Martha A. Foster

I Will Follow Him: Myth, Reality, or Forced Choice—Job‐Seeking Experiences of Dual‐Career Couples

Recent PhDs in psychology and biological sciences with spouses who were also professionals were surveyed; the focus was on their joint job-seeking. Couples frequently described egalitarian decision rules. But traditional patterns were also evident, particularly among the biological-science sample. Egalitarianism decreased in the actual job decisions made, but here the traditional alternative was frequently cited as a forced choice. Responses to simulations showed egalitarian decisions to be common under low constraint conditions. Constraints such as the need for a job and time pressure produced more nonegalitarian decisions. However, under these hypothetical conditions, the constraints were as likely to produce nontraditional as traditional following. It is suggested that the high traditionality of actual job decisions is, at least in part, a result of institutional constraints.

Social problem solving in children with acquired brain injuries.

Objectives: To assess the performance of children with acquired brain injuries (ABIs) on a measure of social problem solving and to examine the relationships between participant characteristics and performance on the Social Knowledge Interview (SKI) and between parent-reported child behavior and performance on the SKI. Design: Between-group comparisons using correlational analyses, matched pairs t-tests, and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Participants: Thirty-one children 6–12 years old with ABI and 31 control participants, matched on age and sex. Main outcome measure: The SKI, a measure of social problem-solving skills. Results: Using matched pairs t-tests and ANCOVA, groups were compared on several SKI measures, including the number of unique responses generated for each problem scenario, the quality of those responses, and the ability to select the best response from a set of alternatives. When equated for socioeconomic status (SES), ABI and control participants performed similarly on the SKI; however, a trend for children with ABI to generate more assertive responses was observed. Performance on the SKI was positively correlated with IQ and related to parent-reported adaptive behavior. In children with ABI, performance was also related to primary lesion location and treatment regimen. Conclusions: Children with ABI are as capable of judging the appropriateness of behavior and generating response options on an analog measure of social problem solving as were their typically developing peers. However, those individual children with ABI who are more likely to have social problems may be identified by the qualitative aspects of their responses on analog tasks. These findings have implications for the identification of children with social skills deficits following ABI and for the development ofeffective rehabilitation strategies.

Feminist orientation and job-seeking behavior among dual-career couples

This study examined the relationship between feminist orientation and job-seeking behavior in dual-career couples. Initial and final job-seeking decision rules were assessed, as well as choices to simulated incidents about joint job seeking. Feminist orientation was more pronounced in influencing simulated than actual job-seeking behavior. As employment possibilities in the simulations became increasingly constrained, the relationship between feminism and non-traditional behavior attenuated first among men, then among both sexes. In terms of actual behavior, feminist orientation in men, but not in women, was significantly related to the type of job-seeking strategy initially chosen. However, there was no significant relationship between feminist orientation and final job decision for either sex, probably because of situational constraints affecting the final decision.

The Impact of the Genogram on Couples: A Manualized Approach

Genograms are widely used in clinical practice but are seldom the focus of research. This report describes a beginning effort to operationalize the clinical application of the genogram with couples to improve the fidelity of the genogram’s use in future research. The five-session manualized method focuses on the genogram interview as a process-oriented intervention in which a couple collects family-of-origin data, identifies key relational patterns, and makes linkages between family-of-origin patterns and the current relationship. The approach uses homework tasks to set the stage for subsequent sessions and computer software to generate and update the genograms. The use of the manualized approach with a premarital couple is presented, and individual and relational changes in the couple are discussed. Applications of the method in research, clinical training, and intervention with couples are discussed.