The accomplishment of intimacy in the jail visiting room

An essential feature, and perhaps the harshest reality, of incarceration is the physical separation of the prisoner from those with whom he or she would ordinarily interact—a separation which often puts familial and friendship ties in jeopardy. In light of this, prison administrators, citizens' advisory commissions and government agencies have become aware of the rehabilitative benefits of prisoner contact with outsiders. Despite such thinking and the institution of various forms of visitation, effective procedures are difficult to attain in large metropolitan jails. This paper, based on observations in a county jail located in a large, western city, argues that the desired level of intimacy exhibited during a visitor-prisoner conversation is directly related to the importance of the visitor-prisoner relationship as a topic of conversation. Furthermore, the conversation itself becomes an effective experience for those visitors and prisoners for whom their sexual relationship becomes a topic of high priority. The author wishes to thank Murray Davis, Bennett Berger and Fred Davis for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.     

Marital Adjustment and Irrational Ideas*

This study involved an attempt to explore the relationship between irrational ideas and marital discord, as posited in Rational-Emotive-Therapy. The results supported the hypothesis that individuals who experience marital difficulties demonstrate higher degrees of irrational thinking than individuals who do not experience such difficulties. Additional findings were interpreted on the basis of differences between males and females with respect to cognitive and perceptual orientation.     

Control, stress, and job satisfaction in Canadian nurses

The main effects of four domains of control (task, decision, resource, physical environment) on job satisfaction and their interactions with three types of job stressors (task demands, role conflict, interpersonal conflict) were examined in a sample of 765 Canadian nurses. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to determine the proportion of variance in job satisfaction that could be accounted for by job stressors, control, and the interaction of stressors and control in that order. The job stressors were analysed separately and as a composite job demands score, as were the four domains of control. The results indicated that the proportion of variance in job satisfaction increased with the addition of control for the composite scores and for task, resource, and physical environment control. However, decision control did not account for additional variance in job satisfaction above that for any of the job stressors. In addition, none of the stressor x control interactions were significant. The results support previous attempts to test the moderating effects of control, suggesting that perceived control is not a moderator of job stress but rather that it has a direct influence. The relevance of the different domains of control for nurses is discussed.     

Borderline conditions: A perspective from self psychology

This article begins with a distinction between the extrospective and the introspective points of view as they apply to understanding borderline conditions. The literature is reviewd using this distinction to organize the contributions that have been made to date. Two definitions of borderline conditions are given. The introspective point of view is used to further define the experience of patients with that condition and the dynamics as understood through self psychology.     

Student Unrest in the Nineteenth Century: A Sociological Case Study

This paper examines student unrest at a single university in the late nineteenth century as a case study of the general student rebellion common in land-grant schools during that period. A conceptual framework exploring the relationship between an emerging student culture, traditional educational philosophy, and contemporary trends of economic and demographic change is used to interpret these historical data. Students actively sought university experiences that would facilitate movement into occupational roles expanding as a result of these trends. The unwillingness of the university to facilitate this movement resulted in two student rebellions, which in turn forced the university into accepting a previously rejected student culture. These case study data suggest that rural populations during the late nineteenth century used land-grant colleges and universities as avenues for upward mobility, often against the wishes of campus administrators. Comparisons are made between student unrest during this period and the 1960s.