What Does It Mean to Be Relational? A Framework for Assessment and Practice

The authors begin with a question regarding how to better draw upon relational thinking in making case assessments and treatment plans. They first address issues regarding the cultural construction of self and relationships, integrating women's psychology, family systems, and collectivist culture literatures within a discussion of power. Then they present a heuristic framework for how individuals orient themselves within relationships that includes two dimensions--focus and power--and evolves out of the social context. From these two dimensions, a typology of four basic relational orientations is presented: position directed, rule directed, independence directed, and relationship directed. Case examples from couple's therapy and suggestions for practice are provided.     

Determinants of Multiple Informant Agreement on Child and Adolescent Behavior

This study examined whether characteristics of behavioral items reported by parent and child are related to parent–child agreement. Data were collected from 20 judges rating 59 child behaviors on 11 dimensions hypothesized to affect parent–child agreement. Data from 675 parent–child dyads (85% female caregivers, 62% male children, aged 7–17) reporting on 59 child behaviors were used to examine agreement. Behavior characteristics accounted for 43% of variability in parent–child agreement. Three components, saliency to the parent, saliency to the child, and observability/willingness to report, contributed uniquely to prediction of agreement.     

Comprehending pronouns: a role for word-specific gender stereotype information

The research investigated how word-specific gender stereotype information can be used during language comprehension. In a rating study, the gender stereotypes for 405 noun and noun compounds were assessed. From these norms, 32 words strongly stereotyped to refer mostly to males and 32 words strongly stereotyped to refer mostly to females were selected and used in a reading experiment. Comprehenders read pairs of sentences. The subject of the first sentence was a gender stereotyped word (e.g., executive or secretary). The subject of the second sentence was either the pronoun he or she. Reading time was significantly longer when gender of the pronoun mismatched the gender stereotype of the antecedent than when the genders of pronoun and antecedent matched. This gender mismatch effect occurred on the two regions immediately following the region containing the pronoun. The results indicated that word-specific gender stereotypes can influence coreference resolution of pronouns.     

Parent–Adolescent Agreement on Disruptive Behavior Symptoms: A Multitrait-Multimethod Model

This study examined parent–adolescent agreement on reports of inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity, and conduct disorder in 203 adolescents (94 girls, 109 boys) ranging in age from 13 to 18 years (M = 15.21, SD = 1.37). Results of confirmatory factor analyses provided additional evidence of construct validity for these traits in adolescents. Internal consistency was examined for parent reports and adolescent self-reports. In addition, correlational analyses were used in a multitrait-multimethod format (MTMM; D. T. Campbell & D. W. Fiske, 1959) to examine convergent and discriminant validity. Results showed that parents provided more consistent and valid reports of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity, whereas adolescents provided more consistent and valid reports of conduct disorder. In addition, interviews produced higher levels of convergence than rating scales. These findings are discussed in terms of implications for assessment of disruptive behavior disorders.     

A population-based study of body image concerns among urban Chinese adults

Using a nationally representative Chinese urban sample of 930 women and 893 men aged 20–45 who were married or had a steady sexual partner, this study examines the prevalence, risk factors and sequelae of body image concerns. Women's weight loss desires begin at modest BMI levels and are more pronounced among youth, among people of urban origin, and among the educated. Women also have stronger body image concerns if they are single, living in coastal areas, taller or larger than their partner, or if their relationship with their partner is poor. Moreover, women who perceive themselves as unattractive and who want to lose weight report more psychological distress. These findings suggest that China has joined the worldwide diffusion of the thin ideal, with negative consequences for women.     

Subject-Verb Agreement in Children and Adults: Serial or Hierarchical Processing?

Two processes, serial and hierarchical, are generally opposed to account for grammatical encoding in language production. In a developmental perspective, the question addressed here is whether the subject-verb agreement during writing is computed serially, once the words are linearly ordered in the sentence, or hierarchically, as soon as the number features are determined in a hierarchical frame. Adults and children from 3rd to 5th grades were requested to listen to sentences with built-in prepositional phrases or relative clauses and to transcribe them as quickly as possible. A serial hypothesis assumes that subject-verb agreement errors should be equally frequent with both preambles because each has the same length separating the subject head noun and the main verb. Conversely, according to a hierarchical view, errors should be more frequent with a prepositional phrase because the syntactic distance between the subject and the verb is greater than with a relative clause. The results revealed a main effect of the preamble manipulated in 5th graders and adults, but not in 3rd graders. These data were in favor of a hierarchical processing in older writers and a serial one in younger children. However, in 3rd grade, we assumed that the potential serial account was a result of the resource constraint on writing more than of a real serial processing of the agreement.     

