A Systems Approach to the Treatment of Chemical Addiction

Therapists are increasingly considering chemical addiction from a family systems perspective. Effects of chemical dependency upon the family are discussed and intervention approaches aimed toward assisting the family as families redefine themselves and change their structure are considered. The integration of chemical dependency treatment and the family therapy is also discussed as it is practiced in an intensive outpatient program at a psychiatric hospital.     

Measuring How We Preach What We Practice: Psychoeducational Change in Depressed Inpatients

This study investigated the relationship between acquisition of psychoeducational principles and symptomatic improvement in depressed in-patients. One hundred and twenty-three inpatients hospitalized on a Cognitive Therapy Unit were administered the Test of Cognitive Behavioral Principles (TCBP) and the Beck Depression Inventory at admission and discharge. It was predicted that the TCBP scores would be higher at discharge than at pre-testing at admission. Further, it was hypothesized that the higher TCBP scores at post-test would be significantly correlated with lower Beck Depression Inventory scores at post-test. The results revealed that inpatients' TCBP scores improved over the course of treatment supporting the first hypothesis. However, the data did not support the second hypothesis as there was not a significant relationship between the TCBP scores and the BDI scores at discharge. The results are discussed in terms of clinical, theoretical, and methodological implications.     

The Impact of Job Performance,Gender, and Ethnicity on the Managerial Review of Sexual Harassment Allegations1

This study examines the managerial review of sexual harassment allegations by subordinates against supervisors as a 2-stage attribution process. In the 1st stage, reviewers decide whether the behavior was inappropriate (misconduct). In the 2nd, reviewers decide the level of company responsibility. The reviewers' 2 decisions are influenced in distinct ways by scenario participant job performance, and the genders and ethnicities of reviewer and scenario participants. Male respondents exhibited some bias for high-performing same-ethnicity supervisors—a bias not present in female responses. In the 2nd stage, female and non-White reviewers assessed significantly higher levels of company responsibility than did male and White respondents. The data suggest that although men and women do not differ substantially over what constitutes misconduct, they do differ over the company's responsibility.     

TEACHING MULTIPLICATION FACTS TO STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES

Multiple baseline designs were used to examine the effects of an instructional package on accuracy of performance in solving multiplication facts by 3 students with learning disabilities. The instructional package included the following components: (a) a modified instructional sequence in which multiplication facts were grouped into the zeros, ones, doubles, fives, and nines categories, and those remaining; (b) identification of the category in which each fact belonged; (c) mnemonic strategies associated with solving facts in each category; and (d) steps to be completed for solving facts in each category. Results indicated that the instructional package produced substantial and immediate effects. After receiving instruction, a participant's accuracy was often 100%, and this was maintained throughout the evaluation even as other strategies were introduced. Comparable results occurred across students, demonstrating replication of the effects of the instructional package.     

Attitudes Toward Women's Roles in Society: A Replication After 20 Years

In many parts of the world, attitudes towardwomen's roles in society have been changing over the pastseveral decades due to changes in laws regarding womenand educational systems among other significant factors. The present study provides a 20-yearreplication, using the full version of Spence andHelmreich's (1972) well-known Attitudes toward WomenScale (AWS) with samples of mainly white undergraduates including nursing undergraduates at WesternCanadian universities in the mid-1970s and mid-1990s.Results based upon the full and subscale scores show asignificant liberalization in attitudes for both genders since the mid-1970s and a narrowing ofthe gender gap in the 1990s. Finally, the utility of theAWS after some 20-odd years is challenged.     

An Empirical Examination of Same- and Other-Gender Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

This study examines sexual harassment (SH) whichinvolves members of the same gender, either male orfemale. Data are taken from the 1988 Department ofDefense Survey of Sex Roles in the Active Duty Military. Separate comparisons for male (38% White, 31%Black, and 31% ‘other’) and female (48%White, 27% Black, and 25% ‘other’) targetsare made between sameand other-gender SH related to fourmajor components of a conceptual model proposed by Fitzgerald,Drasgow, Hulin, Gelfand, & Magley (1997). Thesecomponents include sexual harassment behaviors, personalvulnerability, target response styles, and consequences of the SH for the target. The sexualorientation of targets and perpetrators is notconsidered because data were unavailable. Results reveala number of meaningful differences between sameandother-gender SH. The most striking result is that maletargets of same-gender SH experience consequences thatare significantly more pervasive and severe than thoseexperienced by male targets of other-gender SH.Organizational implications are discussed.     

