Have Hexagon Will Travel: An Interview With John Holland

John Holland is one of the major theorists, living or dead, in the area of career development/choice. He is the author of two books, more than 150 articles, and two inventories, one the popular Self-Directed Search. During the interview he seemed torn between his desire to be frank, honest, and outspoken, and his fear that should he be, the sex bias controversy that consumed so much of his time several years ago would be stirred up again. When he was first approached with the request for an interview, he declined because he felt that other individuals have made greater contributions than he. In this interview, Holland shares his views on how the SDS was developed, on the strengths and weaknesses of his theory, on how to provide vocational counseling efficiently, and outlines his hopes for the future.     

A Two Factor Taxonomy of Creative Bechavior

Two empirical studies examined the similarities and differences between creative professionals in science and art. In the first, 16PF personality profiles of industrial scientists, musicians and artists, and general undergraduates (N = 99) showed no difference between scientific and artistic groups on the Creativity composite index, and both groups differed significantly from general undergraduates. There were a few significant differences on specific traits, however. In the second study, self-reports of involvement in creative behavior collected from larger similar samples (N = 590) were factor analyzed. Two distinct but correlated factors (r = .32) emerged that separated artistic from scientific and business activity. The results indicated that people who specialize in one content domain often make contributions in other domains as well.     

The analyst's excitement in the analysis of perversion

The author believes that unconscious sexual excitement in the transference and countertransference is an especially problematic aspect of the analysis of perverse character pathology and that perverse sexual gratifi cation deserves a more prominent position in the clinical theory of analyzing perversion than that which has been assigned tacitly through analysts' routine focus on the defensive and destructive dynamics of perversion. He presents clinical material from the analysis of a perverse patient that illustrates the role of excitement in the transference perversion established in this analysis; and he asserts that gratifying perverse enactments occurring in the transference perversion can appear not only as conscious or unconscious excitement in the transference but also, at times most clearly, as the analyst's excitement. The author suggests that using a clinical theory that supports the analyst in understanding his excited responses as perverse countertransferences-i.e. evoked excitement complementary to the sexual component of a perverse transference-will assist him in locating and thinking about gratifying, perverse excitement in the transference where it is most usefully analyzed. Finally, he discusses some of the reasons why analysts might deny, suppress or otherwise avoid perverse countertransferences and in so doing contribute to sustaining perverse resistances.     

ON THE VALIDITY OF SUBJECTIVE MEASURES OF COMPANY PERFORMANCE

Subjective measures of company performance are widely used in research and typically are interpreted as equivalent to objective measures. Yet, the assumption of equivalence is open to challenge. We compared the use of both types of measure in 3 separate samples. Findings were consistent in showing that: (a) subjective and objective measures of company performance were positively associated (convergent validity); (b) those relationships were stronger than those between measures of differing aspects of performance using the same method (discriminant validity); and (c) the relationships of subjective and objective company performance measures with a range of independent variables were equivalent (construct validity).     

Explaining Support for Violating Out‐Group Human Rights in Conflict: Attitudes Toward Principles of Human Rights,Trust in the Out‐Group,and Intergroup Contact1

A public atmosphere that supports violating the human rights of out‐group members can enable or even encourage enacting such violations. We present a model that explains such support in terms of 2 underlying components: (a) support for violating general principles of human rights (SVHRG); and (b) lack of trust toward the specific out‐group. This model was successful (R² = .47) in predicting Jewish‐Israeli support for violating human rights of Palestinians (SVHRP). Structural equation modeling indicated that, consistent with our hypotheses, SVHRG and distrust of Palestinians each significantly contributed to predicting SVHRP; and contact with Palestinians and religiosity each significantly contributed to predicting trust in Palestinians, with more contact predicting higher trust and more religiosity predicting lower trust.     

System functioning in families with ADHD and non-ADHD sons

Eighteen families with hyperactive 6- to 12-year-old sons and 19 families with normal 6- to 12-year-old sons were observed discussing childrearing concerns in mother-father-son triads. Parents also completed questionnaires assessing marital and parent-child relationships. Observational ratings indicated that the hyperactive sons misbehaved more and exhibited less adaptive and age-appropriate behavior than did the comparison sons. The parents' self-report data indicated that the parents of hyperactive sons spent more time discussing their sons' problems and blaming their sons for family problems relative to parents of comparison sons. The parents of hyperactive sons also reported that their sons' problems distracted them from other marital and family concerns more than did parents of comparison sons. Nevertheless, parents of hyperactive sons did not report greater marital satisfaction or a greater sense of being unified by their sons' problems. Consistent with previous findings, families of hyperactive sons also did not report or exhibit more marital conflict than did families of comparison sons. This discussion focuses on the usefulness of a systems approach for understanding the interdependence among relationships within families.