Gender bias and individualism: Responses to case vignettes among psychologists, professors, and students

This study examined the extent to which psychologists, when compared to university professors and evening school students, employ individualist values differentially in their responses to vignettes describing males and females. The participants responded to 6 vignettes by choosing initial hypotheses that reflected either utilitarian (tradition-ally masculine) or expressive (traditionally feminine) themes. Two vignettes involved a sex of client manipulation, but neither resulted in a sex of client effect. An analysis of the responses to the remaining 4 vignettes indicated a marked preference for the masculine form of individualism for males, but were evenly divided for females in all three groups. These results suggest that psychologists were just as likely to engage in bias as others.     

The virtue of multiculturalism: personal transformation, character, and openness to the other

The social, intellectual, and moral movement known as multiculturalism has been enormously influential in psychology. Its ability to reshape psychology has been due to its ethical force, which derives from the attractiveness of its aims of inclusion, social justice, and mutual respect. The cultivation of cultural competence, presented as a developmental process of acquiring self-awareness, cultural knowledge, and skills, is an important emphasis in the multicultural literature. The authors place the cultural competence literature in dialogue with virtue ethics (a contemporary ethical theory derived from Aristotle) to develop a rich and illuminating way for psychologists to understand and embody the personal self-examination, commitment, and transformation required for learning and practicing in a culturally competent manner. According to virtue ethics, multiculturalism can be seen as the pursuit of worthwhile goals that require personal strengths or virtues, knowledge, consistent actions, proper motivation, and practical wisdom. The authors term the virtue of multiculturalism openness to the other and conclude by describing how attention to cultural matters also transforms virtue ethics in important and necessary ways.     

Positive Illusions in Parenting: Every Child Is Above Average

This study examined the paradox between the difficulties of parenting and the high levels of parenting satisfaction in terms of positive illusions. Results were consistent with a positive illusions model, as biological parents with a child between the ages of 2 and 5 reported unrealistically positive views of their children. They rated their own children as possessing more positive and less negative attributes than the average child. The more positively parents rated themselves, the more positively they rated their children. Parents' self-esteem scores, unrealistically positive ratings of the child, and positive illusions of parenting were related to 3 aspects of the parenting experience. This study extends the literature on positive illusions to encompass parents' positive illusions about their young children.     

His and her marriage: A multivariate study of gender and marital satisfaction

This study examined gender differences in marital satisfaction using the multidimensional marital inventory ENRICH. Contrary to previous research, the results indicated that men are somewhat more satisfied with their marriages than women. The findings also suggest that religion is a more important part of the marriage for men, whereas women esposed egalitarian roles to a greater extent. A significant interaction was found between marital distress and gender on the Sexual Relationship, Communication, Parenting and Children, and Equalitarian Roles scales, indicating that these areas may be particularly important in distressed couples. The differences in husbands' and wives' marital satisfaction found in this study are consistent with research suggesting that men obtain greater mental health benefits from marriage than do women. The explanation of the obtained gender differences are discussed with regard to measurement issues, sampling procedures, and power and task inequities. Sampling and differences in marital tasks and power are cited as the best explanations of the findings.     

Gender bias and individualism: Responses to case vignettes among psychologists, professors, and students

This study examined the extent to which psychologists, when compared to university professors and evening school students, employ individualist values differentially in their responses to vignettes describing males and females. The participants responded to 6 vignettes by choosing initial hypotheses that reflected either utilitarian (tradition-ally masculine) or expressive (traditionally feminine) themes. Two vignettes involved a sex of client manipulation, but neither resulted in a sex of client effect. An analysis of the responses to the remaining 4 vignettes indicated a marked preference for the masculine form of individualism for males, but were evenly divided for females in all three groups. These results suggest that psychologists were just as likely to engage in bias as others.     

Marital satisfaction and conventionalization examined dyadically

Edmonds (1967) developed the Marital Conventionalization Scale to measure an apparent social desirability bias in marital quality measurement at the individual level. The original conceptualization of marital conventionalization has not been supported by subsequent research and conventionalization appears to represent another aspect of marital quality. This study investigated whether marital satisfaction and conventionalization are best conceptualized at the individual or couple level. A series of analyses suggest that these constructs must be interpreted as dyadic variables rather than simply as individual perceptions of marriage. Husbands and wives tend to report similar levels of marital satisfaction and conventionalization, especially among dissatisfied couples and couples with a high level of satisfaction.     

Individualism and psychotherapy: Are psychologists leading or following individualilstic trends?

There has been much recent concern about the promotion of individualism in psychotherapy. This study assessed wheather psychologists differed in their preference for individualism from univerisy professors and students, in terms of how they view individuals' difficulties. The 289 respondents were presented with six clinical vignettes, and chose one of the four theoretically based perpectives of the person's difficulties. There were two individualisticn responses and two responses emphasizing social embeddedness and responsibility. The results indicated that there were no differences among the predominantly individualistic perpectives of the psychologists, the university professors, and evening school students. The respondents were equally individualistic with socially integrated and socially alienated clients which suggests that an individualistic bias was present in all three Groups.