Parents' disclosure of their own concerns to their adolescent children

This study examines middle-aged parents' disclosure about their own lives and current concerns, with their late-adolescent children. Three hundred seventy-two parents of college freshmen, averaging 47 years of age, participated by filling out an anonymous questionnaire that asked about 28 topics, varying in intimacy, of concern to adults. The subjects indicated whether they had discussed each topic with their child, and, if they had, the motivations that prompted them to do so. The data revealed that mothers disclosed more than did fathers, and they were more likely to cite “venting,”“asking advice,” and “seeking emotional support” as reasons for disclosure; fathers were more likely to cite “trying to change his/her behavior” as a rationale for disclosure. Child's gender did not affect disclosure rates, but sons and daughters were disclosed to for different reasons. Divorced parents disclosed more than did parents from continuously intact families, and they cited somewhat different reasons for disclosure.     

Choice frequency and similarity

Abstract.— Within the framework of a Thurstonian approach to social choice frequencies, an assumption of a positive correlation between similarity and correlation predicts smaller standard deviations of utility differences for more similar choice objects. This prediction was supported in two studies of similarity and preference, one concerned with social science disciplines and the other with Swedish political parties. Implications for understanding social choice phenomena in politics and marketing are discussed.     

Common sense and psychological phenomena: A reply to Smedslund

Smedslund's argument that psycho-social reality is revealed by common sense is shown to be based on a confusion between logical inference and psychological induction. Common sense has no privileged access to psychological reality and is affected profoundly by reasoning errors. Its structure is loose, allowing for post hoc "explanations" of everything and clear-cut predictions of nothing.     

Queerness,Disability, and The Vagina Monologues

This paper questions the connection between vaginas and feminist embodiment in The Vagina Monologues and considers how the text both challenges and reinscribes (albeit unintentionally) systems of patriarchy, compulsory heterosexuality, and ableism. I use the Intersex Society of North America's critique as a point of departure and argue that the text offers theorists and activists in feminist, queer, and disability communities an opportunity to understand how power operates in both dominant discourses that degrade vaginas and strategies of feminist resistance that seek to reclaim and celebrate them.     

The Relationship Between Diverse Components of Intelligence and Creativity

Intelligence and creativity are accounted for in terms of two different mental operations referred to as ‘convergent thinking’ and ‘divergent thinking’, respectively. Nevertheless, psychometric evidence on the relationship between intelligence and creativity has been controversial. To clarify their relationship, we characterized the relationship between diverse components of intelligence and creativity through the administration of psychometric tests on a large sample (WAIS, RPM, and TTCT‐figural: n = 215; TTCT‐verbal: n = 137). The general intelligence factor (g) score showed significant correlations with both TTCT‐figural and TTCT‐verbal scores. However, sub‐dimensional analysis demonstrated that their association was attributable to the specific components of both TTCTs (TTCT‐figural: Abstractness of Titles, Elaboration, and Resistance to Premature Closure; TTCT‐verbal: Flexibility) rather than to their common components (Fluency and Originality). Among the intelligence sub‐dimensions, crystallized intelligence (gC) played a pivotal role in the association between g and the specific components of both TTCTs. When the total sample was divided into two IQ groups, these phenomena were more evident in the average IQ group than in the high IQ group. These results suggest that the mental operation of creativity may be different from that of intelligence, but gC may be used as a resource for the mental operation of creativity.     

Do you remember?: Recollections of adult attachment patterns

To determine if memory biases influence recall of attachment patterns, we examined retrospective reports of adult attachment patterns in a sample of young established couples. At time 1, participants reported their attachment patterns on a self-report attachment measure (RQ). Eight months later, participants completed the RQ to assess their current attachment patterns, as well as their memory of their attachment patterns 8 months earlier. Seventy-eight percent of participants reported that their past attachment category was consistent with their current category, and 58% of participants accurately recalled their predominant time 1 attachment category. Parallel results were obtained with continuous attachment ratings We also found strong reconstructive biases: Participants’memories of their past attachment patterns were biased by their current patterns. Secure and insecure individuals did not differ in their perceptions of stability, their accuracy of recall, or the degree to which they demonstrated a consistency bias. Finally, with few exceptions, memories for time 1 attachment ratings were not biased by current relationship satisfaction, current partner attachment ratings, or reported life events. The importance of studying reconstructive biases in the field of adult attachment is discussed.