Parents' perspectives on young suicide

Strategies for the prevention of adolescent suicide are frequently designed to identify those young people who represent a high risk in order that services and support can be effectively targeted. This study explored the experiences of parents who had lost a child through suicide. The findings suggest that the range of behaviours perceived by parents was too broad and diverse to allow for a checklist approach to the identification of risk. The parents' responses did produce some valuable reflections on their experiences of professional support as well as some key messages on parenting which could be disseminated to all parents of adolescents.     

Psychology as a Profession: An Effective Career Exploration and Orientation Course for Undergraduate Psychology Majors

The authors describe an undergraduate psychology course that covers academic advising and career planning. Lectures included choosing a major, job opportunities with a bachelor's degree, applying to graduate school, and guest lectures from professionals in psychology‐related careers. Students completed a plan of study, a résumé, and a career exploration paper. Students evaluated the course and assignments as being moderately high in value and recommended that the course continue to be required for psychology majors. Nearly all students (93%) either changed their career plans or felt more confident about their plans after taking the course. Recommendations for implementing a similar course are provided.     

Structural Flaws in the Bridge From Basic Research on Marriage to Interventions for Couples

In an article that received widespread media attention, Gottman, Coan, Carrère, and Swanson (1998) reported on a longitudinal study of newlywed couples and recommended major changes in the practice of marital therapy and education. Most notably, they called for the abandonment of interventions that promote active listening, they concluded that anger was not detrimental to marital outcomes, and they advocated an interaction pattern wherein wives raise issues more gently and husbands more readily accept wives' influence. Because of several methodological and conceptual shortcomings, the recommendations of Gottman et al. appear to us to be premature at best. We raise methodological concerns about the nonrandom selection of research subjects, failure to control for factors that may have differentiated couples initially, procedural issues regarding observational and physiological data, and ambiguity about statistical tests employed. We raise conceptual concerns about how the labeling of patterns affects the conclusions drawn and also about the use of correlational data to make strong causal inferences. We conclude that the article by Gottman et al. risks influencing couples and practitioners alike in a manner that, in our view, exceeds the scope and methods of the underlying research.     

Advocacy and the SSSP: An analysis of research articles in social problems

This study examines the extent of advocacy in the research articles appearing in the journalSocial Problems from 1953–1992. The Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) was founded in order to counter the mainstream scientism of the American Sociological Society. Becker’s presidential address to the SSSP in 1966 confronted the issue of advocacy and the consequences associated with research that does not explicitly “take sides.” The present study investigates advocacy inSocial Problems by means of a typology drawn from Becker’s address. The findings indicate that political advocacy has increased sharply over the duration ofSocial Problems. Implications of the findings are discussed in the context of value-neutrality and its relation to social problems research.     

Transformative Processes in Marriage: An Analysis of Emerging Trends

The study of conflict has dominated psychological research on marriage. This article documents its move from center stage, outlining how a broader canvas accommodates a richer picture of marriage. A brief sampling of new constructs such as forgiveness and sacrifice points to an organizing theme of transformative processes in emerging marital research. The implications of marital transformations are explored including spontaneous remission of distress, nonlinear dynamic systems that may produce unexpected and discontinuous change, possible nonarbitrary definitions of marital discord, and the potential for developing other constructs related to self‐transformation in marital research.