The influence of parents and family context on children's involvement in household tasks

To determine the relative impact of a number of family variables on children's performance of gender-typed household tasks, this study took account of the gender of the child, the gender of a sibling within the same age range (8–14 years), whether a first or second child and three parental variables: the degree of encouragement given to perform masculineand femininetasks, parental involvement in the same tasks, and parents' general egalitarianism. The sample consisted of 191 white, mainly Anglo Australian two-parent families, with the two oldest children in a boy—boy, girl—girl, boy—girl, or girl—boy sequence. To check on the robustness of effects, measures were taken on two occasions, on average 16 months apart. Among the family context variables, the gender of the child was the strongest contributing variable, with girls doing more feminine tasks than boys and boys doing more masculine tasks than girls. There was limited support for the proposition that first children do more housework than second children of the same gender, while the results for gender of sibling were small and inconsistent. Among the parental variables, encouragement had strong positive effects for feminine tasks (i.e., more encouragement by parents corresponded to more involvement by children). In contrast, parental involvement in the same tasks (modeling) and parental egalitarianism predicted only the performance of masculine tasks, and the direction of the effects was mostly negative (e.g., the more a father was involved in masculine tasks, the less a child did of those tasks). The results point to involvement in gender-typed activities being influenced by multiple factors, with parental encouragement and gender of child being most prominent among these. They also point to the value of sampling on more than one occasion and of considering separately the performance of feminine and masculine tasks. This research was financially supported by the Australian Research Council. We are happy to acknowledge that support, together with the essential assistance of the Department of Education and the many parents and children who participated in the study.     

Gender differences in evaluation of performance and leadership ability: Autocratic vs. democratic managers

This laboratory experiment involved 290 undergraduate seniors (130 females and 160 males) who were taking the capstone course in business policy in the college of business at a large university. The population of business seniors from which the random sample was drawn consisted of approximately 3.7% African Americans, 7% Asians, 1% Hispanics, and 88.3% white Americans. The study investigated the impact of autocratic and democratic leadership styles on the perception of how well male and female managers perform as well as the leadership ability attributions made to them. It was found that, in general, democratic managers are perceived to be much higher performers, and superior leaders when compared to autocratic managers. There was some support for the gender contrast effect in that the autocratic female managers were perceived to be higher performers than autocratic male managers. Further, the study found support for the perceptual similarity thesis. Male subjects tended to evaluate other male managers higher while female subjects were partial to female managers in their evaluations. In particular, female subjects gave autocratic male managers very low evaluations on performance and judged them to be inferior leaders. The female subjects, however, gave female autocratic managers substantially higher evaluations in terms of both performance and leadership ability.     

Group climate in an open-ended cancer support group

A number of well-described, controlled studies assessing cancer support group intervention support their effectiveness. All of these experimental groups have been close-ended and typically involve six to eight weekly sessions. Because many cancer patients are unable or unwilling to participate in closed, extended-session groups, there is particular need for analysis of the effectiveness of short-term, open-ended groups. Additionally, objective measures are needed to delineate the factors contributing to a successful outcome in cancer support groups. We used the Short Form of the Group Climate Questionnaire (GCQ-S) to characterize 23 sessions in an open-ended, short-term, Veterans Hospital based cancer support group. The cancer group scored significantly lower on the Avoiding and Conflict dimensions (p<.001) compared to a normative psychotherapy group sample. There was no difference on the Engaged dimension. This pilot study suggests that a cancer support group in this setting can create an environment where members are cohesive and take responsibility for their own change process, while keeping interpersonal conflict to a minimum. Based on these preliminary findings, we encourage controlled clinical trials examining the efficacy of open-ended cancer support groups.At the time of this study, Dr. Daroff was a resident in Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco.