Dominance and conflict in the interactions between parents of normal and neurotic children.

Employed the Revealed Differences Technique to study dominance and conflict patterns in the interaction of 30 neurotic and 30 normal children of both sexes. 2 measures of relative dominance indicated that neurotic boys have dominant mothers and neurotic girls have dominant fathers. 2 measures of conflict indicated a more hostile interaction between the parents of neurotic children. In the neurotic group, there was a relationship between the areas of husband-wife conflict and independent clinic ratings of corresponding problem areas in the behavior of the child. Results were interpreted in terms of an identification learning conflict. (26 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conflict and dominance within families of disturbed children.

Compared 26 sets of clinic parents with sons referred for psychological treatment with 42 sets of nonclinic controls in a structured interaction situation from which conflict and dominance indices were derived. Crucial concerns were the internal consistency of the indices, whether they measured unitary constructs, and whether amount of verbal activity appreciably effected the frequency-type conflict measures. Split-half reliabilities of most indices were adequate; intercorrelations between dominance indices were lower than for conflict indices. But the latter were strongly related to amount of verbal activity. Interaction indices were subjected to 2 * 2 (clinic, nonclinic; child present, absent) analyses of covariance. Nonclinic parents exhibited somewhat more conflict than clinic families, but adjustment of scores for verbal activity considerably attenuated these differences. (24 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family structure and depression in female college students: Effects of parental conflict, decision-making power, and inconsistency of love.

Based on earlier findings that maladjusted Ss come from families with high interparental conflict and dominance by the parent opposite in sex to the S's, a model was developed that predicted depression in female college students. Depression was predicted to depend on parental conflict, inconsistent love from the father, and the Conflict?×?Dominance?×?Father's Inconsistency interaction. Questionnaire measures of father's and mother's inconsistency, parental conflict, and relative decision-making power (dominance) were completed by 98 college women. Averages of scores on the Beck Depression Inventory and a reworded form measuring worst past depression were entered into a hierarchical multiple regression analysis. Significant relations were found between average depression and (a) parental conflict, (b) father's inconsistency, and (c) mother's inconsistency. Father's inconsistency accounted for twice as much independent variance as mother's inconsistency. The predicted triple interaction approached significance (p?=?0.06), with inconsistent love from the father in high-conflict, paternally dominated families associated with the greatest vulnerability to depression. Consistent paternal love, low conflict, and paternal dominance were associated with the least vulnerability to depression. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Patterns of role dominance and conflict in parents of schizophrenic patients.

By making observations of husband-wife interaction in an experimental setting, ratings of dominance of one parent over the other and degree of conflict could be obtained directly rather than inferred. Such ratings could be compared to data regarding the status of their children. Schizophrenic children with good and poor premorbid adjustment were compared with a comparable group of children hospitalized for tuberculosis. Good premorbids and controls were found to be from paternal-dominated families whereas poor premorbids came from maternal-dominated families. Parents of schizophrenics displayed more conflicts than those of the controls. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Men with serious injuries: Relations among masculinity, age, and alcohol use.

Objective: To increase understanding of masculine role attitudes and conflicts associated with alcohol use among men with serious injuries. Participants and Measures: Fifty-two Midwestern adult men with spinal cord injury or traumatic brain injury completed masculine role attitudes and conflicts and alcohol consumption instruments. Age and blood alcohol content at injury were obtained from records. Results: Younger men reported greater pursuit of status, drive for dominance, and risk taking but less self-reliance and overall masculine role conflict. Earlier age of injury was associated with greater pursuit of status and drive for dominance but less self-reliance, restrictive emotionality, and overall masculine role conflict. Endorsement of dominance correlated positively with number of alcoholic drinks per drinking episode (rs = .43) and binge drinking (rs = .47). Masculine role conflict associated with success, power, and competition correlated with number of drinks per drinking episode (rs = .46). Implications: Greater awareness and sensitivity to masculinity-related attitudes and conflicts may (a) reduce psychological barriers to accepting assistance, (b) promote active engagement in rehabilitation activities, (c) avoid counterproductive ambivalence and resistance, and (d) improve the therapeutic working alliance associated with favorable outcomes among men with serious injuries. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parental conflict and dominance in late adolescent maladjustment: A triple interaction model.

52 male and 40 female undergraduates were administered the Psychological Screening Inventory and a list of issues to measure conflict between the Ss' parents. Indices of neuroticism and major psychopathology were predicted by parental conflict, but they were better predicted when the gender of the S and the gender of the dominant parent were also considered. More neurotic daughters came from high conflict families with dominant fathers, whereas more neurotic sons came from high conflict families with dominant mothers. The triple interaction of conflict, parental dominance, and gender of the child adds significantly to the prediction of adolescent neuroticism and major psychopathology but not to the prediction of social nonconformity. Social nonconformity was significantly predicted only by parental conflict. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social Support and Patient Adherence to Medical Treatment: A Meta-Analysis.

