On Making and Keeping Promises

Do the conditions under which promises are made determine whether they ought to be kept? Philosophers have placed a number of conditions on promising which, they hold, must be met in order to make promise-keeping obligatory. In so doing, they have distinguished valid promises from invalid promises and justified promises from promises that are not justified. Considering such conditions, one by one, we argue that they are mistaken. In the first place, the conditions they lay down are not necessary for either valid or justified promise-making. In the second place, promises need not meet such conditions in order to create moral obligations. In general, such analyses of promising fail because they suffer from a confusion between promise-making and promise-keeping. Philosophers have wrongly supposed that obligations to keep promises are dependent upon, or derivable from, the quality of the promises themselves, at the time they are made, instead of focusing on conditions that must be satisfied at the time when promises are supposed to be kept. It is not the quality of a promise that determines an obligation to keep it but the rightness or wrongness of performing the promised act.     

Tools and Techniques: Typologies,Themes, Preferences,and Interests: Their Vocational Relationships

This article uses Jones' comparative table for the typology of Holland and the Guide for Occupational Exploration to extend the relationships to include the occupational themes and work roles of Jackson and Kuder.     

Self‐esteem trajectories across 25 years and midlife intimate relations

Guided by a life‐span developmental systems approach, this study examined links between self‐esteem assessed over 25 years and adaptive interaction and relationship risk at midlife using data from 341 Canadian adults surveyed (or followed) from ages 18 to 43. Results showed higher self‐esteem at age 18 was associated with more adaptive interactions and lower perceived relationship risk at age 43. A more rapid increase in self‐esteem through the transition to adulthood into midlife (ages 18–43) was also associated with more frequent adaptive interactions and less relationship risk at age 43. These results held after accounting for potential confounding variables. This study is the first to demonstrate self‐esteem trajectories over a quarter century predict midlife intimate relationship functioning.     

The impact of social constraints on adjustment following a romantic breakup

Following a romantic breakup, people often seek opportunities to talk with close others. Although talking with others may prove helpful for some, the social‐cognitive processing (SCP) model posits that interpersonal interactions can hinder adjustment if disclosers perceive social constraints. The current research marked the first time the SCP model was explored with regard to the dissolution of romantic relationships (N = 217). Consistent with the SCP model, social constraints were associated with greater psychological distress, and avoidance of dissolution‐related thoughts and discussion partially mediated the relation between social constraints and psychological distress as levels of social support decreased. Social support may provide a buffer against engaging in avoidance behaviors in response to feeling socially constrained.