Attachment as a Function of Parental and Partner Approach-Avoidance Tendencies

This two-part investigation develops a new scale of parental attachment that includes the previously under examined form of role reversal, or being a caregiver for one's parent, and explores the contention that romantic attachment is more dyadic than originally conceived, in that it is a function of an interaction between parental attachment style and specific partner romantic attachment style. It was expected that the most secure partners would have secure attachments with their parents and partners who report their own secure romantic attachment, that the most preoccupied partners would have been anxious-ambivalent in their attachment to their parents and paired with dismissively avoidant others, and that the most dismissively avoidant partners would have been role reversed by their parents and paired with preoccupied partners. Support for this expanded model was found, in that parental and partner attachments both influenced the final form of romantic attachment, with partner attachment appearing to have more influence than parental attachment. The relationship of romantic attachment style to the subsequent communication outcome of self-disclosure was also explored. Results supported expectations, with security relating positively to intentional and honest self-disclosure, preoccupation relating negatively with honesty, and dismissive avoidance relating to greater positivity and less honesty.     

Jealousy and the nature of beliefs about infidelity: Tests of competing hypotheses about sex differences in the United States,Korea, and Japan

The different adaptive problems faced by men and women over evolutionary history led evolutionary psychologists to hypothesize and discover sex differences in jealousy as a function of infidelity type. An alternative hypothesis proposes that beliefs about the conditional probabilities of sexual and emotional infidelity account for these sex differences. Four studies tested these hypotheses. Study 1 tested the hypotheses in an American sample (N = 1,122) by rendering the types of infidelity mutually exclusive. Study 2 tested the hypotheses in an American sample (N = 234) by asking participants to identify which aspect of infidelity was more upsetting when both forms occurred, and by using regression to identify the unique contributions of sex and beliefs. Study 3 replicated Study 2 in a Korean sample (N = 190). Study 4 replicated Study 2 in a Japanese sample (N = 316). Across the studies, the evolutionary hypothesis, but not the belief hypothesis, accounted for sex differences in jealousy when the types of infidelity are rendered mutually exclusive; sex differences in which aspect of infidelity is more upsetting when both occur; significant variance attributable to sex, after controlling for beliefs; sex-differentiated patterns of beliefs; and the cross-cultural prevalence of all these sex differences.     

A META-ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONS AMONG TRAINING CRITERIA

An augmented framework for training criteria based on Kirkpatrick's (1959a, 1959b, 1960a, 1960b) model divides training reactions into affective and utility reactions, and learning into post-training measures of learning, retention, and behavior/skill demonstration. A total of 34 studies yielding 115 correlations were analyzed meta-analytically. Results included substantial reliabilities across training criteria and reasonable convergence among subdivisions of criteria within a larger level. Utility-type reaction measures were more strongly related to learning or on-the-job performance (transfer) than affective-type reaction measures. Moreover, utility-type reaction measures were stronger correlates of transfer than were measures of immediate or retained learning. These latter findings support recent concurrent thinking regarding use of reactions in training (e.g., Warr & Bunce, 1995). Implications for choosing and developing training criteria are discussed.     

Family Rituals

Family rituals, consisting of celebrations, traditions, and patterned family interactions, are defined and illustrated in this paper. The power of ritual practice in families is explained by three underlying processes — transformation, communication, and stabilization — concepts whose roots lie in anthropology and ethology. We propose that all families struggle with finding a suitable role for rituals in their collective lives but their actual achievement varies greatly. Commitment to ritual and adaptability of ritual practice throughout the family life cycle are important considerations. The utility of these concepts in the assessment and treatment of families is discussed.     

Global Supervenience and Dependence1

Two versions of global supervenience have recently been distinguished from each other. 1 introduce a third version, which is more likely what people had in mind all along. However, I argue that one of the three versions is equivalent to strong supervenience in every sense that matters, and that neither of the other two versions counts as a genuine determination relation. I conclude that global supervenience has little metaphysically distinctive value.     

Religion and Substance Abuse Treatment: Individual and Program Effects

The relationship between personal religiousness and substance abuse treatment outcomes has emerged as an important issue in the public health arena. Using the “moral community” perspective, a conceptual framework developed by Stark, Kent, and Doyle (1982) to analyze the contextual effects of religion, we explore the degree to which religion influences two drug treatment outcome measures—critical retention and commitment to treatment. The data are derived from the Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Studies (DATOS), a national study of 10,010 clients enrolled in 70 drug treatment programs. Three research questions were addressed: (1) What is the relationship between an individual's level of religiosity and retention in treatment and commitment to treatment? (2) How does the ecological context of treatment programs shape the individual‐level relationships? (3) To what extent are program practices and characteristics directly linked to outcome level? The findings are supportive of the literature that shows a weak to moderate relationship between religiosity and treatment outcomes. However, the findings did not show strong support for the “moral community” hypothesis. Although there was a wide variation in the size of the individual‐level religiosity–treatment correlations, the variation could not be conclusively attributed to the overall religious emphasis of the programs. The findings suggest that further research is needed in order to understand fully the role of religion in substance abuse treatment.