Janice M. Steil

Marital Equality What Does It Mean

During the past 20 years, the number of women and men who endorse egalitarian relationships has steadily increased. Yet, marital inequality continues to be the norm. Why the gap? In 41 structured interviews with respondents in dual-career marriages, domestic task sharing and decision making (the most salient criteria for social scientists) were the most frequently cited criteria for evaluating equality in marriages other than their own. However, in response to self-referential questions, relationship characteristics and attitudes (e.g., mutual respect, commitment, reciprocity, and supportiveness) were used more frequently than behavioral observations. Men and women were equally likely to endorse relationship equality as ideal. Women, however, rated equality as less important to men than men reported it to be, and men rated equality as more important to women than women reported it to be. The majority stated that equal relationships benefit both husbands and wives, but a significant minority emphasized the costs to men and benefits to women.

Influence Strategies at Home and at Work: A Study of Sixty Dual Career Couples

This study investigated the extent to which several individual difference variables (specifically, access to resources, self-confidence levels, the tendency to be dominant as compared to nurturant and sex) as well as one context variable (home or work), predicted the frequency with which professional men and women used three kinds of influence strategies. The outcomes associated with each kind of strategy use were then assessed for men and women for each context. Direct strategies were reportedly used the most frequently. Indirect-unilateral strategies (e.g. withdrawal) were used more frequently at home while indirect-bilateral strategies (e.g. suggesting, smiling) were used more frequently at work. Women reported using suggesting and smiling more than men did, but sex, overall, was a poor predictor of strategy use. The less self-confident respondents were, the more frequently they used indirect-unilateral strategies. The more nurturant that women were, the more frequently they used indirect-bilateral strategies. Strategy use was unrelated to most outcomes at home. When differences in self-confidence were partialed out, the use of direct strategies was associated with positive outcomes for men at work, but not for women. Conversely, the use of both kinds of indirect strategies was associated with perceptions of negative outcomes for women, but not for men.

Social Comparison in the Workplace: A Study of 60 Dual-Career Couples

This study assessed the extent to which job factors (income, prestige, and gender integration), family factors (earnings relative to spouse, parental status), work goals, and personality attributes predicted mens and womens social comparisons and perceptions of faring at work. Respondents were 60 men and 60 women in high-achieving, somewhat male-dominated positions. Men reported more same-sex and fewer cross-sex comparisons than women did. Overall, however, almost half of the respondents said they compared predominantly with others of both sexes. There was no relationship between sex of comparison other and comparison direction. The best predictors of sex of comparison were respondent sex and income. The best predictor of comparison direction was parental status. Autonomy, dominance, and achievement striving was the best predictor of perceptions of work faring.

Equality and Entitlement in Marriage

Over the last two decades there has been a growing interest in the relative equality of men and women. At first, the focus centered on achieving equal opportunities for women in the paid labor force. More recently, attention has focused on the inequalities between husbands and wives in the sharing of the responsibilities of unpaid labor at home. Indeed, a recent Gallup Poll of 1,234 randomly selected adults from across the country found that 57% of the population now says that the ideal marriage is one in which both the husband and the wife have jobs and share in the responsibilities of child rearing and caring for the home (DeStefano & Colasanto, 1990).

An Exploratory Study of the Meanings of Injustice and Frustration

A study was conducted to examine differences in the experiences of injustice and frustration. Ninety-seven high school students were administered four instruments involving word association, incident description, drawing, and completion of forced choice questionnaire items. The data indicate that the sense of injustice is more social while frustration is more personal. Ss reported that an injustice to another was personally experienced by themselves as more painful, more inoral, and more a fl to society than a frustration of another. An injustice also makes them feel more ugly, more angry, more guilty and more motivated to do something about it.

Equity, equality, and need: A study of the patterns and outcomes associated with their use in intimate relationships

This study examined the extent to which specific justice principles (equity, equality, and need) are associated with different orientations within complex relationships. This contrasts with previous research that has focused on the extent to which justice principle use varies across relationships representing distinctly different goals. Forty-eight men and 60 women were randomly assigned to conditions of equity, equality, or need. Each was asked to describe a recent incident from their own relationship illustrating the principle to which they were assigned. Incidents were coded into one of three domains representing the multiple orientations of intimate relationships. Subjects in the need condition were more likely to describe incidents related to issues of nurturance or personal development, whereas subjects in equity and equality were more likely to describe incidents related to the allocation of responsibilities. Subjects in the equality condition rated their principles as a more desirable basis for decision making in intimate relationships than subjects in either equity or need. Regardless of the relationship domain, subjects in the equality as compared to the equity condition also reported more positive feelings about the decision and themselves as well as more positive and less negative feelings toward their partner.

Predictors of Intimacy for Women in Heterosexual and Homosexual Couples

This study investigated individual differences in self-esteem, capacity for intimacy, relationship values and influence strategy use as factors in self-reported intimacy levels for women in homosexual and heterosexual couples. There were no differences by relationship type in levels of self-esteem, capacity for intimacy or in the valuing of relationship qualities. Women in both types of couples described their relationships as highly intimate and reported using Direct/Bilateral influence strategies most frequently. For both groups, higher levels of relationship intimacy were associated with more frequent use of Direct/Bilateral strategies and less frequent use of Indirect/Unilateral and Indirect/Bilateral strategies. Capacity for intimacy and self-esteem were strongly positively related to intimacy for women in same-sex but not cross-sex couples. The best predictor of intimacy for women in heterosexual couples was a negative one: more frequent use of Indirect strategies was associated with lower levels of intimacy.

Family Forms and Member Well-Being: A Research Agenda for the Decade of Behavior

Few institutions have changed as much in the past quarter-century as have American families. What are the factors affecting change? What are the conditions under which different family forms might best serve the interests of their members? What further changes are required? In this paper societal inequalities manifested within and between two family forms, heterosexual marriage and single-parent families, are reviewed, and a research agenda to assess the conditions under which these different family forms might best serve the interests of their members is posed.

Adolescent Attachment and Entitlement in a World of Wealth

This study examined parental and peer attachments and their relationship to entitlement attitudes and subjective well-being among a sample of affluent adolescents. We sought to integrate the perspectives of both clinical and social psychology in examining entitlement attitudes, ranging from healthy to narcissistic. This was accomplished by using a new method of assessing entitlement from the social psychological perspective and comparing entitlement attitudes to attachment. Attachment was measured in terms of trust, communication, and alienation in relationships with parents and peers. Stereotypes of the affluent were explored. Findings showed that adolescents reporting higher levels of alienation from, and lower levels of trust in, primary attachment figures, also indicated higher levels of narcissistic entitlement. By contrast, less alienation from parents and peers, and greater well-being was associated with healthier entitlement. Attachment was shown to be a better predictor of entitlement attitudes than perceived level of wealth. Thus the stereotype that entitlement, particularly narcissistic entitlement, is linked to the wealthy was unsupported.

The Experience of Injustice Social Psychological and Clinical Perspectives

Despite our universal social need for justice, the presence of injustice is ubiquitous between people, groups, and societies. How the injustice is perceived and interpreted will determine how the individual respondsto it. On a social level, the individual’s perception of the source of injustice may result in attempts to rescue or make restitution to the victim or, alternatively, in attempts to blame the victim. On an internal, emotional level, the experience of oneself or of others as the victims or perpetrators of injustice has emotional sequelae—including, at times, an overall sense of the self as an innocent or responsible victim or harmdoer. These self-perceptions will, in turn, alter the individual’s social behavior toward others who are themselves victims or harmdoers.