Effect of the destructive disagreement belief on satisfaction with one's closest friend

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that, when imagining a serious disagreement with one's closest friend, verbalizing the irrational belief that disagreement is destructive would lead to greater relationship dissatisfaction than would verbalizing the rational belief that disagreement is not destructive. The author used two counter-demand-control conditions to test a second hypothesis that this effect would not be the result of demand characteristics. Undergraduates (119 women and 43 men) were randomly assigned to 1 of 5 conditions in a pretest-posttest design. In comparison with a control condition, posttest relationship dissatisfaction was significantly higher in the irrational condition and was lower, but not significantly so, in the rational condition. These results were not attributable to demand characteristics and suggested that this irrational belief increased relationship dissatisfaction.     

Facilitativeness,conflict, demand for approval,self-esteem,and satisfaction with romantic relationships

This study is an examination of the extent to which satisfaction with a main current romantic relationship is associated with negative conflict, demand for approval, self-esteem, and the 3 facilitative conditions of unconditional regard, empathy, and congruence. One or more of these conditions have been proposed as important determinants of relationship satisfaction by various relationship-enhancement approaches such as behavioral marital therapy and cognitive-behavioral marital therapy. College students (86 women and 58 men) completed S. S. Hendrick's (1988) Relationship Satisfaction Scale, a measure of negative conflict formulated by the author, R. G. Jones's (1969) Demand for Approval Scale (modified for a particular relationship), M. Rosenberg's (1965) Self-Esteem Scale, and a shortened modified version of G. T. Barrett-Lennard's (1964) Relationship Inventory. Relationship satisfaction was most strongly related to the level of regard and empathy, which is consistent with approaches to relationships that emphasize empathy training.     

Suggested Greek translations of expressions in the experimental analysis of behavior

Greek-English and English-Greek translations of expressions in the experimental analysis of behavior are presented. Included is a short discussion of some of the problems which arose, partly because of the mentalistic nature of Greek science.     

Some symmetric,invariant measures of multivariate association

A distinction is drawn between redundancy measurement and the measurement of multivariate association for two sets of variables. Several measures of multivariate association between two sets of variables are examined. It is shown that all of these measures are generalizations of the (univariate) squared-multiple correlation; all are functions of the canonical correlations, and all are invariant under linear transformations of the original sets of variables. It is further shown that the measures can be considered to be symmetric and are strictly ordered for any two sets of observed variables. It is suggested that measures of multivariate relationship may be used to generalize the concept of test reliability to the case of vector random variables.     

Gender Differences in Parental Coping Following their Child's Death

The impact of the deaths of 19 children from malignancy on subsequent patterns of maternal and paternal coping styles was evaluated in a retrospective study of Dutch parents. The parents had been bereaved on average for 19 months. Parental coping was measured by the Utrecht Coping List which has comparable male and female norm groups. Coping styles differed significantly between the bereaved parents and their respective norm groups, particularly for parents bereaved for 18 months or less. The impact of the loss of a child, in terms of their parents' capacity to cope with everyday problems and events, would appear to affect mothers and fathers rather differently. But fathers and mothers who had been bereaved for more than 18 months were both closer to their comparable coping style norm groups than those bereaved for less than that time.     

The mediation component of the hopelessness depression in relation to negative life events

A necessary test of the mediational processes component of the hopelessness theory of depression is to test whether the individuals who have negative attributional style and experience negative life events are likely to make negative attributions for the negative events they confront. The present study, using undergraduate students, find that the negative attributional style do not predict negative attributions subjects made for the negative life events they experience within a period of 3 months. However, subjects' negative attributions for the negative life events coupled with the experience of a high number of negative life events predicted their depressive symptomatology. The depressive symptomatology is found not to be mediated through hopelessness. The findings are discussed in relation to the hopelessness theory of depression.     

When patients contribute to the choice of treatment.…

To explore an alternative solution more appropriate to clinical standards than random assignment, 42 mothers consulting for a functional (sleep, feeding) or behavior problem of their infant were given the choice between two forms of mother–infant psychotherapy (Psychodynamic or Interaction Guidance). Clinicians, blind to mother's choice, followed a systematic indication procedure and provided a therapeutic recommendation. Results revealed a very high agreement between mother's choice and therapists' recommendation. Examination of patient and pretreatment variables showed no major differences between the two groups resulting from a choice of treatment procedure. This procedure proved to ensure internal validity of the data and was also able to guarantee external validity. Discussion focuses on the methodological and clinical implications of the findings that support the consideration of the patient as an active participant to his/her treatment. © 1998 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health     

Mother—infant psychotherapies: A widening scope in technique

Evidence-based practice in psychotherapy is gaining ground, but we are in great need of more detailed study concerning some basic aspects: the interrelationships between nonspecific and specific factors and their impact on outcome and the precise observation of what goes on between therapist and patient. A comparison of two forms of mother–infant psychotherapy reveals an important gap between what therapists believe and what they actually do. We describe several components of processes: the contribution of the infant, the treatment of affect, the construction of an interpretative focus, and the relationships between cognitive and emotional contributions. These observations indicate the need for a more realistic appraisal of what goes on in technique applications, as well as for a widening of the definition of technique. © 1998 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health     

Confirmatory factor analysis of the group environment questionnaire with co-acting sports

To assess whether the Group Environment Questionnaire is applicable to athletes in co-acting sports such as track and field, the factor structure of the Group Environment Questionnaire among a heterogeneous sample of 199 co-acting team sport athletes was investigated. A confirmatory factor analysis did not support the hypothesized four-factor model. A subsequent exploratory factor analysis yielded two independent factors that had no interpretable pattern of the four Group Environment Questionnaire factors within them. While this finding requires replication and confirmation, the four-factor model of the Group Environment Questionnaire does not appear to be as valid for co-acting sports as for interacting sports.