Warren A. Reich

Identity structure, narrative accounts, and commitment to a volunteer role.

Abstract Degree of commitment was explored in relation to core self and role-identity. Thirty-one American emergency medical technicians (EMTs) described themselves in the EMT role (EMT now) and the way they anticipated they would be in the future (EMT future) by selecting items from an adjective checklist. Participants also described “real me,” “ideal me,” and “ought me.” Ratings of commitment and extranormative activity were also obtained. Finally, participants described a positive and a negative episode they had experienced as an EMT in an open-ended question that was coded for task and relational content. Each participants checklist data set was individually analyzed using HICLAS, a clustering algorithm for binary data (P. DeBoeck, S. Rosenberg, & I. Van Mechelen, 1993). Results indicate that the similarity between EMT now and real me best predicted activity and the similarity between EMT future and real me best predicted commitment (positive correlations in both cases). Older, more experienced EMTs tended to describe positive episodes in relational terms, whereas younger, less experienced EMTs described positive experiences in task-oriented terms.

Attachment, ego–identity development and exploratory interest in university students

We investigated the relationships between attachment security, ego-identity development and exploratory interest in 161 university students who completed categorical and dimensional scales of attachment style, an ego-identity development scale based on Erikson’s theory, and an exploratory interest scale. Factor analysis yielded three interpretable dimensions of exploratory interest: intellect, escape and activity. High ego development was associated with attachment security. Exploratory interest was weakly associated with attachment security, but more strongly associated with high ego-identity development. Further analyses revealed that ego-identity development predicts escape only for those with a negative model of self (i.e. preoccupied and fearful attachment styles), and ego-identity development predicts activity only for those with a positive model of self (i.e. secure and dismissing attachment styles).

Actual and Ideal Conflict Styles and Job Distress in a Health Care Organization

Employees (N = 176) of a large metropolitan health care corporation completed the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Inventory (TKI; K. W. Thomas & R. H. Kilmann, 1974), and the authors computed scores on each of 5 characteristic conflict styles (competing, collaborating, compromising, accommodating, and avoiding). Respondents again completed the TKI, this time by identifying their ideal conflict styles. Participants also provided ratings of job distress and demographic information. Compromising and avoiding were the most strongly endorsed actual conflict styles, and avoiding was the most strongly endorsed ideal conflict style. Respondents viewed their ideal conflict style as more competitive, less collaborative, and more avoidant than their actual conflict style. Job distress did not correlate with actual or ideal conflict styles. However, participants whose actual conflict style matched their ideal conflict style reported lower distress, especially if they perceived a high level of destructive conflict in their work environment. Distress was also lowest for respondents in high managerial positions and respondents who had been in the organization for a short time.

Self-Structure and Postpartum Dejection in First-Time Mothers

Twenty-nine first-time mothers completed the Beck Depression Inventory (A. T. Beck, C. H. Ward, M. Mendelson, J. Mock, & J. Erbaugh, 1961) at Time 1 (3rd trimester) and at Time 2 (3-6 months after delivery). At Time 1, women described each of 20 self-aspects by repeatedly selecting from a list of 36 traits; they also reported the size of their social support network in a structured interview. At Time 2, the new mothers completed a short measure of mother role stress and described postpartum difficulties to an interviewer. The authors used HIerarchical CLASses (HICLAS; P. De Boeck & S. Rosenberg, 1988) to idiographically model each womans self-descriptive data and to identify the class that contained each womans most superordinate (cardinal) traits, which were then coded either as agentic or social-emotional. Postpartum difficulty predicted Time 2 dejection, but mother role stress and social network size did not. However, the content of the most superordinate trait class moderated the latter two effects. New mothers coded as agentic were more dejected than were new mothers coded as social-emotional when there was high mother role stress and when there was a large social support network.

Self-structure and well-being in life transitions

Two studies examined the effects of self-congruence and negative elaboration on life transitions. Study 1 involved college students considering the transition from college to careers. Students with greater self-congruence reported decreased dejection and higher quality of life. Students with high negative elaboration reported greater dejection and lower quality of life. Students with high self-congruence and low negative elaboration had higher self-esteem than students with high self-congruence but high negative elaboration. Study 2, a prospective study of new mothers, showed that low self-congruence during pregnancy was associated with higher postpartum dejection, but only for mothers with high negative elaboration. Together, these studies indicate that self-congruence promotes, and negative elaboration impairs, well-being. Furthermore, negative elaboration may moderate the effects of self-congruence. For impending transitions (college to career) negative elaboration may decrease the benefit of high self-congruence, and for completed transitions (becoming a mother) negative elaboration may exacerbate the liability of low self-congruence.

