Gambling in young adolescents

A questionnaire was used to investigate gambling in British adolescents. Responses from fifty 13- to 14-year-olds were analyzed. Gambling was found to be very pervasive (90% of subjects reported at least some gambling activity). Males gambled more than females, both in absolute terms and as a proportion of income. Income was found to have some influence on gambling behavior, but the effects of intelligence and social class were nonsignificant. Slot machines were the commonest form of gambling in both sexes.The willing cooperation of the teacher and students concerned is gratefully acknowledged. This paper is based on a report submitted by the first author in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the BSc degree at the University of Exeter. Some of the data were presented to the conference of the British Psychological Society Developmental Section, held in Exeter in September 1986, and to the colloquium of the International Association for Research in Economic Psychology, held at Aarhus, Denmark, in September 1987.     

Interest group tactics and public sector labor relations policy

A framework for analyzing the determinants of state labor relations policies is developed using the notion of tactics. Unions and management have various tactical options, at both the state and local levels, for influencing employment outcomes. The framework explicitly recognizes those options, and thus incorporates actions, such as bringing cases to courts, which have received little attention in previous research. Consideration of local-level tactics reveals additional factors that may influence interest group incentives to seek state-level policy changes. The author thanks Paul Jarley, John Delaney, Jim Bennett, and George Neumann for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. This paper was partially supported by a University of Iowa Old Gold Summer Research Fellowship and a College of Business Administration Summer Research Grant.     

The allocation of money in cross-class families

This paper examines the patterns of income allocation in cross-class families; that is, in families in which the wife is employed in higher level white-collar or professional employment, and the husband in manual work. Following the work of Jan Pahl (1982 and 1983) families are categorised according to their system of money management. The majority of families here employ either a ‘one purse’system based upon joint family funds, or an independent system based upon separate bank accounts. In addition, couples who use an ‘allowance’system, a shared system, or a variant of the independent system with only one-earner are discussed. Whenever possible, qualitative reports from the families interviewed are drawn upon. The paper reveals ways in which gender-specific behaviour may be observed through the study of families’allocative systems. In particular, the wives’propensity to assume responsibility for food shopping, regardless of the couples’sources of income or allocative pattern chosen, is demonstrated. In addition, however, the source of income – specifically cash payments to the husbands – is seen to have an independent effect upon the couples’perceptions of money within the family. The paper concludes with speculation as to why the majority of these affluent families employ a system of joint family funds.     

Illness and loss: Helping couples cope

The serious illness or disability of a spouse may constitute a major threat to the marital relationship and lead to disruption in family functioning. This paper presents a developmental framework which addresses some of the unique adjustments these couples face over time. Adaptations which promote optimal marital functioning, the role of the therapist throughout the process, and relevant interventive strategies are highlighted.     

Unionism and voter turnout

Conventional wisdom suggests that union members and their families are more politically active, and more likely to vote, than nonmembers. This study presents, to our knowledge, the first systematic empirical examination of that conventional wisdom. Results suggest that union members are more likely than nonmembers to vote in a general election, and that union campaign efforts increase voter turnout generally. There is no evidence, however, that union family members are more likely to vote than nonmembers, or that union status affects an individual’s likelihood of voting in a primary election. The authors wish to thank Robert Perloff, Donna Sockell, and an anonymous referee for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. This study was partially supported by a Columbia University Graduate School of Business Faculty Research Fellowship and a Faculty Research Grant from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Business.     

NEURO-LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING™ AND FAMILY THERAPY*

A brief introduction to Neuro-Linguistic Programming? (NLP?) as taught by the developers of NLP, Richard handler, John Grinder and their associates, is presented. This is followed by case examples. The cases illustrate what the authors believe are some of the substantive gains which NLP techniques have provided in their own and others' work with couples and families. NLP's major contributions involve understanding new models of human experience. This paper, however, is focused principally on a consideration of useful technology. The intent is to share from over three years' experiences certain fundamental and consistent benefits derived from the addition of NLP to clinical practice.     

MARRIAGE, DEPRESSION, AND COGNITION: UNRAVELING THE GORDIAN KNOT-REPLY TO ETTINGER ET AL.

Heim and Snyder (1991) explicitly applied a multidimensional assessment and data-analytic strategy to predict husbands' and wives' depressive symptoms from measures of marital disaffection, overt marital conflict, appraisals of relationship prognosis, characterizations of the spouse, and causal attributions. For both genders, the best single predictor of depression was a measure of marital disaffection—accounting by itself for approximately one third of the variance in subjects' depressive symptoms. Additional attributional predictors of depression for married women indicated the need for therapists to support wives' assertive expression of relationship concerns and confrontation of husbands' behaviors contributing to their distress. We reiterate the complex and recursive relationships among marital difficulties, depression, congnitive processes, and their antecedents and consequences and encourage focused research on components of this intricate puzzle.     

Letters of recommendation in academe: Do women and men write in different languages?

The present study analyzes seventy-eight letters of recommendation sent to a department of sociology and anthropology for six replacement and two tenure-track positions. The sample consists of fifteen pairs of letters written for women and twenty-four pairs written for men. Each pair of letters includes one written by a woman and one written by a man for the same candidate. Men and women wrote letters differently, but their letters also varied by the gender of the applicant. The concept of tokenism, Gilligan’s theory about moral reasoning, and Acker’s discussion of gendered organizations are used to interpret these differences. This article is a revised version of a paper presented at the Eastern Sociological Society Annual Meeting, Providence, R.I., April 12, 1991.     

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A self psychological perspective

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, an illness with debilitating effects on both the body and mind, has received increased attention in the last several years. Yet there has been hardly any documentation of the psychotherapy of afflicted individuals. The author suggests that self psychology is a useful approach in such cases, not only in addressing the effects of the illness, but in facilitating the patient's maintenance of much needed selfobject ties and the ability to follow the complex and difficult medical treatment program. A case illustration demonstrates these dynamics. Self experience of such individuals is then explored with specific reference to nuclear vs. peripheral selves. The author catalogues disruptions in selfobject ties as a result of the illness and offers treatment recommendations.I wish to thank Susan Sands, Ph.D., and Karen Rogers, MFCC, for their support and editorial contributions.