AFFECTION AND RECIPROCITY IN SELF-DISCLOSING COMMUNICATION

Affection for and reciprocated disclosure by the other are generally thought to increase a person's willingness to engage in self-disclosing communication. The relationship between affection and disclosure is not consistently supported by the data, however, and the relationship between reciprocity and disclosure may well be an artifact of a confounded conceptualization of dyadic relations. Wright's model of same-sex friendships is proposed as more adequate than simple affection as a conceptualization of interpersonal relationships, and an adapted form of Chaffee and McLeod's coorientational paradigm is employed as a model of reciprocated disclosure. The hypotheses that affection accounts for less variance in disclosure than other criteria of friendship and that disclosure varies as a function of perceived rather than actual similarity were strongly supported. Although male and female subjects disclosed differently, hypotheses about sex differences in disclosure were not supported, failing to replicate previous findings. The implications of these data for further studies of self-disclosing communication are discussed.     

TOWARD A THEORY OF FRIENDSHIP BASED ON A CONCEPTION OF SELF

The present theory of friendship is based on a conception of self that regards a central motive to be the person's concern for the well-being and worth of the entity (s) he identifies as self. This concern manifests itself in tendencies to affirm one's sense of individuality, affirm one's more important self-attributes, evaluate one's self positively, and change toward positive self-growth. Friendship involves investments of self in a relationship characterized by the partners' voluntary interdependence and personalized concern for one another. The investment, entailing expenditures of time, personal resources, and personalized concern yields dividends experienced concretely as a partner's self-affirmation value, ego support value, stimulation value, or utility value. Several facets of friendship growth and change are considered, including the degree to which the relationship is difficult to maintain.     

Discovering Ourselves by Unfolding our Panorama: Interviewing Pioneers in Counseling

In the last analysis, the essential thing is the life of the individual. This alone makes history, here alone do the great transformations first take place, and the whole future, the whole history of the world, ultimately spring as a gigantic summation from these hidden sources in individuals. In our most private and most subjective lives we are not only the passive witnesses of our age, and its sufferers, but also its makers.     

MEASUREMENT ERROR IN RESEARCH ON THE HUMAN RESOURCES AND FIRM PERFORMANCE RELATIONSHIP: FURTHER EVIDENCE AND ANALYSIS

Our earlier article in Personnel Psychology demonstrated how general-izability theory could be used to obtain improved reliability estimates in the human resource (HR) and firm performance literature and that correcting for unreliability using these estimates had important implications for the magnitude of the HR and firm performance relationship. In their comment, Huselid and Becker both raise criticisms specific to our study and broad issues for the field to consider. In our present article, we argue, using empirical evidence whenever possible, that the issues and criticisms raised by Huselid and Becker do not change our original conclusions. We also provide new evidence on how the reliability of HR-related measures may differ at different levels of analysis. Finally, we build on Huselid and Becker's helpful discussion of broad research design and strategy issues in the HR and firm performance literature in an effort to help researchers make better informed choices regarding their own research designs and strategies in the area.     

Sibling differentials in power and memory conformity

How much a person conforms to another person's memory report can depend on the power and credibility of this person, even if these factors are manipulated by the experimenter. The aim of the current study was to establish whether memory conformity is also affected by power in pairs involving natural power differentials, in this case siblings. Pairs of adult siblings were shown 50 photographs of faces and then given a recognition test where one partner had to answer before the other. The findings showed that what one sibling reported affected what the other one reported. Contrary to our expectations, however, there was no significant difference in conformity between the younger and the older sibling. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Ego development in women without higher education

The study presents evidence that interpersonal and situational complexity, confrontation and conflict advance ego development in women. Thirty-two pregnant women of moderate education and from modest educational backgrounds were studied. Loevinger's Sentence Completion Test was used to measure ego development, and interviews and tests with the subjects and their mothers formed the data from which the mother daughter, father-daughter and parental relationship were assessed along with evaluation of environmental strain during childhood. The findings suggest that women at higher, compared to lower, stages of ego development are more individuated, and reared to more independence and conflict-tolerance by less responsive, but more active and socially engaged mothers. High ego-level daughters also had conflicted and overinvolved relationships to the fathers. Ego development was related to early environmental stress, parental marital strain and to present environmental stress. Personality or adjustment variables were not related to ego development. The relationship between ego development and complexities in the social environment was seen in light of the traditional over-socialization of females which may impede ego development.     

Adult attachment style and partner choice: Correlational and experimental findings

Three studies were conducted to assess the role of attachment style in partner selection using both correlational and experimental methods. Study 1 (n = 83 couples) assessed correlations between partner ratings on attachment-style dimensions and the relations between own and partner attachment style and relationship satisfaction. In Study 2 (n = 226) and Study 3 (n = 146), participants who varied in terms of attachment style rated the desirability of potential partners who also differed in terms of attachment style. Results of all three studies generally suggested that individuals were most attracted to partners with similar attachment styles. For example, anxious individuals tended to be dating anxious partners in Study 1, and they preferred anxious partners over secure and avoidant partners in Studies 2 and 3 (combined data). Thus, not all individuals preferred secure partners. Second, unlike previous studies that looked primarily at partner correlations, there was no evidence of anxious/avoidant matching. In fact, anxious individuals seemed particularly averse to avoidant partners. Finally, ratings of parental caregiving styles (especially ratings of mothers) were associated with adult attachment dimensions and partner choices. For example, individuals who rated their mothers as more cold and ambivalent were less attracted to secure partners. Clinical and research implications are discussed.