Investigating the effects of distance and number interference in processing subject-verb dependencies: an ERP study

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to investigate whether the processing of subject-verb dependencies is influenced by (1) the linear distance between the subject and the verb and (2) the presence of an intervening noun phrase with interfering number features. Linear distance did not affect integration and diagnosis or revision processes at the verb, as indexed by early negative and P600 components. This is in accordance with hierarchy-based models of reanalysis, but is problematic for distance-based integration models. However, tracking of the subject features is affected by linear factors: more judgment errors were made in the long compared to the short condition. Furthermore, the presence of a plural object between the singular subject and the verb led to more judgment errors, and an enhanced positivity around 250 ms for the grammatical verbs. This suggests that linear factors affect feature tracking, but not integration processes following feature retrieval or repair processes following the detection of a mismatch.     

Women as wives and rulers in Martin Luther's theology

This article offers a theological analysis of Martin Luther's complex view on women and their role in society, focusing on his exposition of the narratives of creation and fall in the Lectures on Genesis. Luther's understanding of women is defined by an ostensible paradox. On the one hand, Luther claims that all women are equal to men in relation to God and hold the power to rule over the earth, which they execute as leaders of the household. On the other hand, Luther passes on a traditional view of women being of a weaker nature and argues that wives have to subordinate to their husbands. I interpret this understanding of women as an outcome of Luther's theological anthropology based on his doctrine of justification. Men and women are equal as priests and kings in relation to God and authorized to manage their relationship with him, to teach and pray for others, and to disobey authority that interferes with this faith relation. As sinners, though, they must submit to authority to suppress sin. Both men and women exercise authority through their gender-specific callings in the earthly hierarchies, which constitute God's created order. However, women have to subordinate to their husbands in order to suppress sin. The article discusses whether this complex view on women promoted patriarchal social structures or whether the freedom and equality of the spiritual realm over time filtered through to the role of women in society, paving the way for their liberation.     

Perceptions of dual career development among elite level swimmers and basketball players

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to (1) examine swimmers' and basketball players' perceptions of their dual career development (2) explore these perceptions for possible differences between male and female participants as well as between swimmers and basketball players.Design and methodSemi-structured interviews with 12 retired Slovene elite level swimmers and basketball players (six males and six females) were used to discuss about transitions, demands and challenges which occurred throughout their dual career development. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using the qualitative analytic software program Nvivo 10.ResultsQualitative analysis of interviews revealed that athletes perceived their athletic career in strong and reciprocal connection to other domains in their lives, i.e. academic/vocational, psychological, psychosocial, financial level. Some of the transitions occurring in their dual career were experienced as particularly important (e.g., transition to university, finishing university study) and connected to several challenges occurring at different levels of development. Differences between male and female participants, swimmers and basketball players in this study were identified.ConclusionThe study revealed a usefulness of using a holistic perspective when investigating athletes' dual career development, and a reciprocal nature of transitions occurring at different levels of athletes' development.     

A gendered approach to workforce participation patterns over the life course for an Australian baby boom cohort

Population ageing and its future implications for governments and individuals have been central to much policy debate and research targeted to retain older people in the workforce. This study identified workforce participation patterns across the adult life course for women and men entering later life, and explored the influences of various early and adult life socio-demographic circumstances. Data were collected from 1261 men and women aged 60 to 64 years in the Life History and Health (LHH) Survey (a sub-study of the Sax Institute's 45 and Up Study, Australia) in 2010–11. LHH provides detailed information on personal histories of paid work, socio-economic resources from childhood (number of books and father's occupation) and adult life factors such as educational attainment, marital histories, childcare and informal caring. Latent class analysis (LCA) was undertaken to identify patterns of workforce participation for participants across their adult life. Significant gender differences were confirmed. Further analysis (LCA with covariates) showed that women who reported having books during childhood, and those who had post-school qualification, were more likely to have mostly been in paid work and less likely to have not been in paid work; while ever partnered women had significantly higher odds of increasing part time work over time. Men who had reported ever having had informal caring activities were likely to have had decreasing participation in paid work over time, and were highly likely to be not in paid work after 55 years. Ever partnered status was protective for being in paid work for men. These findings indicate the need for gender-specific policies and strategies to enable continued workforce participation throughout adult life and into later working years, particularly for people who had fewer social or economic opportunities earlier in life.