Adolescent women's developing identity: A study of self-definition in the context of family relationships

This study generated adolescent women's perception of their identity in relation to family members spanning three generations and related these perceived relationships to their sex-role orientation. Subjects were 20 firstborn university women from intact families. The methodology used multiple sources of information, including open-ended interviewing procedures, rating scales, and standard research measures of sex-role identity. Significantly more constructs empirically differentiated family by generation than by sex. Congruence of young women with both the parent and grandparent generation, relative number of masculine stereotypes produced, and personality traits of males and females were significantly influenced by the presence of a brother in the sibling generation. There was no relationship between family constellation and sex-role orientation. Feminine women were significantly more congruent with other females in their family than androgynous women. There was a linear trend for androgynous women to be increasingly individuated across the generations.Received her Ph.D. from Yale University. Research interests include observation of children and families in natural settings, longitudinal research with at-risk infants, and rural consultation.Received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. Research interests include development of social competence in family, school, and community environment.Received his Ph.D. from Yale University. Research interests include the socialization of values, professional development, and studies of the family in religious and ethnic community contexts.     

Effect of similarity of ego identity status on interpersonal attraction

Similarity of ego identity status, assessed by Marcia's four-category classification system, was related to interpersonal attraction. Using male and female college students as subjects, this study found that (1) while all judges preferred targets who had or who are undergoing a crisis to those who have not had a crisis, (2) diffuse judges preferred targets with no commitments to those with commitments, and (3) judges with commitments preferred a foreclosure target more than judges without commitments. Differential evaluations of the targets' intelligence, knowledge of current events, adjustment, and morality were also found. Results are discussed both in terms of previous research positively relating personality similarity to attraction and Erikson's theory of the relationship between ego identity development and intimacy in interpersonal relations.     

Parental influences on the development of adolescent autonomy and identity

Two studies were undertaken to examine parental influences on autonomy and identity development. In Study 1, 262 adolescents in seventh and eleventh grades were given Kurtines's autonomy measure, Simmons's identity measure, and Elder's questions regarding the adolescents' perceptions of their parents' autocratic, democratic, or permissive parenting styles. Study 2 was a replication with 168 subjects. Across both studies it was found that sex-role socialization is more influential for automony development than is either level of parental power or age. Both age and father's use of democracy were the most influential variables on identity development.Received Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. Major interests are adolescent social cognition and social development.Major interests are adolescent social cognition and social development.Major interests are adolescent social cognition and social development.Received Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati. Major interests are cognitive development and theories of personality.     

Getting Out of Debt: Garnishment of Wage in Whose Interest?

Garnishment of wage as a way for creditors to enforce payment by unwilling or insolvent debtors, while very common in Germany and Switzerland, is not very successful. Based on a dynamic model of debtor behaviour, this paper explores two alternatives of reform. One is to reduce the rate of garnishment, which at present amounts to 100 percent of the wage income exceeding a defined subsistence level, thus probably destroying incentives to work. According to model simulations, reducing the rate of garnishment is likely to result in an increase of labour supply but a decrease of garnishment revenue per period. Second, the introduction of a debt release as it exists in the United States would have an ambiguous effect on labour supply. While providing debtors with a fresh start, it would result a partial loss for creditors. A Pareto improvement thus does not seem to be possible. When taxpayers as an involved third party are taken into account, however, a potential Pareto improvement appears attainable through debt release.     

The admission of Alzheimer's patients to hospital inpatient psychiatric units

Alzheimer's Disease presents extreme challenges not only to the individuals afflicted with it and their families, but also to both our legal and healthcare systems. The nature of the disease is such that current legal standards and requirements simply fail to function in an appropriate manner. So too, the health system currently is not in a position to handle the anticipated influx of Alzheimer's patients over the next several decades. This Article examines some of the challenges presented by this disease, and suggests several possible methods to improve our response to it.