Conflict parties demand respect from their opponents and suggest it benefits conflict transformation. This raises questions about the role of respect in conflict and why conflict parties care more about respect than about positive evaluations such as liking. I began by exploring the concept and a general definition: Respect has positive valence, involves positive value judgments, bestows influence, and has a moral quality. The definition maps onto Janoff-Bulman and Werther’s distinction between basic, generally-assumed, morality-based categorical respect, which grants targets basic rights, and exclusive, mainly competence-based contingent respect, which imparts further influence including decision power. In Study 1 a content analysis of respect and disrespect episodes described by 75 undergraduate students provided support for the definition and the distinction. Next, respect was theoretically and empirically distinguished from liking. In Study 2, 45 undergraduates were asked about individuals they respected, liked, respected but did not like, and liked but did not respect (within-subject design). As predicted, Ps judged respected targets as more competent and moral, but liked targets as somewhat warmer. To test respect benefits in conflict both for targets and “respecters,” Study 3 led 82 female students to believe they would have a dialogue about a moral topic (gay marriage), for which they had indicated firm convictions in a prescreening. Ps first received a description of their ostensible dialogue partner’s views, which were manipulated to oppose Ps’ opinions respectfully, oppose them disrespectfully, oppose them without mentioning respect, or match them. Although strongest effects were found for matching (vs. opposing) views, respect (vs. disrespect) was also beneficial, especially when controlling for Ps’ perceptions of similarity with the “respecters.” Benefits included more positive emotions; improved judgments of the “respecter” regarding morality, competence, warmth, and openness in dialogue; and increased reciprocated respect. Regression analyses additionally showed that perceived respect increased a partner-considerate conflict style and tended to increase the time Ps offered for the dialogue. Comparisons to the respect-neutral condition showed that the disrespect (vs. respect) condition primarily drove the effects. Controlling for liking left (dis)respect effects largely unaffected, suggesting both concepts are indeed distinct.

The current research examines how members of groups that have been victimized by ethnopolitical violence cognitively construe their group’s experiences, and how these construals – referred to as victim consciousness (VC) – affect intergroup relations. It is proposed and shown in three empirical studies that VC can vary in its focus. On the one hand, some group members may construe their group’s experiences narrowly, and perceive their group’s victimization as unique (exclusive VC). On the other hand, ingroup victimization may be construed broadly such that outgroups who have been victims of group-based violence are perceived to be similar to the ingroup, and thereby included in a common victimized ingroup (inclusive VC). I propose that these contrasting representations mediate the effect of ingroup victimization on distinct outgroup orientations; specifically, exclusive VC should predict revenge or competitive victimhood, whereas inclusive VC should predict increased prosocial behavior toward victimized outgroups. Three studies (correlational and quasi-experimental) test the underlying processes and moderators of the two proposed forms of VC across different contexts.

Previous research has shown that dominance hierarchies are an important feature of social organization among adolescents. Previous research also shows that during early adolescence students attempt to both gain and protect a certain level of dominance. Existing data suggests the possibility that children who demonstrate dominance are more likely than others to have positive peer relations. Researchers have not been consistent in how they define dominance. Researchers have also been inconsistent in how they measure dominance. Unfortunately dominance has typically not been studied in relation to children's overall social functioning. The purpose of the present study was to present a useful definition of dominance and to develop an improved assessment tool for measuring dominance in peer groups of children. One hundred and seventy children in Grades 6 and 7 participated in the present study. Children were presented with a 19-item Dominance Questionnaire, a Hierarchical Ranking Scale for dominance and submission, and the Loneliness and Social Dissatisfaction Questionnaire. Each of the assessment tools was presented to the children in their classrooms. Results indicated there was a moderately strong positive correlation between the 19-item Dominance Questionnaire and the Hierarchical Ranking for dominance. There was a non-significant negative correlation between dominance and loneliness. Post hoc observations of the data indicated there was a significant positive correlation between Loneliness and Social Dissatisfaction and the Hierarchical Ranking of submission. A principal component factor analysis indicated there were two components for dominance. These results provide valuable information and help demonstrate that the 19-item Dominance Questionnaire is both a reliable and valid tool for assessing peer perceived dominance in adolescents. Further research on this subject should examine the two different types of dominance discovered in the principal components factor analysis.

