TREATMENT ACCEPTABILITY OF ALTERNATIVE MARITAL THERAPIES: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

Client acceptability of treatment procedures has recently become a significant concern in the assessment of psychotherapeutic effectiveness (Kazdin, French & Sherick, 1981; Wolf, 1978). Formally, acceptability refers to the fairness, appropriateness and intrusiveness of the treatment procedure as judged by clients, lay persons and nonprofessionals (Kazdin, 1980a). Unfortunately, marital and family therapists have yet to utilize this criterion in an evaluation of their psychotherapeutic interventions. Consequently, the purpose of the present investigation was to examine the acceptability of four differing therapeutic models (psychoanalytic, behavioral, systems and eclectic) used in the treatment of marital discord.     

Toward a reflexive sociology

Gouldner’s call for a “reflexive sociology” in 1970 remains a largely unexamined idea, yet with the breakdown of functionalism’s begemony and the present ferment in theory its time may finally have come. In attempting to clarify and reconstruct Gouldner’s idea, I begin with his concepts “background assumptions” and “domain assumptions,” linking them with Kubn’s ideas. Employing levels of abstraction to approach Gouldner’s material systematically, I proceed to develop and illustrate two contrasting background assumptions or world hypotheses: “stratification” and “interaction.” Finally, I examine some methodological implications of these world views, centering on defining problems, ratio scales and images of measurement, sampling and multivariate-analysis procedures. Introduced to sociology by C. Wright Mills, Bernard Phillips studied with Robin N. Williams, Jr. and taught at the University of North Carolina and the University of Illinois (where he overlapped with Alvin W. Gouldner for a year) before coming to Boston University. A cofounder of the ASA section, Sociological Practice, Phillips’ interests are in Societal Change, Theory and Methods.     

Inequality and Occupational Prestige: Theory,Research, and Social Policy*

Occupational prestige is one important dimension of social inequality. Building on past theory and especially on excellent recent empirical research in this area, a new theory is presented. This new theory criticizes some assumptions of older theories of occupational prestige with regard to motivation and to the scarcity of human talent. Finally, using the new theory, some small suggestions are given for social policy to reduce inequality based on occupational prestige.     

HERPES IN DYADIC RELATIONSHIPS: PATTERNS AND TREATMENT

This paper explores the variety of ways in which dyadic relationships can be affected when one partner suffers from genital herpes. Six specific patterns are described: When One Partner Does Not Know, The Compromise Relationship, The Enraged Partner, The Mark of Guilt, Problems in Risk Management, and Herpes Used as a Weapon. Treatment strategies for dealing with each of these patterns are offered.