Craig A. Wendorf

Comparisons of Structural Equation Modeling and Hierarchical Linear Modeling Approaches to Couples' Data

This article compares 2 statistical approaches for the analysis of data obtained from married couples. The article summarizes a current multilevel (or hierarchical) model that has demonstrated considerable utility in marital research; it also extends this formulation in several respects. This model is then respecified into a more familiar structural equation modeling (SEM) formulation, highlighting the similarities and the differences in the 2 approaches. Cross-sectional data on 348 American married couples is used to examine the influence of age, duration of marriage, and number of children on marital satisfaction. Results of the 2 sets of analyses yielded nearly identical findings. The strengths and possible extensions of the SEM approach are discussed.

Aid and Influence: Health-Promoting Exchanges of Older Married Partners

Dyadic exchanges of support and control were investigated in couples in which the husband was recently treated or assessed for heart disease. Each partner in 61 marital dyads (N = 122 participants) reported the frequency with which both social support and social control to promote a healthy lifestyle were provided to and received from one another. Multivariate findings demonstrated the influence of intrapersonal (or actor) and interpersonal (or partner) contributions of providing support and control to each spouse’s perception of receiving such exchanges from the other. These findings reveal that marital partners’ perspectives of receipt of health-related exchanges of support and control are associated not only with the behavior of the partner, but also with their own initiation of health-promoting exchanges on their partner’s behalf.

Marital satisfaction in four cultures as a function of homogamy, male dominance and female attractiveness

Mate choice and mate retention may both depend in part on the principle of homogamy, or positive assortative mating. In humans, the more similar couples are, the happier and more stable their relationships are. However, the practice of homogamy in mate selection must be balanced against the need to select qualities in a mate that are slightly different from ones own, and evolutionary theory has suggested that male dominance and female attractiveness are two particularly adaptive qualities that are sought in a mate. The present study investigated the relationship between marital satisfaction and homogamy in American, British, Chinese and Turkish couples. In addition, the present research assessed the evolutionary hypothesis that spousal ascendancies on dominance and attractiveness would relate to marital satisfaction. Cross-culturally, romantic love for ones spouse increased as a function of both homogamy and some evolutionarily predicted divergences on both dominance and attractiveness. However, marital ...

Marital Satisfaction Across Three Cultures: Does the Number of Children Have an Impact After Accounting for Other Marital Demographics?:

U.S. studies indicate that children tend to stabilize marriage but, paradoxically, to reduce marital satisfaction. To explore whether this finding exists in a similar fashion in other cultures, the authors studied the impact of number of children on spousal love in the United States, United Kingdom, and Turkey, while accounting for other marital demographics (such as duration of marriage and the ages of wives and husbands). The number of children predicted diminished marital satisfaction in couples from all three cultures, although this effect arguably was not present in Turkish wives. In addition, marital satisfaction in couples from all three cultures was generally negatively predicted by the duration of marriage. Marital satisfaction was generally unrelated to wife’s age. The effect of husband’s age was important to marital satisfaction in couples from all cultures, although the nature of this effect diverged in relating positively to marital satisfaction for British and American couples but negatively for Turkish couples and especially Turkish wives. The authors identify several potentially important implications of these results.

Validating a Psychology as a Helping Profession Scale.

We developed an 11-item Psychology as a Helping Profession (PHP) scale that measured aspects of personal growth/helping skills and applied helping. The scale was only weakly correlated with Friedrichs (1996) Psychology as Science (PAS) scale, implying that the 2 scales measure different conceptions of the nature of psychology. Psychology majors were more likely to endorse psychology as both a helping profession and as a science than were nonmajors. Students with higher scores on the PAS were more likely to endorse the idea of conducting research in the future, whereas students with higher scores on the PHP were more likely to endorse the idea of being a therapist in the future. Using the PHP and PAS in tandem might help in departmental assessment of interests and needs of students.

History of American morality research, 1894–1932.

Research on moral development existed long before the work of Piaget and Kohlberg. Early psychological opinions, along with empirical testing of moral judgments at the turn of the century, showed themes of the development of moral ideas in children and adults. After the appearance of Binets intelligence tests, and guided by educational goals, moral testing began to reach its height, only to fail in reaching its objectives. These research endeavors did, however, provide some understanding of the nature of morality, the motives behind moral judgments, and the development of morality by using a scientific method. Nearly all of the research on moral development within psychology during the last 40 years has, in some way, been associated with the theoretical constructions and testing procedures devised by Lawrence Kohlberg (1963a). However, Kohlbergs research, begun while he was still a graduate student, offered a somewhat limited review of the existing literature on the psychology of morality and moral development. Like Piaget (1932/1960) before him, Kohlberg (1963b) was largely critical of, insensitive toward, or perhaps even ignorant of the fair body of American research conducted between 1894 (the date of the earliest published empirical study of morality) and 1932 (the date of publication of Piagets landmark book). This disregard given by Piaget and Kohlberg—and perhaps many researchers since—is unfortunate. A researcher unfamiliar with the history of morality research might erroneously conclude that Piagets (1932/1960) and Kohlbergs (1963a) topic of inquiry was truly an original addition to the field of psychology. In fact, the quantitative, empirical study of morality and moral development has a rich and long history within the traditions of American psychology. Perhaps almost from its beginning, the psychology of morality and moral development has been deeply interested in providing and devising tests of an individuals moral values and development. However, these tests have varied in form and content over the years and can be classified into three main periods in which they were popular: (a) the years prior to the publication of Piagets seminal work (1932/1960); (b) a period including the Piagetian model, the psychodynamic approach, and behavioristic models; and (c) a mid-century period during

Distributive and Procedural Justice for Self and Others Measurement Invariance and Links to Life Satisfaction in Four Cultures

Tendencies to believe in justice are multidimensional, and some justice beliefs enhance personal well-being. These features suggest a considerable but largely overlooked potential for similarities and differences in the structure, endorsement, and wellness-promoting functions of justice beliefs across cultures. In the current research, we evaluate a recently available four-factor conceptualization of justice beliefs in samples of university students from the United States, Canada, India, and China (total N = 922). Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that the proposed four-factor model was structurally invariant, suggesting that individuals from all four cultures could be characterized according to their beliefs about distributive and procedural justice for both self and others. Cross-cultural comparisons revealed no mean differences in beliefs about distributive justice for self, whereas beliefs about procedural justice for self were higher in Canada and China than in the United States or India. In parallel, beliefs about distributive and procedural justice for others were higher in Eastern than in Western cultures. In all four cultures, a belief in distributive justice for self was associated with greater life satisfaction, whereas a belief in procedural justice for self was additionally associated in Canada and China only. No associations between beliefs about justice for others and life satisfaction were observed in any culture. The current research provides initial support for the cross-cultural viability of a four-factor approach to measuring dispositional tendencies to believe in justice. We discuss implications and opportunities for the continued study of justice in cross-cultural research.