This study examines the relationship between developmental stage and psychological experience in the transition to motherhood. Kegan's constructive-developmental theory (1982) is used to divide new mothers into groups according to developmental position. The issues and themes that emerge as salient for women at different developmental positions are then contrasted. Constructive-developmental theory describes the evolution of stages of cognitive making meaning. The theory focuses on underlying structural change in subject-object balance, a balance which influences the manner in which individuals experience themself and their environments. Two semi-structured interviews provided data about women's experiences in the transition to motherhood. The content interview elicited information about the changes in a woman's identity, her relationships and the integration of motherhood into her life structure. The Subject-Object interview was conducted and scored for developmental position. Participants also completed a demographic questionnaire, a projective instrument and the MAACL-R. Twelve first time mothers between the ages of 25 and 33 with infants between the ages of 2 months and one year participated. The women in the sample are in the Interpersonal (3) balance in Kegan's model so that relationships are an important source of identity for them. The evolution through the constructive-developmental continuum is confirmed by the differentiation of two developmental groupings combining Imperial (2) and Institutional (4) structures with the Interpersonal (3). These groups vary in: their ability to take perspective, the source of their identity and the meaning of relationships in their lives. One woman for whom the Imperial (2) dominated is discussed separately. The results are discussed in terms of connections to previous research on motherhood, specifically (1) the ability to express anger; (2) the impact of motherhood on self-esteem; and (3) motherhood and employment. Implications of the study for providing services to new mothers are discussed. Also, the theoretical implications of Imperial (2) structures in normal adults and the application of constructive-developmental theory to women's lives are discussed.

This is the first study of its kind to integrate empirical data from college men who reported a childhood sexual experience with a significantly older person with qualitative accounts of their perceptions and adaptations to these sexual interactions. The purpose was to delineate between those experiences that were clearly perceived as abusive, versus those incidents that were judged to be more positive. Descriptive accounts of these events, along with independent measures of current interpersonal functioning and adherence to hypermasculine beliefs and attitudes, provided several sources from which to ascertain internal consistency or discrepancies in reporting. This study shows that 18% of male college students are willing to report such a childhood sexual experience (CSE), with an equal ratio of young males engaging with an older male or female. Students who disclosed such a sexual event were more likely to come from conflictual family homes, to identify higher levels of sexual dysfunction, and lower levels of sexual self-esteem. They were also likely to engage in more masturbatory activity and in less direct sexual interactions with others. Boys who were adolescents at the time of the CSE were more likely to have their sexual development arrested, which incurred substantial impairments to their sexual self-identity. This study also confirms that boys who have had sexual experiences as children with older women are far more likely to perceive these experiences as positive and beneficial in their lives. The findings from this project assert that future empirical research and clinical interventions with this population needs to allow men more open-ended opportunities to describe and self-define a wide variety of childhood sexual experiences, free of biased language (e.g. abuse, victim, or molestation). With a self-created framework within which to evaluate childhood sexual interactions, men can begin to reflect upon how their own past sexual experiences influence their current interpersonal and sexual adjustment. These conversations will hopefully lead to more open dialogues about power; sexual, personal, interpersonal, and community power--its uses and abuses. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)

The problem addressed by this study is the lack of information available to help concerned people create an effective support system for a friend or family member who is diagnosed with cancer. Six cancer support systems, including both cancer patients and their supporters, were interviewed in order to find out what was effective in these support systems. All the support systems were described by the cancer patient as "good" or "helpful". For purposes of this study, the concentration was on cancer patients' "personal" support people, consisting of family and friends. Major themes addressed in the interviews were: having support already in place, commitment, giving and receiving love, having no choice but to support, belief in the possibility of healing, openness to change, amount and variety of support, offering anything and everything, layers of support, making offers of support specific, supporters' inspiring and "pushing", different strokes, cultivating self-assertion, having support affirmed, supporters getting support, accepting mortality, joy in life, intimacy, being fully present, rewards intrinsic to supporting and finding new meaning in life. Conclusions were not formed concerning what necessarily makes a good support system. What was good for one cancer patient or group of supporters was not necessarily good for another. The help given also varied depending on the resources of a particular support group. Possibilities for helping are described in order that other support systems might experiment with them and vary them as seems appropriate. Although the particular ways of supporting differed from group to group, all felt that they had come forward to give help, and continued to help, as a response to the love they had for the cancer patient they were helping and a sense of "doing right". Supporters found that in being authentic to themselves and in honoring the love that existed between themselves and the cancer patient, they had "no choice" but to support. The love that existed between supporter and cancer patient sustained supporters in their often very difficult roles of supporting.

