The connubial crucible: newlywed years as predictors of marital delight, distress, and divorce.

This study showed that couples' newlywed marriages and changes in their union over the first 2 years foreshadow their long-term marital fate after 13 years. Consistent with the enduring dynamics model, differences in the intensity of newlyweds' romance as well as the extent to which they expressed negative feelings toward each other predicted (a) whether or not they were happy 13 years later (among those who stayed married) and (b) how long their marriage lasted prior to separation (for those who divorced). The results provide little support for the idea that emergence of distress (e.g., increasing negativity) early in marriage leads to marital failure but instead show that disillusionment--as reflected in an abatement of love, a decline in overt affection, a lessening of the conviction that one's spouse is responsive, and an increase in ambivalence--distinguishes couples headed for divorce from those who establish a stable marital bond.

How does personality matter in marriage? An examination of trait anxiety, interpersonal negativity, and marital satisfaction.

Although trait anxiety and its aliases (negative affectivity, neuroticism) have frequently been found to be associated with marital dissatisfaction, few efforts have been made to identify the processes through which trait anxiety exerts its influence. This study reports findings from a 13-year, 4-phase longitudinal study in which trait anxiety, measured when spouses were newlyweds, consistently predicted marital negativity which, in turn, was associated with partner's marital dissatisfaction. Some support was also found for effects of trait anxiety on partner's marital satisfaction, independent of marital negativity, as well as for the idea that trait anxiety is directly related to spouses' own marital satisfaction. Trait anxiety did not distinguish couples who divorced from those who remained married, and it generally did not predict declines in marital satisfaction. The disagreeable impact of trait anxiety on marriage was evident at the outset of marriage and was stable over time.

Security in the management of information systems.

Although security technology exists in abundance in health information management systems, the implementation of that technology is often lacking. This lack of implementation can be heavily affected by the attitudes and perceptions of users and management, the "people part" of systems. Particular operational, organizational, and economic factors must be addressed along with employment of security objectives and accountability. Unique threats, as well as controls, pervade the use of microcomputer-based systems as these systems permeate health care information management.

How learning style and personality type can affect performance.

Many factors can influence the performance of allied health professionals in the academic arena and working environment. This study looked at how learning style and personality type influenced the performance of medical transcription students in both routine and creative tasks. Since the sample was small, there were no statistically significant findings, but an interesting pattern did emerge. Further study is warranted to determine how to fit health care professionals to the jobs for which they are best suited.

The effects of computer monitoring on the medical transcriptionist's performance and stress.

This study serves to evaluate the effects of computer monitoring on the performance of medical transcriptionists. The results of the study show that performance increases in the monitored state but that perceived levels of stress decrease in the monitored state. Previous studies are discussed in light of health information managers' use of monitoring technology to increase the effectiveness of medical transcriptionists.

Identity and dating commitment among women and men in college.

Lower division and upper division college women's and men's commitment in a dating relationship was examined in connection with their (a) gender role attitudes, (b) educational aspirations, (c) certainty about their future vocation, and (d) the importance they attach to work vs. marriage as a source of life satisfaction. Dating commitment was also examined for women in relation to their dedication to work for pay after marriage, and for men in terms of their ideas about their future wife working. The more certain upper division college women's vocational identity, the more committed they were to their dating partner, but the more they planned to work after marriage the less involved they were in a relationship. Additionally, upper division women who placed more importance on a job than marriage and who had a clearer vocational identity were less involved in a relationship. The clearer upper division men's vocational identity, the more committed they were in a relationship. Lower division men who placed more importance on work compared to marriage were less involved in a dating relationship. The results are discussed in light of Erikson's stages of identity development and more recent research that suggests women's identity development follows a different course from men's.

Socioemotional behavior and satisfaction in marital relationships: a longitudinal study.

The interplay between 3 types of socioemotional behavior (affection, sexual interest, and negativity) and marital satisfaction was studied using data from newly married couples followed over 2 years. Affection and negativity (but not sexual interest) were consistently associated cross-sectionally with marital satisfaction. Longitudinal analyses revealed a gender-differentiated pattern suggesting a more complex relationship between satisfaction and marital behavior than previously shown. Negativity, regardless of whether it was expressed by the husband or the wife, was associated with declines in wives' (but not husbands') satisfaction. Wives of husbands who were relatively negative early in marriage became more negative themselves. Wives who were relatively less satisfied early in marriage (but not husbands) were married to spouses who became more negative with time.

Sex typing and division of labor as determinants of marital change across the transition to parenthood.