Ethnic identity and interethnic dating in Portuguese young adults

Forty undergraduate Rutgers-Newark students (21 women and 19 men) of Portuguese descent, aged 18 to 28, participated in a study on identity com-mitment and attitudes toward interethnic dating. High commitment to a Portuguese identity was associated with a collectivist orientation and with having a social network densely populated with Portuguese people. High personal concern with the ethnicity of one’s dating partner was positively correlated with commitment to a Portuguese identity, and with having a social network densely populated with Portuguese people. High importance placed on parents’ opinions about the ethnicity of dating and marriage partners was associated with a collectivist orientation. For women but not men, commitment was associated with high concern with one’s partner’s ethnicity. Results are discussed in terms of gender and the development of commitment to an ethnic identity.

SOCIAL AUDIENCES AND ROLE COMMITMENT

Abstract An interpersonal model of commitment portrays role commitment as a function of the number, involvement, and evaluation of role-based audiences. Thirty-six U.S. students each compiled a list of people (audiences) known to them and indicated which were involved in each of several roles. They also rated the degree to which they felt evaluated by audiences in a romantic and a religious role, and their own commitment to these roles. Romantic role commitment was correlated with the number and involvement of audiences; religious role commitment was correlated with the number of, and evaluation from, audiences. The results are consistent with a conception of commitment as a socially constructed experience.

Predicting the Decision to Pursue Mediation in Civil Disputes: A Hierarchical Classes Analysis

Clients (N = 185) involved in civil court cases completed the CPR Institutes Mediation Screen (CPRMS; CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution, 2002), which is designed to assist in making a decision about pursuing mediation. The authors modeled data using hierarchical classes analysis (HICLAS), a clustering algorithm that places clients into 1 set of classes and CPRMS items into another set of classes. HICLAS then links the sets of classes so that any class of clients can be identified in terms of the classes of items they endorsed. HICLAS-derived item classes reflected 2 underlying themes: (a) suitability of the dispute for a problem-solving process and (b) potential benefits of mediation. All clients who perceived that mediation would be beneficial also believed that the context of their conflict was favorable to mediation; however, not all clients who saw a favorable context believed they would benefit from mediation. The majority of clients who agreed to pursue mediation endorsed items reflecting both contextual suitability and perceived benefits of mediation.

Perception of self and others in male sex offenders against children: Schema content and its relation to criminal sexual behaviour

Abstract Thirty-four civilly committed male sex offenders against children (SOs) chose from a list of traits to describe self, mother, father, best friend, past lover, victim and therapist. Cluster analysis (INDCLAS) uncovered five patterns (i.e. schemas) in Sos’ social perception data: “sexual lover” (past lover described as sexual, arousing, etc. as well as anxious, lonely and worried), “benevolent parent” (mother and father described as warm, caring, etc.), “Sexual friend” (best friend described as happy, secure, etc.), “benevolent therapist” (therapist described as warm, caring, etc.) and “malevolent victim” (victim described as rejecting, cold, etc.). SOs with the benevolent parent schema tended to target boys and force oral sex on their victims; the latter was also true for those with the benevolent therapist schema. SOs without the benevolent parent schema tended to target girls and limit themselves to prepubescent victims. SOs with the sexual lover schema tended to commit vaginal penetrative crimes.

Semantic structure of alcohol and marijuana categories in memory

Abstract Background: In the literature, multidimensional scaling (MDS) analyses have been linked to drinking behavior wherein heavy versus light drinkers’ expectancies map differently on to the MDS space. The present study was a descriptive account of college students’ internal semantic networks of (a) alcohol and (b) marijuana-related stimuli themselves that were semantically related. Methods: Twenty-four (12 for each category) college undergraduates participated in this study. From each alcohol and marijuana category, pairs of words were generated in such a way that each word was paired with every other word. For each category, participants were presented with pairs of words and were asked to give similarity judgments for each pair of words. Participants’ data were entered in the SPSS program and the MDS algorithm was run. Results: Two-dimensional plots, which showed the internal structures of the categories were obtained and showed that more similar words occupied close psychological distance from each other and less similar words occupied longer psychological distance from each other. Conclusions: Assessment techniques such as semantic priming that use words selected from specific regions of the MDS outputs can be used in clinical research to determine alcohol or marijuana dependency or risk.