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Middle-Class Marital Roles - Ideal And Perceived In Relation To Adjustment In Marriage

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Middle-Class Marital Roles - Ideal And Perceived In Relation To Adjustment In Marriage

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Content MIDDLE-CLASS MARITAL ROLES— IDEAL AND PERCEIVED IN RELATION TO ADJUSTMENT IN MARRIAGE fey Sally Lee Kotlar A Dissertation Presented to the FACUI/PY OP THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OP SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree DOCTOR OP PHILOSOPHY (Sociology) June 1961 U N IV E R S IT Y O F S O U T H E R N C A L IF O R N IA G R A D U A T E S C H O O L U N IV E R S IT Y PARK LO S A N G E L E S 7 . C A L IF O R N IA This dissertation, written by S a l l y L e e K o t l a r under the direction of hftX....Dissertation Com mittee, and approved by all its members, has been presented to and accepted by the Dean of the Graduate School, in partial fulfillm ent of requirements fo r the detjree of D O C T O R O F P H I L O S O P H Y Dean Date. June, 1961 DISSERTATI0N C O M M IT T E E ^ Chairman J ' \ . J 5 . i TABLE OF CONTENTS Pag® LIST OF TABLES................................. vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS........................ x Chapter I. THE PROBLEM AND DEFINITIONS OF TERMS USED . . ........................... 1 The Problem Statement of the problem Major hypotheses Importance of the study Definitions of Terms Used Marital adjustment Role expectations Traditional and equalitarian roles Instrumental and expressive roles Cultural norms Middle class Organization of Remainder of Thesis II. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE............... 15 Role in Social Theory Structure-function approach The Interactional approach Summary Literature on Marital Adjustment Summary Research on Marital Roles Changing role definitions and resultant conflict Role perception, attitudes, and expectations Summary ii Chapter Page III. THE SAMPLE AND THE METHODOLOGY USED ... 60 The Sample The sample of the present study Gathering the data Social characteristics The Methodology Used Statistical procedures Integrity of the subjects' responses The marital adjustment test Validity of the marital adjustment test Comparison of adjustment scores of spouses The Interpersonal Check List The validity of the Interpersonal Check List The validity of the Attitude Survey Limitations of the Study Summary IV. SELF PERCEPTION AND MATE PERCEPTION . . . 113 Self Perception Husbands Wives Comparison of spouse scores Mate Perception Wives' perception of their husbands Husbands' perception of their wives Discrepancy scores Self-concept Norms Summary V. MARITAL ROLE IDEALS................ 130 Ideal Husband Husbands' expectations Wives' expectectations Ideal Wife Husbands' expectations Wives' expectations Ideal Marital Roles of the Sample iii Chapter Page Discrepancy scores Summary VI. CULTURAL NORMS FOR THE IDEAL MATE .... 142 Role Norms for Husbands Role Norms for Wives The hypothesis The findings Discrepancy scores Middle-Class Cultural Values Summary VII. SELF PERCEPTION AND CONFLICT.......... 162 Discrepancy Scores The hypothesis The findings Total Disparity Ratings Summary VIII. INSTRUMENTAL AND EXPRESSIVE ROLES .... 173 Self and Mate Perceptions Self perceptions Mate perceptions Ideal Marital Roles Ideal husband Ideal wife Comparison Between Husband and Wife Roles Hypotheses The findings Summary IX. COMPANIONSHIP AND TRADITIONAL ROLE ATTITUDES............................. 193 Scoring the Attitude Survey The Findings Summary X. AREAS OF MARITAL INTERACTION.......... 203 Contributions of Various Areas The Findings iv Chapter Page Summary XI. COMPARISON OP PILOT AND PRESENT STUDIES . Sample Characteristics Self and Mate Perceptions Marital Role Ideals Disparity between self and ideal Total disparity ratings Companionship and Traditional Atti tudes Areas of Marital Interaction Summary XII. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS.......... . . . Summary Methodology Findings on marital adjustment Pindings on self and mate percep tions Ideal marital roles Cultural norms Self perception and conflict Instrumental and expressive roles Traditional and equalitarian atti tudes Areas of marital interaction Comparisons of pilot and present studies Conclusions Implications for sociology Implications for marriage counsel ing Pre-marital counseling Education for marriage Suggestions for future research APPENDIX ........................................ BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................... 220 242 267 271 v LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Length of Marriage of Adjusted and Unadjusted Married Couples, by Per Cents..............................._ 67 2. Occupational Groupings of Adjusted and Unadjusted Husbands, by Per Cents . . . 