This investigation examines the proposition that wives who describe their personality in ways that deviate from sex stereotypes will become less positive and more negative about their marriage from before to after they become mothers, particularly when the transition to parenthood is accompanied by an increase in the traditionalism of marital roles. Sixty-one couples were studied longitudinally from the last trimester of pregnancy through the third postpartum month. The wives completed the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (Spence & Helmreich, 1978), which measures the extent to which they ascribe personality attributes stereotyped as "masculine" (i.e., instrumental, agentic) and "feminine" (expressive, affectional) to themselves, and several questionnaires assessing the marital relationship at both times of measurement. Results revealed that the more division of labor changed toward traditionalism, the greater the decline in wives' evaluations of the positive aspects of marriage and that changes in wives' evaluations of both positive and negative aspects of marriage can be significantly predicted by the interaction of the wives' expressivity and changes toward increased traditionalism in division of labor. Additional analyses showed that wives who do not ascribe female sex-typed attributes to themselves (relative to those who see themselves in sex-stereotyped ways) are more apt to evaluate their marriage less favorably from before to after parenthood when roles shift toward greater traditionalism.

The effect of the transition to parenthood on the marriage relationship: a longitudinal study.

PIP: A longitudinal study of newlyweds explored the impact of parenthood on marriages. Couples who became parents during the 1st year of marriage were compared with couples who remained childless during the year. The sample for the 3-year longitudinal study from which these data were drawn included 168 couples who married between December 1980 and June 1981. The couples resided in 4 predominantly rural counties in Pennsylvania, were all in their 1st marriages, and were all interviewed about 2 months after the couples' weddings and again about 1 year later. Data concerning the behavioral properties of marriage were gathered by phone interviews; data pertaining to the partners' satisfaction were obtained during face-to-face interviews. The results confirmed earlier research in showing that the transition to parenthood affects companionship and marital role patterns, but no evidence was found to support the idea that parenthood is associated with a decline in the partners' evaluations of one another (love) or their marriage (marital satisfaction). Both the parent and nonparent groups showed significant declines in love and satisfaction. Parents and nonparents not only evaluate their marriage less favorably but they also reduce by about 1/3 the extent to which they say and do things that bring pleasure to one another. Across the 1st year, the overall amount of marital companionship does not change, but it starts to become more incidental to instrumental activity rather than the focus of activity. The overall pattern of results is generally consistent with the idea that marriage change over the 1st year away from having a predominantly recreational character to having a quality more like that of a working partnership. The data indicate the importance of using comparison groups of nonparents in research on the transition to parenthood.^ieng

Men and women as parents: sex role orientations, employment, and parental roles with infants.

Mothers' and fathers' sex role orientations and employment situations were examined in connection with their involvement in child-oriented activities using a longitudinal research design. During interviews that took place within 3 months of their wedding dates, 34 couples completed questionnaires that measured their sex role attitudes, masculinity-femininity, and their skills and role preferences for performing a number of child-oriented activities. Approximately 1 year later, after the couples had become parents, they were interviewed about their employment situations and again about their child-care skills and role preferences for performing certain child-care tasks. During the 2- to 3-week period following the second interview, the couples were telephoned on 9 occasions and asked to report on the household tasks, leisure activities, and child-oriented activities they had performed during the 24-hour period that preceded each call. The findings showed that mothers' sex role attitudes before their infants' births predicted their role preferences after their babies were born, and these two factors, as well as mothers' involvement in the paid labor force, were related to the extent of their involvement in child-oriented activities. Mothers' masculinity and femininity, however, were unrelated to their parenting behavior. In contrast, fathers' work involvement was related only to the extent of their leisure activities with children. In addition, fathers' role preferences for performing child-care tasks and their perceived skill at such tasks (as measured both before and after their children's births) were related to the overall extent and the nature of their involvement in child-oriented activities. Fathers' role preferences were somewhat stable from before to after children's births, and fathers' preferences before their children were born predicted the mothers' preferences afterward. Neither fathers' sex-role attitudes nor their masculinity or femininity, however, predicted their activities with infants.

Emergencies: what are they and do they influence bystanders to intervene?

Social psychological research on helping has, in part, been concerned with the intervention of bystanders into emergencies. Pertinent empirical literature does not seem to be available on what factors bystanders use to define an emergency nor the effect of such a decision on the rate of helping. A series of four studies was conducted to answer these questions. We found that (a) Emergencies are a subclass of problem situation that usually result from accidents; (b) there is a high degree of agreement concerning what problem situations are definitely an emergency; (c) emergency situations are differentiated from other problem situations by threat of harm or actual harm worsening with time, unavailability of an easy solution to the problem, and necessity of obtaining outside help to solve the problem; (d) disagreement on whether a problem situation is an emergency or not results from differing perceptions of the degree to which threat of harm or actual harm worsens with time; (e) bystanders are more likely to help in emergency than in nonemergency problem situations. The results were interpreted as indicating that the need of the victim is a salient feature used by bystanders in determining whether or not to help.