Anticipation of future identities: A control theory approach to identity development within the context of serious dating relationships

Control theory was used to investigate identity microprocesses (i.e., self-verification)within the context of serious dating relationships. Forty-two college women importance for, and certainty about, their future career identities served as targets in the study. The targets and their dating partners participated in a procedure in which the targets received career information that was contrary to their beliefs about their future identities. Results revealed that women who were highly certain about their future career identity, regardless of its importance level, engaged in more self-verification efforts than did women who were uncertain. A comparison of congruent (partner herself) and incongruent dating partners revealed that congruent partners were the most overt in their disagreement with the contrary information. Certainty and partner congruence predicted the target's self-rating change following the identity disruption. Partner congruence accounted for a substantial amount of variance in self-rating change, indicating that close relationships provide an influential context for identity development.     

Perceived involvement of network members in courtships: A test of the relational turbulence model

We seek to understand how the climate of courtship predicts people’s appraisals of the behavior of close friends and family members. To that end, we employ the relational turbulence model to examine the associations among intimacy, relational uncertainty, interference and facilitation from partners, and perceived network involvement. We conducted a cross‐sectional study in which 260 participants reported their perceptions of how much network members help and hinder their courtships. As we hypothesized, people perceived the least helpfulness and the most hindrance from network members at moderate levels of intimacy. Relationship uncertainty mediated the concave curvilinear association between intimacy and perceived helpfulness from network members, but interference from partners mediated the convex curvilinear association between intimacy and perceived hindrance from network members. We discuss how our findings (a) contribute to the literature on perceived network involvement, (b) illuminate nuances in perceived hindrance from network members, (c) extend the relational turbulence model, and (d) suggest the utility of educating people about how the climate of courtship may color their views of network members.     

Crisis Reactions of College Freshmen As a Function of Family Support Systems

This study explored the relationship between family support system availability and crisis reactions of entering freshman college students. Self-report measures, including distance from home, anticipated weekend visits with family, and number of family relatives residing in the college community, were investigated in relation to the crisis variable. The availability of the student's family was inversely correlated with his or her crisis score. This article emphasizes the need for primary group support and discusses implications for intervention.     

UNDERSTANDING SELF-OTHER AGREEMENT: A LOOK AT RATER AND RATEE CHARACTERISTICS, CONTEXT, AND OUTCOMES

This study investigated (a) the relative importance of a number of biographic (e.g., age, race, gender) and contextual (e.g., span of control, functional area) variables and their interactions on self-other agreement and (b) the relationship between self-other agreement and outcome variables such as performance and compensation. Usable data were collected from 3,217 managers and their multi-source raters in 527 organizations. Multivariate regression procedures (as opposed to categorization procedures) were used to determine the sources of rating disagreement. Results indicated that a significant portion of variance in self-other ratings was accounted for by the set of background/context variables. Self-other agreement was also related to performance, compensation, and organizational level, though rating patterns differed.     

The role of relationship development and attachment in the experience of romantic jealousy

We argue that a relationship development perspective is useful for understanding the experience of jealousy in romantic relationships In particular, we highlight relational uncertainty and intimacy as two indicators of relationship development that are likely to coincide with people's propensity to experience cognitive and emotional jealousy. Because recent theoretical insights about jealousy have stemmed from an attachment perspective, we also examined the extent to which people's attachment orientation predicted their experience of jealousy. We conducted a study in which 132 individuals involved in dating relationships reported on characteristics of themselves and their relationships. Consistent with our predictions, relational uncertainty was strongly tied to cognitive jealousy, and intimacy was closely linked to emotional jealousy. Also as expected, attachment anxiety exerted a direct positive effect on emotional jealousy. Taken together, these results shed light on how the experience of jealousy is associated with both relationship and individual characteristics.     

THE INFLUENCE OF UPWARD FEEDBACK ON SELF- AND FOLLOWER RATINGS OF LEADERSHIP

The impact of upward feedback (followers' perceptions of leadership provided to leaders) on leaders' self-evaluations and followers' subsequent ratings of leadership was assessed in a field setting. Subjects were 978 student leaders and their 1,232 followers. Results indicated that overall, leaders' behaviors as rated by followers improved after feedback. Leaders' self-evaluations following feedback became more similar to the evaluations provided by followers. Interestingly, when leaders were grouped according to whether feedback was positive, neutral, or negative based on agreement between self- and follower ratings, differences between groups in post-feedback self-evaluations and follower ratings emerged. Self-evaluations for leaders receiving negative feedback (high self- relative to followers' ratings) went down, while self-evaluations for leaders receiving positive feedback (low self- relative to follower's ratings) went up. Follower ratings of leaders who received negative feedback improved following feedback to leaders, while there was no change in follower ratings for those receiving positive feedback. Implications for using upward feedback in organizations are discussed.     

Stay/leave decision-making processes in abusive dating relationships

A multivariate causal model was tested to determine the extent to which two central questions, “Will I be better off” and “Can I do it?”, contribute to abused daters' stay/leave decision-making processes. Participants completed questionnaires consisting of multiple measures of relationship satisfaction, alternatives, investments, subjective norm, personal resources and barriers, and structural resources and barriers. The first question and its indicators accounted for over 87% of the variance in participants’intention to stay in or leave their relationships. Results highlight three important avenues for future research: identifying both positive and negative aspects of abusive relationships, increased clarification of the commitment construct, and emphasis on further operationalizing the construct “Can 1 do it?”     

Is Silence Really Golden? The Role of Spiritual Voice in Folk Pedagogy and Folk Psychology

Most recently, considerable attention has been focused on the social construction of knowledge and an internalist, first‐person perspective on learning. Included in this paradigm shift is a particular ‘hybrid’ of both psychology and educational theory often referred to as ‘theory of mind’ (ToM research) or folk psychology. This article outlines models of teaching, learning, and mind in the hopes that such an advance in understanding children's minds will lead to an improved pedagogy. To address the issues of emotion and ‘spiritual voice’ that may constrain learning in the classroom and self‐development, Belenky et al.’sfive epistemological perspectives or ‘Women's Ways of Knowing’ (New York, Basic Books, 1986) are couched within the framework of Olson and Burner's [Folk Psychology and Folk Pedagogy, in: D. Olson & N. Torrance (Eds) Handbook of Education and Human Development: New Models of Learning, Teaching and Schooling, pp. 9‐27 (Oxford, Blackwell)] four models of mind, teaching and learning. At issue is the dialogical relation between folk psychology and folk pedagogy and its contingency on both culture and context.