The Effect of Forgiveness on Marital Satisfaction in Relation to Marital Stability

The present study examined the association between forgiveness and marital satisfaction in relation to marital stability. It was a comparative study between first-married and remarried adults involving 787 respondents from the Flanders region in Belgium. The current study showed that, although in the overall forgiveness, there was no significant difference between the first-married and remarried, the first-married significantly differed in two subscales of Enright Forgiveness Inventory (EFI) from the remarried. A significant difference in the marital satisfaction was found between the first-married and remarried adults. The present study also reported a significant positive correlation between forgiveness and general-life adjustment.This study was carried out at the Institute for the Family and Sexuality Sciences, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, as part of docotral research.     

Religiosity and Marital Satisfaction

This study examined the association between religiosity and marital satisfaction among first-married and remarried adults. Seven hundred and eighty-seven heterosexually married adults from the Flanders region in Belgium completed the Maudsley Marital Questionnaire (MMQ) and a four-item religiosity scale, measuring marital satisfaction and religiosity respectively. This study found the effect of gender and marital status statistically significant (p < .0001) on religiosity. For marital satisfaction, the effect of gender and marital status statistically significant only for MMQ-S (p < .0001) and MMQ-M (p < .0001) respectively. Religiosity had a significant positive correlation (r = .19, p < .0001) with sexual-adjustment problems (MMQ-S). The ultimate aim of this study was to inform marital and relational therapists the value of a possible association religiosity has on marital satisfaction.This study was conducted at the Institute for the Family and Sexuality Sciences, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, as part of doctoral research.     

城市贫困人口心理和社会稳定

由于社会转型,产业结构的调整以及个人等方面原因产生了下岗职工、农村进城务工人员和贫困大学生等大量的城市贫困人口。笔者从城市贫困者的个人社会等级评定、对贫富分化现状的态度以及分化程度的容忍度上分析城市贫困者心理差异对社会稳定的影响。     

Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) scores with a collegiate sample: Long-term stability and self-other agreement

This study examined (a) the stability of the personality and symptom scales of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) for a sample of university undergraduates and (b) the correspondence between MCMI scores from self-report versus scores obtained from knowledgeable others who responded by describing the subject rather than themselves. The MCMI was administered to subjects during their freshman year and then again during their senior year. As in clinical populations, stability estimates in this collegiate sample were greater for the basic personality scales than for the symptom scales. Comparison of the results with those from previous studies further showed that the stability coefficients for the collegiate sample were somewhat lower overall than those from treatment follow-up studies with clinical populations. The results also showed that reasonable agreement between self- and others' ratings was obtained on most MCMI scales. The greatest agreement was found for scales that reflect more observable behaviors and relate to an introversion-extroversion dimension, whereas the least agreement was found for scales related to a psychoticism dimension. Lower levels of agreement were also found for scales having a lower mean proportion of items endorsed.This study was sponsored in part by PHS Grant R01 MH31750-01-6, by PHS Grant 5R01 AA06754-01-03, and by funds from the University of Connecticut Research Foundation and Computer Center.     

Stability of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory among psychiatric inpatients

This study investigated the stability of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) in a sample of psychiatric inpatients over a longer time period and from different perspectives than previous reliability studies. Test-retest reliability was assessed from three perspectives: correlation/regression, equivalence of dimensional structures across testings upon different admissions, and stability of personality style across testings. Some stability from a correlational perspective was found, with higher stability estimates indicated for the basic personality scales in comparison with the clinical symptom scales which is consistent with Millon's theory. The internal structure of the MCMI was essentially identical across testings. Although source of reinforcement and instrumental or coping style were stable across testings beyond chance, the MCMI profiles of a considerable number of subjects were inconsistent across testings. Correspondingly, clinicians should be cautious in using the MCMI to make categorical decisions regarding personality style with inpatients who are tested at admission and who have had repeated hospitalizations.     

