A social categorical approach to a question about love

Although scholars' interest in love phenomena has continued to increase in recent years, a common conceptual language for the study of love has not yet emerged, as is evidenced by the large number of love taxonomies and associated vocabularies that have been advocated. A promising avenue for the development of a common scientific vocabulary of love lies in the systematic examination of the love vocabularies of laypersons to identify what varieties of love, if any, their lexicon reflects. Several means by which love researchers have attempted such examinations are described and illustrated with reference to the linguistic expressions “love” and “in love.” These methods include direct questioning, autobiographical reports, inferential studies, and the prototype approach, which introduces the probabilistic view of cognitive categorization structure and process to the study of love. Several of the underlying assumptions of the prototype approach are discussed and contrasted to those of the social categorical approach we present here. The social categorical method is described in this approach, respondents place persons in their actual social worlds into social categories, and the associations among the memberships of those categories are examined. Finally, the implications of some of the findings derived from this method for a taxonomy of love and for the study of interpersonal relationships are discussed.     

Gender-related personality traits and interpersonal resource exchange among brother—sister relationships

Brother-sister relationships are understudied within the field of personal relationships. Accordingly, the present study examines patterns of interpersonal resource exchange (drawing upon resource exchange theory; Foa & Foa, 1974), along with influences of gender-related personality traits (i.e., agency and communion) on individuals’giving of interpersonal resources (i.e., affection and respect), among 79 brother-sister pairs. Consistent with predictions, brothers’and sisters’exchanges of both affection and respect were positive and significant. Also, consistent with predictions, communion was a positive and significant predictor of respectful behavior among sisters. However, contrary to hypotheses, communion did not achieve or approach significance as a predictor of respectful behavior among brothers, nor did communion achieve or approach significance as a predictor of affectionate behavior among sisters or brothers Implications for the study of male-female relationships in general—and brother-sister relationships in particular—are discussed.     

Pursuing the Horizon: Striving for Elusive Goals

Counselors are often confronted with client goals that seem to be, at varying levels of awareness, elusive to either the counselor or the client.     

Trick‐or‐Treat Candy‐Getters and Hornet Scare Devices: Second Graders Make Creative Inventions Related to Animal Adaptations

This repeated measures study examined second graders' (n = 21) performance in creating inventions related to animal adaptations for simple products under two conditions that alternated each week for a six‐week period. In the analogy condition, students used form and function analogy object boxes to learn about animal adaptations, applying these concepts with the SCAMPER technique to generate a new product with a given item. In the traditional condition, students learned about animal adaptations through text/Internet searches and created a puppet play to organize, reinforce, and share these ideas. Students discussed ideas, and then brainstormed product inventions for given items. In both conditions, students drew advertisements for their inventions that were scored for inventiveness content and creativity. Weekly inventiveness content scores and creativity scores were higher for the experimental condition than for the traditional condition with large effect sizes.     

Childhood trauma and psychosis: Review of the evidence and directions for psychological interventions

There is controversy over whether childhood trauma (CT) is a causal risk factor for psychosis. The aim of this study was to provide psychologists with a brief overview of the research into relationship between childhood trauma and psychosis and directions for psychological interventions. It details six of the highest quality studies in the area and tentatively concludes from these that there is evidence for a relationship between CT and psychosis. Hallucinations and delusions have been implicated as important factors in the relationship between CT and psychotic disorder and these are discussed, along with post‐traumatic intrusions and schemas, which have been conceptualised as part of the psychological mechanisms whereby CT confers a risk for psychosis. The development of psychological interventions for people with psychosis who have experienced CT is in its infancy but has been based on evidence‐based cognitive behavioural interventions in psychosis and post‐traumatic stress disorder. A formulation‐based approach is described in this paper, along with a case study.     

Rudeness at 911 Reconceptualizing Face and Face Attack

This article analyzes two telephone calls from citizens to a 911 center in a large city in the Western United States in which call-takers became angry and attacked the face of the callers. After reviewing past theoretical conceptualizations of face and face attack, the authors analyze the calls using a facework lens. Through a close study of the discourse, the authors show the subtle and blatant ways in which vocal delivery, substance and type of selected speech acts, second pair parts, and selected stance indicators do face attack. Then, they consider how context may contribute to the call-takers' usage of these problematic conversational strategies. The article concludes by assessing how notions of face and face attack would be reconceptualized if future research adopted the grounded practical theory frame that informs this 911 case study.     

Prediction and Intervention in Health-Related Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Review of Protection Motivation Theory

Protection motivation theory (PMT) was introduced by Rogers in 1975 and has since been widely adopted as a framework for the prediction of and intervention in health-related behavior. However. PMT remains the only major cognitive model of behavior not to have been the subject of a meta-analytic review. A quantitative review of PMT is important to assess its overall utility as a predictive model and to establish which of its variables would be most useful to address health-education interventions. The present paper provides a comprehensive introduction to PMT and its application to health-related behavior, together with a quantitative review of the applications of PMT to health-related intentions and behavior. The associations between threat- and coping-appraisal variables and intentions, and all components of the model and behavior were assessed both by meta-analysis and by vote-count procedures. Threat- and coping-appraisal components of PMT were found to be useful in the prediction of health-related intentions. The model was found to be useful in predicting concurrent behavior, but of less utility in predicting future behavior. The coping-appraisal component of the model was found to have greater predictive validity than was the threat-appraisal component. The main findings are discussed in relation to theory and research on social cognition models. The importance of the main findings to health education is also discussed, and future research directions are suggested.     

Coparenting dynamics: Mothers' and fathers' differential support and involvement

This study utilizes the actor–partner interdependence model to examine mothers' and fathers' support of their partner and involvement in parental decision making during coparenting interactions in relation to cooperative and competitive coparenting in a sample of 125 first‐time parents with a 24‐month‐old child. Fathers showed greater instances of support for their partner than did mothers, and mothers demonstrated higher levels of involvement in parenting decisions than did fathers. Mothers' higher support of fathers' parenting was related negatively to competitive coparenting and positively to fathers' involvement. Fathers' higher support of mothers and higher involvement in parenting decisions was related to higher cooperative coparenting. Implications for family intervention and future research are discussed.