John A. Clausen

The Ecological Approach in Social Psychiatry

The search for differences in the frequency of mental illness in population groups ecologically defined is based upon a number of assumptions which are not wholly tenable yet not completely lacking in validity. The distributions found in ecological research may be explained in terms of three divergent frames of reference: the genetic, the interactional (as exemplified by the hypothesis of social isolation), and the cultural (exemplified in the view that social classes represent subcultures which differ with respect to both child socialization and types of stress), The major problem for futher research is to establish under what circumstances factors involved in any of these hypotheses actually contribute to the production of mental illness.

Personality and labor force participation across the life course: A longitudinal study of women's careers

The influences on and consequences of womens labor force experience are examined using data from members of the Berkeley longitudinal studies born between 1920 and 1929. In adolescence, these women were overwhelmingly oriented toward marriage and family rather than career, yet more than two-thirds eventually spent substantial time in the paid labor force. Consistent labor force participation was lower for women who had been attractive, outgoing, feminine, self-confident, and status seeking in their high school years. High labor force participation, however, was associated with increases in self-confidence, status seeking, assertiveness, and intellectual investment between adolescence and later adulthood. The demographic correlates of labor force participation changed over the life course: as family responsibilities diminished in the later middle years, both family composition and husbands occupational status decreased in importance, while the importance of a womans own education level and her husbands expected retirement income increased.

Adolescent antecedents of cigarette smoking: Data from the Oakland growth study

Abstract This report of data from a follow-up, at roughly age 40, of subjects who had been intensively studied in adolescence supports three general propositions: (1) the antecedents and correlates of adult smoking are markedly different for men and women; (2) there were substantial differences in personality as manifest in adolescence associated with different levels of smoking; and (3) some, but by no means all of these differences persisted two decades later.

Predicting Personality Stability Across the Life Span: The Role of Competence and Work and Family Commitments

Longitudinal studies suggest modest continuity in personality from adolescence to early adulthood and greater continuity over successive periods during the adult years. However, individual differences in personality stability do exist. We discuss potential sources of personality change, especially as they relate to development, role assumption and commitment, and loss of roles and commitments. Then, using data from the Intergenerational Studies, we employ measures of competence and of work and family commitments, assessed both in high school and adulthood, to predict personality stability from high school to early and late adulthood. Results indicate that personality stability can be successfully predicted with such measures. Greater personality stability is found for those determined to be more “planfully competent,” but additional family and work role variables also increase predictive power, in some instances. Using two alternate measures of competence—one from the California Q-sort and the other from the California Psychological Inventory—we replicated the finding that men with more disorderly careers show less personality stability, and that women who have experienced more divorces show less personality stability.

Social Factors in Disease

Recognition of the influence of social and cultural factors in disease goes back to antiquity, though specification of the ways in which this influence is exerted still lacks pre cision. The effects of the social order on health and disease are many and varied. Social definitions determine the actions which persons and societies take in the face of given symptoms and disorders. Social practices may exert their effects di rectly on the organism and its physical capacities or may operate primarily through psychological processes which are linked to the maintenance of bodily equilibriums. In either instance, these effects tend to be nonspecific as to disease. Social status, variations in life styles, adaptation to new or stressful situations, work group structure, and family patterns have been found to be associated with differences in the in cidence of a variety of diseases. The intricacies of dealing with social factors in disease and the ramifications for the larger society are plainly seen in the case of smoking.