Our Personal and Professional Lives: Learning Positive Connotation and Circular Questioning

The work of the Center for the Study of the Family in Milan has had wide influence. We describe its influence on us--the positive connotation of many car journeys, our self-training, and changes in how we view, and function in, our personal and professional lives.     

Profiles of adolescents' clothing practices: purchase, daily selection, and care

The purpose of this study was to examine the clothing practices in the daily selection, care, and purchase of clothing by adolescents in order to determine the extent these practices are performed independently or influenced by others, and to identify the factors involved in the activities. Clothing Practice Profiles were developed for both sexes in the three age groups corresponding to divisions in the Oregon 4-H program. The age group comparison revealed increasing frequency of independent activity in all three clothing practice areas (selection, care, and purchase) as age increased. Parental influence appeared to decrease with increasing age. Siblings' influence was minimal. Peer influence on selection and purchase practices increased. Media influence on daily clothing selection practices and clothing purchase practices in terms of wearing or buying identical or similar clothing was minimal. Media influence in advertisements increased with age, but purchases of advertised clothing items remained about the same. Age group comparisons were also made for selection factors and other care and purchase practices, including responsibilities for care of the member's and family's clothing, planning clothing purchases, sources of funds and methods of paying for clothing, use of clothing label information, and purchase factors.     

Combining psychodynamic and behavioral treatment approaches in the treatment of hospitalized adolescents

This article describes a treatment approach for hospitalized adolescents which attempts to address the "response generalization" problem encountered with behaviorally based treatment milieus. The program is described and preliminary data is given to support its techniques. The treatment program attempts to combine behavioral/objective techniques that are so effective in program management, with subjective/clinical strategies.     

Older adolescent females' knowledge of child development norms

This study, the first of three designed to investigate different age groups' knowledge of developmental norms of children, focused on older adolescent female university students. Data were collected from 280 midwestern university students through a questionnaire consisting of 16 items focusing on physical and social development of children from birth to three years of age. Results showed that knowledge of normal development was both over- and underestimated regardless of age of student or year in school. These findings are discussed within the context of the importance of knowledge of developmental norms for future parents.     

Pursuing and distancing: the construct and its measurement

Although the concept of interpersonal pursuing and distancing has been introduced and used clinically, the lack of a reliable and valid measure has deterred its more formal investigation and relevance to personality theory. The Pursuing-Distancing (P-D) Scale, a 92-item measure of the behavioral expression of these characteristics, was developed. Evidence for internal consistency as well as internal support of construct validity is presented and discussed. An 80-item revised scale is available from the authors and is currently being evaluated in a variety of external validation settings.