The research presented here utilized a unique method for empirically investigating the extent to which there are a set of shared beliefs among a general population which influence health related behavior judgments. The health behavior domains examined are the initiation and maintenance of cigarette smoking cessation, weight loss and regular physical exercise. A ten dimension theoretically based multidimensional psychological model was developed to provide the framework of beliefs about what intrapsychic (personal) and external societal (environmental) factors influence health behavior probability judgments. The model includes such personal factors as belief in susceptibility to illness, confidence in ability to change, and one's stated intention to change. External factors include accessibility to behavior change resources, degree of social support for change, and the pervasiveness of a given health practice within a person's social environment. A factorial survey design was used to study how these factors are associated with initiating and maintaining health behavior change. Different levels of information from each model dimensions were randomly included in vignettes and presented to a sample of 222 Town of Amherst, MA, employees who each rated 30 separate vignettes as to the likelihood that the vignette person would initiate and then maintain either smoking cessation, weight loss and regular exercise. Regression analyses performed on the 1,390 rated vignettes ascertained that a relatively strong degree of consensus exists (R$\sp2$ =.38) among subjects regarding the most important factors involved in health behavior change efforts. It was empirically shown that whether just starting out or continuing to practice positive health behaviors, one's stated intentions to change, one's expressed level of confidence in their ability to change (self-efficacy) and the ongoing support and encouragement of family, friends and coworkers for changing health habits, are the key indices for predicting and explaining health related behavior change. The implications of these findings of future health education practice and research are discussed.

A vulnerability model of depression based on attachment theory was presented. It was proposed that people's early experiences with caregivers determine the nature of their mental models of the self and relationships. When early relationship experiences are negative, people develop a model of the self as unworthy of love and a model of attachment figures as unreliable. These negative self- and relationship schemas consequently make such persons vulnerable to depression and contribute to poor adjustment in romantic relationships. Two studies were conducted to explore the link among quality of relationship with parents, self- and relationship schemas, depression, and relationship functioning. The first study compared depressed and nondepressed college women; the second study compared married women who had recovered from major depression and nondepressed women. Remitted and depressed women reported negative childhood relationships with parents, low self-esteem, insecure attachment styles (preoccupied or fearful), neglectful caregiving, and poor relationship functioning. Depressed and previously depressed women report more negative self- and relationship schemas. Thus, people who have negative relationship experiences with their parents while growing up will develop negative self-schemas and insecure relationship schemas; these in turn increase vulnerability to depression and to problems in romantic relationships. Implications for attachment theory and therapy are discussed.

The investigation examined the relationship between various clinician variables and clinicians' gender stereotypes for men and women varying in age and race. Randomly selected white psychotherapists listed in the National Register of Health Care Providers in Psychology used the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) to rate a "mature, healthy, socially competent individual" in one of 12 target groups (a black or race unspecified man or woman in their late 20s, late 40s, or late 60s). Three scale scores (Nurturant, Agentic, and Self-Governing) were utilized that were based on a factor analysis of the 40 feminine and masculine BSRI subscale items. A Personal Data Survey attached to the BSRI provided information on therapist characteristics. The information utilized included theoretical orientation, amount of contact with various categories of clients, and the year of the highest degree received. It was found that on the masculine-associated scale, Agentic, there was a significant association between theoretical orientation and gender stereotypes. Clinicians identified as dynamic and eclectic viewed targets as most agentic while clinicians identified as behavioral-rational rated targets as least agentic. There were no significant interaction effects nor were there significant main effects or interactions on the Nurturant or Self-Governing scales. It was also found that on the scale Agentic, there was a significant interaction between respondents' percentage of black clients and the sex of target rated. The greater the percentage of black clients, the more likely was the therapist to rate black male targets as more agentic. For black female targets, the greater the percentage of black clients, the more likely was the therapist to rate these targets as less agentic. Finally, it was found that on the scale Agentic, the degree of similarity between respondents and target (on sex, age, and race) was significantly related to gender stereotypes. The greater the similarity between respondent and target, the more likely were respondents to view targets as more agentic. The findings suggest that masculine-associated characteristics pull for more stereotyped responses over feminine-associated characteristics and this varies by the clinician variables studied.

Perceptions of people on-the-job as a function of smiling and gender were examined. Forty male and forty female undergraduate students viewed slides of same- and mixed-gender confederate dyads taken at their places of work. On each slide, the face of only one member of the dyad could be seen. The visible face was smiling in half of the slides and not smiling in the other half. After viewing each slide, subjects completed questionnaires in which they rated confederates' ability, affect, and presumed job level. Contrary to expectations, smiling increased evaluations of confederates' ability. In accordance with expectations, gender was an influential variable; males were seen as more able and as holding higher level jobs than females overall, and females were judged to be more considerate than males. Further, interactions and post hoc analyses of the means indicated that evaluations of and by females were more influenced by smiling than evaluations of and by males were.