Marital adjustment in post‐Soviet Eastern Europe: A focus on Lithuania

Abstract Seventy‐five married female and 43 married male residents of Lithuania participated in a questionnaire study of their marital adjustment and marital chore division. The participants reported their marital chore division, beliefs about gender appropriateness for a list of chores, and the number of hours per week they spend on these chores. They also completed the Marital Adjustment Test ( H. J. Locke & K. M. Wallace, 1959 ). Egalitarian chore practices were positively correlated with marital adjustment for women, but egalitarian chore beliefs were positively correlated with marital adjustment for men. The results are consistent with speculation that chore division may be particularly relevant to marital adjustment in a post‐Soviet context that has a tendency toward egalitarianism in the workplace, but not in the home.     

Relationships Among Cooperative Learning Experiences,Social Interdependence,Children's Aggression,Victimization, and Prosocial Behaviors

This study examined the relationships among cooperative experiences, social interdependence predispositions, harm‐intended aggression, victimization, and prosocial behaviors with 217 elementary school children from 3^rd to 5^th grade. Path analysis using LISREL indicates that cooperative experiences predicted cooperative predispositions, the absence of individualistic predispositions, and prosocial behaviors. Cooperative predisposition predicted prosocial behaviors and the absence of harm‐intended aggression. Competitive predisposition predicted harm‐intended aggression. These findings validate social interdependence theory and partially support theories related to social dominance. Providing frequent cooperative learning experiences may be an important tool to increase students' cooperativeness and thereby reduce the frequency of harm‐intended aggression, increase the frequency of prosocial behaviors, and reduce students' individualistic predispositions.     

A dyadic exploration of attachment and caregiving in long‐term couples

This cross‐sectional study explored associations between attachment style and caregiving patterns in 125 couples with children in the United Kingdom. The Actor–Partner Interdependence Model was used to model for both actor (own) and partner attachment effects on caregiving. Attachment was measured along the dimensions of avoidance and anxiety, and caregiving was measured along the dimensions of proximity, sensitivity, cooperation, and compulsion. Results indicated that different combinations of individual and partner attachment scores predicted different dimensions of caregiving. Own attachment scores best predicted caregiving proximity, cooperation, and compulsion, whereas own and partner attachment predicted caregiving sensitivity. The implications of the findings, limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

EXPLOITING PRAGMATIC RULES: DEVIOUS MESSAGES

Consideration of the relationship between semantics and pragmatics leads to a formal analysis of pragmatic implications customarily made by auditors in this culture. The analysis isolates four types of responses to yes-no demand questions: (1) explication, (2) prepositional implication, (3) relational implication, and (4) transparent question. It further shows how the latter three types can be exploited by devious communicators and proposes some possible social extensions of the system.