Teaching relationship science: Continuity and change in the craft

Relationship science is a dynamic, flourishing enterprise, with numerous discoveries and new lines of inquiry evident in recent changes in its textbooks and the teaching activities invented by its instructors. To survey changes and challenges in the teaching of courses that introduce students to relationship science—and to pursue “news instructors can use”—we surveyed 135 instructors of relationships courses regarding their teaching tactics and experiences. Guided by their responses and suggestions for further inquiry, we also examined the changes in textbooks on which they rely and reviewed teaching activities created to assist them with their teaching over the last 20 years. At present, some topics are nearly universal components of relationships courses but idiosyncrasy exists, particularly with regard to new topics—such as coverage of technology, intersectionality, or consensual nonmonogamy—that instructors plan to include in revisions of their courses. Suggestions for both new and experienced instructors are provided.     

Sequence learning and selection difficulty

The authors studied the role of attention as a selection mechanism in implicit learning by examining the effect on primary sequence learning of performing a demanding target-selection task. Participants were trained on probabilistic sequences in a novel version of the serial reaction time (SRT) task, with dual- and triple-stimulus participants having to ignore irrelevant items in the SRT display. Despite large performance decrements under dual- and triple-stimulus configurations, testing under single-stimulus conditions revealed no impairment to sequence learning. These findings suggest that implicit sequence learning is resistant to disruption of the selection process. Results are discussed in terms of a componential model of attention and in relation to the implicit-explicit distinction.     

Clarifying the convergence between obsessive compulsive personality disorder criteria and obsessive compulsive disorder

In this study we examined the convergence between obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) criteria and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Baseline assessments of 629 participants of the Collaborative Longitudinal Personality Disorders Study were used to examine the associations between OCPD criteria and diagnoses of OCD. Three of the eight OCPD criteria--hoarding, perfectionism, and preoccupation with details--were significantly more frequent in subjects with OCD (n = 89) than in subjects without OCD (n = 540). Logistic regressions were used to predict the probability of each OCPD criterion as a function of Axis I diagnoses (OCD, additional anxiety disorders, and major depressive disorder). Associations between OCD and these three OCPD criteria remained significant in the logistic regressions, showing unique associations with OCD and odds ratios ranging from 2.71 to 2.99. In addition, other anxiety disorders and major depressive disorder showed few associations with specific OCPD criteria. This study suggests variability in the strength of the relationships between specific OCPD criteria and OCD. The findings also support a unique relationship between OCPD symptoms and OCD, compared to other anxiety disorders or major depression. Future efforts to explore the link between Axis I and Axis II disorders may be enriched by conducting analyses at the symptom level.     

Rotary motion and efferent readiness

Two experiments were conducted to test the influence of a readiness to make a rotary movement on the perception of rotary motion. In both experiments, Os monocularly viewed a stimulus whose direction of rotation is ambiguous while they were set or prepared to make a crank-turning motor response in a particular direction. Experiment 1 demonstrated that the initially perceived direction of rotation was more stable, i.e., lasted longer, if it was consistent with the direction in which Os were prepared to turn the crank. The effect of a readiness for motor activity on the stability of rotary motion was similar to the previously determined effect of overt motor activity. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the perception of the initial direction of rotation was shaped by a readiness to make a directional motor response.     

Men's and women's emotional disclosures: The impact of disclosure recipient,culture, and the masculine role

People vary in how willingly and how often they discuss their emotional experiences with others. A new Emotional Self-Disclosure Scale was used in three separate investigations to examine (Study I) men's and women's willingness to discuss their emotions with parents and therapists, (Study II) the impact of gender and culture on emotional disclosures to male and female friends and therapists, and (Study III) the impact of gender and the masculine role on willingness to emotionally disclose to parents and therapists. The results indicated that (a) female disclosers and female disclosure recipients, particularly mothers, were associated with greater willingness to emotionally disclose; (b) females from Mexico reported the most extensive disclosure of their emotions; and (c) the restrictive emotionality and inhibited affection aspects of the masculine role were negatively related to men's and women's willingness to be open and revealing about their emotional experiences, whereas the success dedication aspect of the masculine role was positively related to women's willingness to be emotionally open. The discussion focuses on the implications of the current findings and the relationship context of people's emotional disclosures.Portions of these data were presented at the 32nd (Austin, Texas), 33rd (New Orleans, Louisiana), and 34th (Tulsa, Oklahoma) annual meeting of the Southwestern Psychological Association. Gratitutde is extended to two anonymous reviewers and Richard Archer for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article.     

The effect of high and low assertiveness on locus of control and health problems

The effect of high and low assertiveness on locus of control and health problems was examined with 78 direct-service workers in mental health and mental retardation settings in northeastern Pennsylvania. The direct-service workers completed the Rathus (1973) Assertiveness Schedule, the Rotter (1966) Internal-External Locus of Control Scale, and a health-problems inventory. Highly assertive individuals were found to be more internally controlled and to experience fewer health problems than were individuals low in assertiveness.     

How Charity Transcends the Culture Wars: Eugene Rogers and Others on Same-Sex Marriage

In 1994 the "Ramsey Colloquium," under the leadership of Richard John Neuhaus, posed a challenge to what it called the "homosexual movement" within the Christian Church. The challenge was to prove that it had reasons distinguishable from secular liberalism—reasons consistent with orthodox Christian theology—in favor of same-sex coupling. Eugene Rogers's book, Sexuality and the Christian Body: Their Way into the Triune God , can be read as a response to this challenge. The book is important not only for the content of its arguments, which are imaginative and theologically rigorous, but also for the exemplary way in which Rogers exhibits charity in his account of his conservative opponents. Rogers's recent anthology, Theology and Sexuality , provides additional evidence that a new, more promising debate is arising within the Church, a debate that has some hope of transcending the rhetoric of the culture wars.     

Practical reasoning and practical knowledge

The judgement that provides the content of intention and coincides with the conclusion of practical reasoning is a normative judgement about what to do, and not, as Anscombe and McDowell argue, a factual judgement about what one is doing. Treating the conclusion of practical reasoning as expressing a recommendation rather than a verdict undermines McDowell’s argument; the special nature of practical reasoning does not preclude its conclusions being normative. Anscombe’s and McDowell’s claim that practical self-knowledge is productive of action may be accommodated by identifying the content of practical knowledge not with the conclusion but with a premise of practical reasoning – a kind of practical reasoning that occurs within rather than before action.