Competencies for Addressing Gender and Power in Couple Therapy: A Socio Emotional Approach

Power imbalances between partners are intrinsic to relationship distress and intricately connected to emotional experience, couple communication processes, and socio cultural contexts such as gender. The ability to work with the power dynamics between partners is thus critical to the practice of couple therapy. However, few practical guidelines for dealing with this issue are available. The authors present seven clinical competencies regarding gender and power issues that they identified by examining their own work: (a) identify enactments of cultural discourse, (b) attune to underlying socio cultural emotion, (c) name underlying power processes, (d) facilitate relational safety, (e) foster mutual attunement, (f) create a model of equality, and (g) facilitate shared relationship responsibility. Each competency is illustrated through a case example. The competencies represent an over‐arching guide to practice that may be integrated with other clinical approaches and is particularly useful for training and supervision.     

Million Dollar Maybe? The Effect of Female Presence in Movies on Box Office Returns

This study examines processes that contribute to the underrepresentation of women in film by linking the depiction of gender in film to its impact on domestic box office returns. Drawing on a sample of widely distributed movies from 2000 to 2009 (n = 974), we test whether the box office under‐performance of films with an independent female presence results primarily from “downstream” public rejection or from an gendered “upstream” division of resources that provides greater studio support to movies about men. Using a series of multivariate regression analyses and controlling for genre, critical appraisal, arthouse label, being a sequel, and including a popular star, films with a female presence earn less at the box office. This effect, however, appears to be largely the consequence of movies that feature women having smaller production budgets, suggesting that the underrepresentation of women in film stems from “upstream” routines of film industry gatekeepers, not a lesser interest in stories about women in the minds of the public.     

A mediational model of workplace flexibility,work–family conflict,and perceived stress among caregivers of older adults

As an increasing number of employees become caregivers, the role of workplace resources in supporting caregivers has attracted the attention of researchers, employers, and policy-makers. Workplace flexibility is one type of resource that has attracted particular interest, with research exploring whether flexibility (that is, giving employees some control over when and/or where work gets done) is related to important outcomes for both employees and employers. This investigation develops and tests a mediational model explicating the process through which workplace flexibility – operationalized in three distinct ways – impacts caregiver stress among US employees. Using a sample of 211 caregivers from the National Study of the Changing Workforce (2008), results show that work-to-family conflict mediates the relationship between perceived workplace flexibility and caregiver stress as well as the relationship between access to flexible work options and caregivers stress. However, the mediational model is not supported when flexibility is operationalized as respondents’ formal use of flexible work options. Implications for employers and future research are discussed.     

A Further Evaluation of Response Cards: Teaching Direct Care Staff Basic Behavioral Principles

Numerous studies have demonstrated the efficacy of response cards for teaching students in educational settings; however, the effectiveness of response cards has yet to be examined in organizational settings where such strategies may be very useful (i.e., in staff training). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the utility of response cards during in-service training to teach basic behavioral principles to direct care staff working in a human service setting. Results indicated that individuals who received the response card training participated more during training and were able to retain more information over time relative to those who received a standard in-service training.     

Occupational influences on retirement,disability, and death

This research examines the alternative mechanisms by which occupations influence the nature and timing of older men's labor force withdrawal. We specifically assess the extent to which occupational factors operate directly and indirectly on exiting events and whether occupations constrain traditional determinants of labor force participation. Based on a discrete-time hazard modeling approach, the results substantiate that the occupational task activities--substantive complexity and physical demands--are key elements of the work environment that are evaluated against nonwork alternatives. In the case of retirement, these aspects of occupational attractiveness function as a dominant and direct force in retirement decision making. With regard to disability, the occupational attribute of substantive complexity operates as an indirect advantage (through higher wages) by reducing the risk of disability. Indicators of career continuity also influence retirement among older workers. Finally, the results suggest that financial characteristics and health problems are central to the distribution of older workers across the alternative destination statuses of retirement, disability, and death.