The Relationship between Family Developmental Crisis and the Appearance of Symptoms in a Family Member

To assess the relation between family crisis and the onset of symptoms in family members, 90 families in an outpatient facility were studied to determine the elapsed time between the appearance of symptoms and two types of family crisis: addition of a family member and loss of a family member. For each type of crisis, results clearly indicated a significant and positive relationship between family developmental crises and symptom onset. At the same time, it was acknowledged that the strength of this relationship was only moderate, findings were correlational, and conclusions may not be applicable to other samples.     

Time May Change Me: The Impact of Future Time Perspective on the Relationship Between Work–Family Demands and Employee Commitment

The current study incorporates predictions from socioemotional selectivity theory to evaluate the role of future time perspective in moderating the effects of work–family and family–work conflict on continuance and affective commitment. Results derived from a sample of managers (n = 251) supported the hypothesized relationships. Specifically, when work interfered with family, employees who had a more shallow future time perspective experienced lower continuance commitment. Further, those with a deep future time perspective experienced lower affective commitment than did employees with a more shallow future time perspective in situations in which family interfered with work.     

Are Lesbians Women?

I argue that Mordque Wittig's view that lesbians are not women neglects the complexities involved in the composition of the category “woman.” I develop an articulation of the concept “woman” in the contemporary United States, with thirteen distinct defining characteristics, none of which are necessary nor sufficient. I argue that Wittig's emphasis on the material production of “woman” through the political regime of heterosexuality, however, is enormously fruitful for feminist and queer strategizing.     

Structure, Self-Regulating Sequences, and Institutional Third Parties in Therapy: The Veterans Administration as a Model

This article examines the structural organization and sequences of interaction among therapists, institutions, and patients and their families that contribute to the problem of institutional dependence. Our contention is that when patients have become dependent on an institution for the livelihood and/or for the stability it represents, they are only one part of a systemic relationship characterized structurally by enmeshed boundaries, and sequentially by self-regulating feedback loops. We use this premise to outline the nature of the enmeshed transactions in patient-therapist, patient-institution, and therapist-institution relationships. Family interfaces with this triad are also addressed. Sequentially, we outline the interactions among patient, family, therapist, and institution that lead to hierarchical incongruities. These sequences tend to produce self-regulating feedback loops that perpetuate and maintain the structure of the system and its patterns of interaction. The final part of this article demonstrates how we strategically use a therapy team to manipulate the hierarchical incongruities and, hence, the recursive complementarity, that characterize the interactions between and among the members of this suprasystem. Besides manipulating the role of the therapist through team intervention, we also present several paradoxical and structural interventions that have been helpful when institutions have become third parties to therapy.     

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ABSENTEEISM AND TURNOVER: A FUNCTION OF THE MEASURES?

Several investigations have examined the relationship between absenteeism and turnover. These behaviors have been variously found to be correlated positively, negatively, or not at all. The present investigation studied this relationship using multiple measures of both absenteeism and turnover. The findings showed that different types of relationships were present depending on the measures used. A search for invariant relationships, using mutually exclusive models, does not seem useful. The absenteeism-turnover relationship appears to be a variable process over time, people, situations, and measures.