Action methods in systemic therapy: dramatizing ideal futures and reformed pasts with couples

This article presents a method for conducting a couple session that illustrates a theoretically valid role for action techniques (as opposed to verbal methods) in post-Milan systemic interviewing. Useful in an opening meeting or in consultation, it pointedly activates client resources while deemphasizing current problems. The interview format begins with contracting for ground-rules and listing clients' strengths. Each partner then creates and enacts: a scene illustrating that partner's ideal future for the relationship; a related past painful scene (usually from childhood); and a "reform" of that scene "as it should have occurred." Both partners play multiple roles in all scenes. Last and least, each partner succinctly describes his or her view of the current problem. In the enactments, rapid shifts in time dimension and multiple novel roles played by both partners efficiently promote in the couple the release from constraining beliefs and interactional patterns that is ordinarily sought by purely verbal methods in Milan-derived systemic interviews.     

Are early verbal communicative intentions universal? A preliminary investigation

This longitudinal study was conducted to provide preliminary information about the universality of early verbal communicative intentions. Three children whose native languages differ were videotaped in spontaneous mother-child interactions at 2-week intervals between MLU 1.0 and 2.0. The languages studied were American English, Danish, and Serbo-Croatian. Each child utterance was coded for the communicative intention expressed using a modified version of Dale's (1980) taxonomy. Findings indicate that all subjects used the full range of intentions. Overall, the intentions used most frequently were Naming and Attributes. Crosslinguistic similarities were also noted in patterns of intention usage as a function of increasing MLU. Results support the view that early verbal intentions are language-learning universals. However, no support was found for the universal-sequence hypothesis.     

Motivational factors in nonincarcerated sexually aggressive men

Research on convicted rapists has demonstrated the importance of several key motivational factors in male sexual aggression. In particular, anger at women and the need to dominate or control them have been repeatedly implicated. Although anger and power have also been shown to be important in understanding college men who report sexually aggressive behavior, there has been little research on what underlies these motives. This research combined questions assessing these underlying motivational factors, as well as questions dealing with underlying sexual motivation and disinhibition, with a slightly modified version of the Sexual Experiences Survey (Koss & Oros, 1982). In Study 1, subjects were 184 male undergraduates. Factor analysis of the questions composing the four scales yielded four slightly modified scales. Scales measuring underlying anger, underlying power, and disinhibition significantly differentiated sexually aggressive from nonaggressive men but did not distinguish between men who were coercive, manipulative, or nonaggressive. In a replication on a smaller sample (n = 70), underlying anger, underlying power, and disinhibition again differentiated sexually aggressive from nonaggressive men.     

Factors affecting developmental changes in the speed of processing

Although many studies have found developmental changes in the speed of various processes, they have potentially confounded the subject's age with his knowledge of the task domain and use of strategies. In this study, the strategies used by the subject and his domain knowledge were independently assessed by a number of tasks. Subsequently, processing rate measures were obtained for a task (the “same/different” judgment task of simultaneously presented stimuli) in which domain knowledge was manipulated independently of age while controlling for strategy usage. It was found that the usual adult superiority in speed of processing could be markedly reduced if children possessed equivalent amounts of domain knowledge and this effect was domain specific. Further, it was found that differences in knowledge affected processing rates in both knowledgeable adults and children and to about the same extent. It was concluded that some part of the typical adult superiority in processing rate was due to knowledge differences.     

Examination of supervisory satisfaction in traditional and nontraditional gender-based reporting relationships

Supervisory Satisfaction relates to satisfaction with supervision rather than other conditions or agents in the work place. The supervisor-subordinate relationship is becoming increasingly important given the shift from managing work to managing people. Six variables were theorized as influencing satisfaction. Developing a parsimonious model to predict the variance in supervisor satisfaction, this empirical study examined 202 traditional supervisory relationships (subordinate reporting to a male supervisor) and 48 nontraditional supervisory relationships (subordinates reporting to a female supervisor). The sample was predominantly whites. Four of the five variables theorized, predicted a high level of variance in supervisory satisfaction in both traditional and nontraditional relationships. However the predictors were not different for the two groups.     

Multi-attribute utility analysis using the promes approach

Traditional utility analyses have focused on the economic value of increased job performance. While providing a great deal of information to decision makers, such approaches fail to account for other potentially critical outcomes of implementing a selection system (e.g. legal exposure). This paper proposes a new method for incorporating multiple outcomes in utility analysis. An example shows how to incorporate economic gains due to job performance, legal exposure, effect on protected groups, and organizational image in the decision to implement a new selection system. Integrating these four outcomes into utility analysis captures managerial policy that will allow examination of the process of using utility information to aid decision making. In addition, the method is amenable to use of sensitivity, breakeven, and Monte Carlo analyses advocated by utility researchers (Boudreau, 1991).     

Estimating the impact of variable costs on SDy in complex situations

The inclusion of variable costs when estimating the standard deviation of job performance in dollars has been the basis for a number of highly important advances in utility analysis (e.g. Boudreau, 1983; Boudreau & Berger, 1985). However, no studies have shown the feasibility of incorporating variable costs in situations where multiple types of costs might require global estimation of variable costs. Results obtained from a nationwide sample of insurance personnel indicated that global estimates of variable costs were feasible to obtain in such complex situations but that those costs were not a fixed percentage of the value of job performance. Judges reported that the most important inputs of information into their estimates of the value of job performance in dollars were performance and output as well as initiative of the job holder. Surprisingly, salary related information was not reported as a relatively important input.The authors wish to thank Patricia G. Roth, Bart Osburn, and Jim Phillips for reviewing previous drafts of this work and contributing their valuable comments. The paper has improved as a result of their insights.