A Developmental, Conceptual Premise for Family Therapy

The article describes an hypothesis about the staging of the development of the family system for use in diagnostic understanding and treatment planning with families.     

NEEDS AND NEED SATISFACTION AMONG CLERICAL WORKERS IN COMPLEX AND ROUTINE JOBS

Reliable measurement of needs and need satisfaction on Maslow's hierarchy is possible. Clerical employees (mainly female) indicated a high need for self-actualization and autonomy. In this respect they are similar to lower level managers described by Porter (1962) and women described by Jurgensen (1949). There was no substantial difference in need satisfaction patterns between clerical employees in routine jobs and those in more complex clerical jobs. Similarly, no difference was found in the motivation of these two groups. It was concluded that jobs which appear to management as higher in responsibility and complexity, and which are commonly viewed as promotions, may not always provide additional satisfactions in self-actualization, autonomy, or esteem. This study focused on the importance of defining accurately what constitutes job enlargement. An increase in variety and responsibility does not necessarily result in increasing higher order need satisfaction or motivation. How much job enlargement makes a difference in these variables is still open to question and must be the subject of further investigation.     

Men's sociosexuality is sensitive to changes in mate availability

Correlational research has linked mate availability to human sexual behavior, whereby unrestricted sociosexuality seems to be most common under conditions of female abundance. In this study, 71 heterosexual men were randomly assigned to one of two mate availability priming conditions, mate scarcity or mate abundance, and subsequently completed measures of sociosexuality as well as infidelity intentions. Results indicated that men in the mate abundance condition reported stronger sociosexual attitudes and desires, and among those currently in relationships, stronger infidelity intentions. These findings were contrasted with those from a separate sample of 66 heterosexual undergraduate women. Mate scarcity had no effects on women's sociosexuality or infidelity intentions. Findings suggest that when mates are scarce, men will adopt a sociosexual orientation aimed at maintaining a single partner.     

Insecure romantic attachment dimensions and frequency of mate retention behaviors

Individual differences in attachment bonds may influence the performance of mate retention behaviors. Because anxiously attached individuals are hypervigilant to partner rejection cues, we hypothesize that individuals higher in anxious attachment will perform more frequent mate retention behaviors. Because avoidantly attached individuals evade intimacy with their partners, we hypothesize that individuals higher in avoidant attachment will perform less frequent mate retention behaviors. Participants (N = 469) in a romantic relationship completed measures of romantic attachment and mate retention behaviors. The results provide support for the study hypotheses but also reveal that avoidantly attached women perform more frequent mate retention behaviors that deter intrasexual rivals. We discuss limitations of this research and highlight directions for research on romantic attachment, mate retention behaviors, and infidelity.     

SINCE WHEN IS NO NEWS GOOD NEWS? THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERFORMANCE AND RESPONSE RATES IN MULTIRATER FEEDBACK

Despite the popularity of multirater feedback in practice and research, few studies have examined the issue of response rates in these efforts. This study explored the relationship between performance, vis-á-vis a measure of service quality, and feedback response rates in a large-scale developmental multirater feedback initiative using data from 538 senior service providers, 4,446 coworkers and supervisors, and 1,617 clients. The number of rater responses that the focal individual received was largely unrelated to his or her performance level as rated by his or her clients. More specifically, less than 2% of the variance in response rates was explained by the focal individual's performance. Data representativeness and feedback acceptance implications are discussed.     

Patterns of Preference for Numerical and Verbal Probabilities

We report results of an experiment designed to test a principle formulated by Budescu and Wallsten (1995), that, when communicating uncertainty information, mode choices are sensitive to sources and degrees of vagueness. In addition, we examined subjects’ efficacy in using such uncertainty information as a function of communication mode, source, and vagueness. In phase one of the experiment, subjects in a dyad used precise (numerical) or imprecise (verbal) expressions to communicate to a remote partner precise or vague uncertainty about the likelihoods of events. Spinner outcomes were used to generate precise uncertainty while answers to almanac questions were used to elicit vague uncertainty. In phase two, subjects saw the events paired with their partners’ estimates of similar events, and were asked to gamble on one event from each pair. Communication mode preferences were measured as the relative frequency that subjects chose the numerical mode to either express or receive uncertainty information regarding the events. Efficacy was measured as the relative frequency that subjects choose from the pair the event associated with the objectively more probable uncertainty expression. Underlying uncertainty interacted with direction of communication to affect preferences for modes of expression of the probabilities. Subjects preferred precise (numerical) information, especially for precise events (spinners). For vague events (questions), their preference for precise (numerical) information was stronger when receiving than when communicating information. Similar preferences were reflected in the efficiency of subsequent gamble decisions based on the probability estimates. Specifically, decisions were more efficacious (i.e. consistent with Expected Utility) when degrees of precision in events and estimates matched. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.