Partner support and marital satisfaction: Support amount,adequacy, provision,and solicitation

To compare the extent to which (a) amount versus adequacy of received support and (b) support provision versus solicitation behaviors predict marital satisfaction, married couples from the United States (N= 275) provided perceptions of received support and participated in 2 support transactions. Actor–partner interdependence modeling and structural equation modeling techniques were employed. Husbands’ perceptions of support adequacy predicted marital satisfaction more than their perceptions of support amount, whereas the results were generally the opposite for wives. Husbands’ provision and wives’ solicitation behaviors predicted marital satisfaction. Results suggest the need to move beyond simple counts of support received to examining support adequacy—and the various behaviors and roles involved in supportive transactions—to enhance theories of support and relationship functioning.     

Recruiting source effects: A test of two alternative explanations

This field study examined two alternative explanations for recruitment source effects which have been consistently reported in previous studies. For this sample of 98 social service workers, the ‘ realism’ explanation for source differences received more empirical support than the ‘ individual difference ’ explanation. Employee referrals were found to have more realistic expectations than individuals who responded to newspaper ads or directly applied to the organization. In addition, recruitment source was found to be related to employee performance and involuntary turnover. The authors suggest an, as yet, unexamined individual difference variable (motivation) as a possible explanation for the unexpected performance findings.     

CONTEXTUAL AGE AND TELEVISION USE

The aims of the investigation were to initiate the development of “contextual age” as an alternative life-position concept to chronological age in communication and aging research, and to examine the relationships between contextual age and socio-demographic characteristics, television viewing patterns, and viewing motivations. The sample consisted of 340 non-confined respondents, aged 55 to 92. Factor analysis located four contextual age dimensions: interaction, life satisfaction, economic security, and self-reliance. The results of the Pearson and canonical correlation analyses suggest: the importance of an individual's degree of interpersonal interaction, social activity, life satisfaction, economic security, mobility, and physical health for indicating television usage; a series of interactant associations among contextual age, socio-demographic, viewing pattern, and viewing motivation variables; and the heuristic potential of the contextual age concept for assessing life-position and communication behavior.     

Wild thoughts searching for a thinker. A clinical application of W.R. Bion's theories

This paper describes the results and implications of an 8-year audit cycle concerning premature termination of treatment in a population with severe personality disorder treated within a specialist residential setting. The results of the first audit showed (a) a high early dropout rate, (b) a significant difference in early dropout rates between the two clinical programmes (one-stage and step-down) offered by the unit, and (c) a higher attrition of non-borderline personality disorders compared to borderline type disorder. Qualitative analysis of interviews with early dropout patients helped to identify deficiencies in practice, which may have contributed to dropout. Discussion of results amongst the team led to corrective measures that allowed reduction of early dropout in the one-stage programme over the subsequent years. The implications of the results are discussed.