The stability and clinical significance of distress: A rejoinder to pepper and coyne

Past research has established that some individuals with high Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scores at one time point have scores that are lower at a second time point. Recently, we provided evidence indicating that the temporal instability of certain BDI scores may be due partly to the regression to the mean phenomenon. Pepper and Coyne (1996) question this statistical interpretation; they argue that distress among students is unstable for substantive reasons. In the current paper, we reaffirm our view that statistical and measurement factors may account, in part, for changes in BDI scores over time. Given this possibility, inferences about distress or depression as a latent construct in student samples are not warranted if these inferences are based on the administration of a single instrument such as the BDI; any conclusions about distress as a psychological construct must be qualified by acknowledging the possible roles of error and method variance. Clearly, empirical research is needed in order to obtain a better understanding of the nature of distress as a latent variable, especially in light of evidence which indicates that subthreshold levels of depression have a high degree of clinical significance.     

The relation between sociopolitical cognition and attitude consistency and stability among young people in Sweden: What does the schema concept add?

Earlier research has suggested cognitive processes to be important in the formation of social attitudes among young people. A question thus raised concerns the nature of these processes. Certain features of sociopolitical sophistication (schema-wise information processing) can be isolated which have an impact on the way sociopolitical attitudes are expressed. The main purpose of this study was to operationalize these features in sociopolitical sophistication, and study their relations to attitude consistency and stability among young people. The sample consisted of 542 children and adolescents from metropolitan Stockholm. Results from factor analyses revealed (a) two factors in sociopolitical cognition, differentiation and integration, and (b) two factors in sociopolitical attitudes, consistency and stability. Correlation analyses displayed only a few relations, i.e. attitude consistency within the most narrow domains (self-defined categories) seemed to decrease with increasing integration. In light of these results it is concluded that these young subjects certainly have cognitive structures for sociopolitical issues, although these structures are not necessarily hierarchically organized.     

Negative emotionality and positive/social behavior in rural appalachian infants: Prediction from caregiver and infant characteristics

This study explored stability and change in two aspects of infant temperamental behavior in a sample of 94 economically-disadvantaged rural Appalachian families. Regressions were used to predict Time 2 temperament for infants who increased and dereased in negative emotionality and positive/social behavior. Both infant and caregiving environment factors contributed to explaining change in first-year behavior. In this sample, maternal social support predicted more optimal change in infants' negative emotionality and positive/social behavior. Receiving public assistance and minor perinatal risk were associated with slower decline in negative emotionality and emergence of positive/social behavior.     

Age trends in early behavioral predictors of serious antisocial behaviors

A risk group of disruptive boys (N=65) identified in kindergarten was assessed using the same procedures at ages 6–7, 8–9, and 10–11. Criteria used to define the predictors and criterion variable were the same at all assessment times. Severity was addressed by comparing different forms of behaviors, considering the extent of harmful consequences to others (aggressiveness was considered as most harmful, whereas inattention was considered as least harmful), manifestation in multiple settings, and extreme scores (manipulation of cutoff scores). Different assessment strategies (direct observations, ratings) and different informants (trained observers, mothers and teachers) were used. Aggressiveness as rated by mothers was highly stable from age 6 to age 11. Inattention as rated by teachers was stable only from age 6 to age 9, whereas no stability was found for observations of task inappropriate behaviors. Taskinappropriate behaviors observed in mother-child interactions and in multiple settings at age 6–7 were significant predictors of self-reported antisocial behaviors at age 12, but this prediction was not repeated at ages 8–9 and 10–11. Teacher ratings of inattention at ages 6–7 and 8–9 were also significant predictors of self-reported antisocial behaviors at age 12. The predictive power was much lower when mothers' ratings of aggressiveness were used. Findings from the present study support the hypothesis that some antisocial behavior precursors are age dependent, in that they are more characteristic of certain age groups than of others. Implications for the selection of assessment screening procedures are discussed.     

成人依恋的稳定性

基于依恋"内部工作模式"的稳定性,研究者们认为成人依恋具有跨时间的连续性,可以通过不同时间测得的依恋风格的稳定性来考察。采用各种自陈式问卷和半结构访谈方法的研究显示,在成人发展的不同时期,成人依恋风格均具有中等程度的稳定性。这样的结果暗含了成人依恋也有波动和变化的空间,研究者们提出生活压力、社会认知和个体差异三种模型对成人依恋的变化进行了不同角度的解释。成人依恋稳定性方面已经积累了二十多年的研究成果,但在研究对象的范围、解释模型的建构和研究方法的创新等方面仍存在可改进的空间。