Circumplex Model of Family Systems: A Treatment Tool in Family Counseling

The Circumplex Model and its diagnostic inventory, FACES III, are emerging as important tools for the family counselor. The authors describe the model and inventory and illustrate their use through a case study with a multiproblem family.     

A FIELD STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF RATING PURPOSE ON THE QUALITY OF MULTISOURCE RATINGS

Using a field sample of peers and subordinates, the current study employed generalizability theory to estimate sources of systematic variability associated with both developmental and administrative ratings (variance due to items, raters, etc.) and then used these values to estimate the dependability (i.e., reliability) of the performance ratings under various conditions. Results indicated that the combined rater and rater-by-ratee interaction effect and the residual effect were substantially larger than the person effect (i.e., object of measurement) for both rater sources across both purpose conditions. For subordinates, the person effect accounted for a significantly greater percentage of total variance in developmental ratings than in administrative ratings; however, no differences were observed for peer ratings as a function of rating purpose. These results suggest that subordinate ratings are of significantly better quality when made for developmental than for administrative purposes, but the same is not true for peer ratings.     

A Comparison of Female Professionals' Role Profiles With Occupational Adjustment and Life Satisfaction

This exploratory study on 50 female health professionals examined the impact that multiple roles (work/family) had on occupational adjustment and life satisfaction. Results indicate some evidence that as the number of occupational roles increased, life satisfaction scores tended to decrease; however, as the number of family roles increased, scores on occupational adjustment and life satisfaction scales tended to increase.