In a review of the literature from 1948 to 2001, 122 studies were found that correlated structural or functional social support with patient adherence to medical regimens. Meta-analyses establish significant average r-effect sizes between adherence and practical, emotional, and unidimensional social support; family cohesiveness and conflict; marital status; and living arrangement of adults. Substantive and methodological variables moderate these effects. Practical support bears the highest correlation with adherence. Adherence is 1.74 times higher in patients from cohesive families and 1.53 times lower in patients from families in conflict. Marital status and living with another person (for adults) increase adherence modestly. A research agenda is recommended to further examine mediators of the relationship between social support and health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship between reported and observed dominance and conflict among parents of schizophrenics.

The results of well-controlled studies indicate no significant differences among the mothers of schizophrenics and those of controls in the amount of reported dominance. However, several equally well-controlled studies demonstrate that the parents of schizophrenics behave in a more conflictual manner toward each other than is true of the parents of controls. The subjects for this study were 35 sets of Caucasian parents: 11 were parents of hospitalized poor premorbid schizophrenics, 12 were parents of hospitalized good premorbid schizophrenics, and 12 were parents of hospitalized tubercular patients (controls). The parents were asked individually whether they agreed or disagreed with the dominance and conflict items from the Parental Attitude Research Instrument. They were then asked to resolve, individually then jointly, 12 hypothetical child-rearing problems. The parental dialogues were all tape-recorded and later scored for dominance and conflict. The results suggest that parents in general are not reliable judges of dominant behavior, but appear to be better estimators of conflictual behavior. The latter finding is especially marked for the parents of controls. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sinistrality and delinquency.

The present study of 129 18–21 yr olds originated as a prospective investigation of factors predisposing to delinquency. Ss completed the WISC; had their eye dominance, footedness, and handedness evaluated; and were examined neurologically. Also determined were socioeconomic status, peer interaction, and delinquency. Laterality (left-side preference) measured in 1972 predicted delinquency ascertained in 1978. The possibility that certain sociological, intellectual, and/or neurological variables might mediate the laterality–delinquency relationship was not supported. Cerebral dominance with associated behavior patterns remains as a viable explanation. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivation and the cognitive revolution.

Describes how the concept of motivation in American psychology has broadened to include cognitive aspects. Strict behaviorism and stimulus-response theory was inadequate to deal with various phenomena of memory, language, and perception. One result of the wider perspective on motivation has been the inclusion in a scientific framework of increasingly complex and interesting behaviors which cannot be handled by any current motivational theories. Examples of such behaviors are found in laboratory studies of compliance and hypnotic suggestion, and particularly in real-life studies of destructive and self-destructive acts. All these point toward a need for a hypothesis of the motivational power of ideation, especially in its extreme form, ideology. In ideology there seem to exist whole "transportation systems" of thought which dominate and override other sources of behavioral control. In fact, ideological demands may be in direct conflict to biological demands. The assumption that dominance of behavior by rational cognitive processes will necessarily assure favorable outcomes is challenged; unbridled ideation, especially in its extreme form, ideology, may be as dangerous as unrestrained emotionality. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Patterns of family conflict and dominance as a function of child age and social class.

Systematically evaluated 44 family triads, consisting of middle- or lower-class families with 11- or 16-yr-old sons, by direct observation procedures. When dominance and conflict patterns were assessed by process measures (talking time, attempted interruptions, successful interruptions) and by outcome measures (unrevealed difference technique), both social class and age of child were significantly associated with many of the selected interaction indexes. Results indicated that the adolescent accrues influence at the expense of the mother in middle-class families, whereas the adolescent's gain in influence is often at the expense of the father in lower-class families. (42 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual conflict between vision and touch

Although most of the studies support the conclusion that a perceptual conflict may be resolved in the visual dominance, a few suggest its prematurity and methodological problems. In the present study, the conflict was made by the instruction and the trick in order to keep the S's naivety, and the degree of conflict was varied. wthe visual comparison (vision), the haptic comparison (touch), the visual-haptic comparison (drawing by a pencil), and the haptic-visual comparison (production by the plasticine) were used as the comparison procedures. The result was that the perceptual conflict was resolved in a compromise between vision and touch. However, as the degree of conflict became greater, the judgements in the conflict tended to depend upon the comparison procedures. And in such a conflict taht the visual size was smaller than the tactual, the vision dominance tended to occur, and vice versa.     

A needs-based model of reconciliation: Satisfying the differential emotional needs of victim and perpetrator as a key to promoting reconciliation.

The authors propose that conflict threatens different psychological resources of victims and perpetrators and that these threats contribute to the maintenance of conflict (A. Nadler, 2002; A. Nadler & I. Liviatan, 2004; A. Nadler & N. Shnabel, in press). On the basis of this general proposition, the authors developed a needs-based model of reconciliation that posits that being a victim is associated with a threat to one's status and power, whereas being a perpetrator threatens one's image as moral and socially acceptable. To counter these threats, victims must restore their sense of power, whereas perpetrators must restore their public moral image. A social exchange interaction in which these threats are removed should enhance the parties' willingness to reconcile. The results of 4 studies on interpersonal reconciliation support these hypotheses. Applied and theoretical implications of this model are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

In-session change in emotionally focused therapy.

