures can vary. The dimensions of measurement mode (amount, time, and type) and level of specificity (task, job, organizational) formed nine separate categories of measures of work experience. The usefulness of the conceptual framework was tested by conducting a meta-analytic review of the existing literature on work experience using the dimensions in the framework as potential moderators of the experience-performance relationship. Results of the meta-analysis ( N = 25,911; K = 44) revealed an estimated population correlation of 27 between experience and performance after correcting for sampling error and criterion unreliability. In addition, the results showed that amount ( M = .43) and task-level ( M = .41) measures of work experience had the highest correlations with measures of job performance. In addition, work experience had the highest correlations with hard (e.g. work samples) as opposed to soft (e.g. ratings) measures of job performance ( M = .39 vs. M = .24). Implications and directions for future research are discussed.