Tough love: The behavior control justice motive facilitates forgiveness in valued relationships

When individuals in valued relationships are transgressed against, how are they able to protect the relationship while at the same time restore justice for themselves? Study 1 (N = 137) employed a recall design to demonstrate that when victims restore justice, the well‐established association between relationship value and forgiveness can be explained indirectly through a motivation to control future behavior. Studies 2 (N = 122) and 3 (N = 115) replicated this finding using experimental designs, manipulating two distinct facets of valued relationships: the fact that they are continuing and close. There were no indirect effects for two alternative justice motives, just deserts and revenge. We discuss implications for relations between justice and forgiveness in the context of interpersonal relationships.     

Not in My Backyard: Studies of Other Religions in the Context of SSSR—RRA Annual Meetings

In the early years of the two associations, relatively few papers or sessions focused on religions other than Christianity or on religion outside North America, with the partial exception of Judaism. The combined effects of organizational growth and events in the surrounding world, however, led to progressively more treatment of “other” religions and the religions of “others.” Beginning in the mid‐1960s, specific themes of “otherness” established themselves in the meeting programs, including African‐American religion, women and religion, new religions, and Latin American/Latino/a religion. In the 1980s attention spread to the religions of Africa, Eastern Europe, East Asia, the Caribbean, among other places. Although the process is far from complete, its acceleration during the 1990s allows one to predict that it will continue.     

Age‐related variations and sex differences in gender cleavage during middle childhood

Gender cleavage, the segregation of the sexes, is a powerful phenomenon affecting socialization during childhood, but its developmental trajectory is far from clear. Sociometric responses by 299 boys and girls in Grades 3 to 6 from a group preference record were used to investigate age‐related variations and sex differences in gender cleavage. Moreno's (1953) developmental model of gender cleavage was examined in the light of sociocultural changes, as well as advances in the theory and measurement of gender cleavage. Sex differences were found in same‐gender preference, with older elementary girls showing greater same‐gender preference than boys of the same age. However, this finding, plus the absence of gender differences in cross‐gender evaluations, did not support more recent developmental accounts of gender cleavage. Linear trend analyses contradicted Moreno's basic precept of increasing same‐gender preference between Grades 3 and 6. While same‐gender acceptance and rejection were relatively similar regardless of grade level, cross‐gender acceptance was greater in higher than in lower grades and the reverse was true for rejection. Furthermore, weaker gender cleavage effects in rejection data than in acceptance data suggested that strong same‐gender liking does not infer equally robust cross‐gender dislike. Gender cleavage appears to be relative rather than absolute. A more complex model is proposed incorporating sex differences as well as rejection evaluations     

MANAGERIAL SALARY-RAISE DECISIONS: A POLICY- CAPTURING APPROACH

Using policy-capturing and direct-ranking methodologies, managers made salary-raise decisions for 104 hypothetical employees. These employees were experimentally varied on five manipulated characteristics: (1) performance level, (2) performance consistency, (3) tenure, (4) current salary, and (5) external job offer. The main effects of these five characteristics accounted for an average of 77% of the variance in the managers' raise decisions. On the other hand, the interactions accounted for virtually no variance. Substantial individual differences were found among managers in the weights they attached to the five characteristics, even though all of the managers were from the same organization. Substantial differences were also observed in the relative importance of the five characteristics as determined by policy capturing and direct ranking. Future research and administrative practice implications are suggested, especially those regarding individual differences in attribute weights among managers.     

Aftermath of Violence: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Vietnam Veterans

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) frequently occurs in the aftermath of violence. A comprehensive four-phase treatment approach for Vietnam veterans with PTSD is presented. Phases in the recovery process are assessment, stabilization of symptoms, working through the trauma, and reintegration into the family and society.     

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.     

Hearing Metaphor: An Approach to Working with Family-Generated Metaphor

This article presents a step-by-step approach to working with family-generated metaphor in family therapy. Although the use of therapist-generated “therapeutic metaphors” has been widely advocated and practiced for many years now, less attention has been paid to the metaphors used by family members. We argue that the family's metaphors are a neglected linguistic resource in family therapy. Highlighting and validating these metaphors produces a therapeutic conversation in which the voices of family members are heard more clearly by the therapist, and the families' own imaginative energies are engaged in defining and pursuing the goals of therapy. Several case examples illustrate the use of this approach with children of various ages.     

A Method of Co-Therapy for Schizophrenic Families

This paper describes a model of treatment for families in which one child has been given the diagnosis of schizophrenia. Male and female therapists adopt structured roles that are used as a paradigm for exploring family patterns. The paradigm employs a three-generational hypothesis that defines schizophrenia as a lifelong, restricting mode of relating, involving the primary family triad, that makes the child vulnerable to repeated psychotic episodes. Therapy is directed at the difficulties of autonomous development within the family by focusing on differentiating the relationship between nuclear and extended family members, expecially defining and strengthening generational and sexual boundaries. The second focus of therapy is on the resolution of issues of separation and loss, with attention to unresolved mourning in the family of origin and the concomitant stress in giving up the infantile relationship with the index child in the nuclear family. Stages of therapy will be described including: (a) initiation of therapy, (b) breaking of fusion, (c) repair of alienation, and (d) solidifying the marital alliance and generational boundaries. Case illustrations will be included.     

Teaching Interpersonal Communication to Troubled Families

Assumptions family members make about each other exert considerable influence on communication in families. Rigidly held assumptions restrict the flow of information, reinforcing counterproductive behavioral patterns. Combining psychoanalytic and structural components, this paper offers a new approach to family intervention that addresses itself to the exchange of information within troubled families. Groups of families convene for a series of camping weekends. The shared life experience in a recreational setting plus the use of a teaching model help family members to break through rigid conceptualizations of themselves and others. In following the observational model, which slows down and fosters reciprocation in communication, family members pursue the following steps: (a) observe each other; (b) compare notes with a co-observer; (c) share observations with those observed; and (d) receive feedback from the observed.