Presents 3 different studies of in-session changes in emotionally focused couples therapy (EFT). Studies of in-session conflict events demonstrate both that couples' conflict interaction at the end of treatment is more affiliative and interdependent than at the beginning of treatment, and that peak session conflict interaction is deeper in level of experience and more affiliative than the interaction in poor session conflict episodes. In addition, events beginning with intimate, affective self-disclosure by one partner were found to involve greater affiliation in spouses' responses to the self-disclosure than in a control event not involving self-disclosure. The possible change processes in EFT are discussed in light of these results. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interspecific aggression in wild mice.

Determined probabilities of interspecific fighting and relative dominance status between Mus musculus and various species of Peromyscus mice in laboratory encounters. It was felt that interspecific dominance as measured by encounter outcomes might contribute to determination of species survival. Species differences in social and nonsocial behaviors were analyzed for whether differences were caused by real behavioral differences between the species, or by behavioral differences between dominant and subordinate animals of any species. (15 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conflict and collaboration in middle-aged and older couples: I. Age differences in agency and communion during marital interaction.

Prior theory and research regarding age differences in marital interaction suggest that older couples display and experience more positivity and less negativity than middle-aged couples. However, studies of overt behavior in older couples are relatively rare and have emphasized disagreement, neglecting other important contexts for older couples such as collaboration during everyday problem solving. Further, the affiliation or communion dimension of social interaction (i.e., warmth vs. hostility) is commonly assessed but not the control or agency dimension (e.g., dominance vs. submissiveness). The present study examined affect, cognitive appraisals, and overt behavior during disagreement (i.e., discussing a current conflict) and collaboration (i.e., planning errands) in 300 middle-aged and older married couples. Older couples reported less negative affect during disagreement and rated spouses as warmer than did middle-aged couples. However, these effects were eliminated when older couples’ greater marital satisfaction was controlled. For observed behavior, older couples displayed little evidence of greater positivity and reduced negativity—especially women. During collaboration, older couples displayed a unique blend of warmth and control, suggesting a greater focus on emotional and social concerns during problem solving. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of dispositional and situational influences on women's dominance expression in mixed-sex dyads.

Partners in 61 mixed-sex dyads, each classified as high or low in dispositional dominance and grouped in 4 dominance combinations (high–high, low–high, high–low, and low–low), first interacted to complete an audiotaped verbal task from which 5 behavioral measures of dominance were obtained and then selected a leader for a machine repair task. Prior task interactions diminished status differences between male and female partners, allowing high dominant women paired with low dominant men to become leader 71% of the time, far more often than previous studies have found for this pairing. Also, it was found that the level of dominance expression for these high dominant women was influenced by their male partner's dominance level: High dominant women paired with high dominant men assumed the leadership role only 31% of the time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship of education to sex, managerial status, and the managerial stereotype.

Investigated the personality traits of achievement orientation, aggression, dominance, and nurturance, as measured by the Personality Research Form, to analyze sex differences when males and females achieve similar job ranks and educational levels. Ss, matched by organization and department, represented 39 firms and included 66 sets of 4 employees each: a male manager, a female manager, a male nonmanager, and a female nonmanager. Results indicate that education is significantly related to each of the 4 personality traits and interacts with sex for dominance and nurturance. Sex differences for these 2 traits practically disappeared when more educated males and females were compared; the more educated members of both sexes approximated the managerial stereotype. There was no interaction between education and managerial status for any of the personality variables. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Task cues, dominance cues, and influence in task groups.

Both basic and applied research indicates that women are generally seen as less competent and are less influential in task groups than men. Two studies were conducted, with both female and male speakers, to examine the effectiveness of influence attempts when displaying task cues (behaviors that imply ability or task competence) or dominance cues (attempts to influence or control through threat). Results indicated a significant positive effect of task cues on perceived competence and actual influence, whereas the display of dominance cues was ineffective in gaining status and influence and resulted in negative reactions from others. Furthermore, this pattern held for female and male speakers. These results suggest that the display of task cues is an effective means to enhance one's status in groups and that the attempt to gain influence in task groups through dominance is an ineffective and poorly received strategy for both men and women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Postdivorce living arrangements, parent conflict, and long-term physical health correlates for children of divorce.

The authors tested a biopsychosocial model in which young adults' long-term relationships with fathers and ongoing distress surrounding their parents' divorces mediated the relationship between disrupted parenting (i.e., exposure to parent conflict before the divorce and up to 5 years after, and amount of time with father postdivorce) and indicators of their physical health. University students whose parents divorced before they were 16 (n = 266) participated. Findings supported the model. The more time children lived with their fathers after divorce, the better their current relationships were with their fathers, independent of parent conflict. The more parent conflict they experienced, the worse their relationships were with their fathers and the more distress they currently felt about their parents' divorce, independent of time with father. Poor father-child relationships and more distress in turn predicted poorer health status. There was no interaction between exposure to parent conflict and time with father; thus, more time with father was beneficial in both high- and low-conflict families, and more exposure to parent conflict was detrimental at both high and low levels of time with father. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)