Jean Baker Miller

Measuring perceived mutuality in close relationships: validation of the Mutual Psychological Development Questionnaire

In an initial validation study of the Mutual Psychological Development Questionnaire (MPDQ), a measure of perceived mutuality in close relationships, 345 respondents completed the scale for spouse or partner and friend relationships.

THE RELATIONAL HEALTH INDICES: A STUDY OF WOMEN'S RELATIONSHIPS

A new measure of womens relationships, the Relational Health Indices (RHI), comprises three scales that assess growth-fostering connections with peers, mentors, and communities. The RHI was developed using the Relational Model (Jordan, Kaplan, Miller, Stiver, Surrey, 1991; Miller & Stiver, 1997), a theory of womens psychological development. The 37-item measure assesses three conceptual dimensions of growth-fostering relationships: engagement, authenticity, and empowerment/zest. This study examined the psychometric properties of the RHI with a group of 450 students at a womens liberal arts college, providing evidence for the reliability, validity, and utility of the new measure. The factor analyses confirmed a three-subscale structure: engagement, authenticity, empowerment/zest. The RHIs components generally demonstrate good overall internal consistency. Furthermore, associations between RHI scales and convergent validation scales were significant and in the direction hypothesized. Correlations with adjustment scales varied across the RHI components. The RHI has potential for enriching our understanding of important, subtle qualities and complex dynamics of both dyadic and group relationships, especially among women. The instrument is available for use by researchers interested in continuing the scale and theory development.

Telling the Truth About Power

SUMMARY In this culture, those in power do not usually talk about it and the rest of us tend not to recognize it either. A similar situation exists in therapy, where the therapist herself may not be aware of her own power-over tactics. This article suggests methods that may help therapists to acknowledge their power and also to change from power-over actions to mutually empowering relationships. From this line of thinking, there follows an exploration of altering the concept of boundaries in therapy into mutually constructed agreements between patient and therapist. This article was presented at the Summer Training Institute of the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute, June, 2003.

Creative Moments in Relational-Cultural Therapy

SUMMARY Creative moments in therapy are those occasions when something new and growth-fostering occurs. This article offers three illustrations and a discussion of these characteristics. It is based on a panel discussion held at the Stone Center-Harvard Medical School/Cambridge Hospital “Learning from Women Conference” in April, 2000.

VI. Connections, Disconnections, and Violations

Over the last two decades women have created an extensive body of literature in psychology as well as other fields. However, a new, fully developed theory of women’s psychological development does not yet exist. Several of these writers have worked on modifications of existing theories such as Freudian, Jungian, object relations and others. Other writers have proposed that the close study of women’s experience leads to the creation of new values, categories and terms; and that these necessitate assumptions different from those which underlie prior theories, e.g. Belenky et al. (1986); Gilligan (1982, 1987); Jordan (1986, 1987); Miller (1986[1976], 1986) and Surrey (1984, 1987). This paper is part of the attempt to carry on the latter kind of work. I’ll begin by reviewing some of the Stone Center’s work on the centrality of the sense of connection in women’s lives, and then try to suggest how psychological troubles – or what are called ‘pathologies’ – follow from the disconnections and violations that women experience.

What Changes in Therapy? Who Changes?

SUMMARY A central component of therapeutic change involves facilitating the capacity to move and be moved by the other. Another way of saying this might be that change entails experiencing a greater freedom of relational movement. The question of who and what actually changes in the process of therapy is the focus of the three vignettes that follow. They highlight, among other things, the recognition and acknowledgment of mutuality as an essential force within the relational matrix and the ever-changing landscape that this creates. Each of these examples of a change process bears, as well, a particular stamp of its own, and thus speaks to the unique personality of every therapeutic dyad.