72 3. Educational Groupings of Adjusted and Unadjusted Husbands, by Per Cents . . . 75 4-. Social Class Position for Adjusted and Unadjusted Groups, by Per Cent .... 77 3. Differences in Scores of Adjusted and Unadjusted Spouses, by Per Cents . . . 87 6. Comparison of Means of Marital Adjust ment Scores of Adjusted and Unadjusted Groups ................... ...... 39 7. Role Attitudes Pertaining to Octants in the Interpersonal Check L i s t ........ 93 8. Self Perception and Mate Perception Mean Scores for Adjusted and Unadjusted Groups, by Standard Scores With t Ratios of the Differences............... 115 9* Comparison of Mean Scores of Spouses, by Groups, With t Ratios of the Differences............................. 119 10. Mean of Discrepancy Scores With t Patios for the Differences Between the Means, and Chi Square Values ......... 123 11. Ideal Marital Roles for Adjusted and Unadjusted Groups, by Standard Scores......................... 135 vi Table 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. Comparison of Differences Between Ideal Husband and Ideal Wife Role Conceptu alizations , With Significant t Ratios ............................... Mean of Discrepancy Scores of Ideal and Mate Perceptions, With t Ratios for the Differences Between the Means, and Chi Square Values ................ Octants of Ideal Husband and Ideal Wife Conceptualizations, by Per Cents . . . Self Perception, Mate Perception, and Ideal Marital Roles for Adjusted and Unadjusted Groups, With t Ratios . . . Octants of Self Perception and Mate Perception, by Per Cents ............ Per Cents of Adjusted and Unadjusted Spouses in Affectionate-Dominance and Hostile-Weak Quadrants With Critical Ratios . . ........................... Mean of Discrepancy Scores of Ideal Husband and Ideal Wife Concepts, With t Ratios of the Differences Between the Means, and Chi Square Values . . . Mean of Discrepancy Scores of Self Perception and Ideal Marital Role Concepts, With t Ratios for the Differences Between the Means, and Chi Square Values ..................... Mean Scores of Self Perception and Mate Perception on Instrumental and Expres sive Roles, With t Ratios and Chi Square Values ......................... Mean Scores of Ideal Husband and Ideal Wife Conceptualizations on Instrumen tal and Expressive Roles, With t Ratios and Chi Square Values . . . * . Page 135 158 144 146 148 150 153 166 177 181 vii Table Page 22. Comparison of Instrumental and Expres sive Ideal Marital Hole Concepts and Significant t Ratios ................ 185 25. Comparison of Instrumental and Expres sive Self Concepts of Husbands and Wives, With t Ratios of Significant Differences........................... 188 24. Mean Role Attitude Scores of Adjusted and Unadjusted Spouses, With Signifi cant t Ratios and Chi Square Values . . 198 25. Per Cent of Adjusted and Unadjusted Couples Who Reported Serious Diffi culties in Specific Areas of Marital Interaction, With Critical Ratios of the Difference.......... 207 26. Numbers of Adjusted and Unadjusted Husbands Who Reported Difficulties in Various Areas, With Significant Chi Squares............................... 209 27. Number of Adjusted and Unadjusted Wives Who Reported Difficulties in Various Areas, With Significant Chi Square Values ....................... 210 28. Significant Correlations of Husbands and Wives Between Areas of Marital Interaction and Various Character istics of the Sample .......... 215 29. Significant Correlations of Adjusted and Unadjusted Groups Between Areas of Marital Interaction and Various Characteristics of the Sample........ 214 30. Significant Correlations for the Total Sample Between Areas of Marital Interaction and Number of Years Married, Number of Children, Income, and Education......................... 215 viii Table Page 31. Comparison of Self and Mate Perceptions Between Pilot and Present Studies on Dom and Lov Dimensions . . . . . . . 224 32. Comparison of Ideal Marital Role Conceptualizations Between Pilot and Present Studies on Dom and Lov Dimensions............ 228 33. Comparison of Percentages in Pilot and Present Studies of Spouses Wbo Conceptualized Ideal Marital Roles in AP Octant................... 232 LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. Circular Continuum for Interpersonal Diagnosis of Role Attitudes.......... 99 2. Role Perceptions and Role Expectations of the Adjusted Group................. 156 5. Role Perceptions and Role Expectations of the Unadjusted Group............... 157 A. Role Perceptions and Role Expectations of an Adjusted Couple................. 169 5. Role Perceptions and Role Expectations of an Unadjusted Couple............... 170 CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM AND DEFINITIONS OF TERMS USED The concept of role has become of central impor tance in social psychology, social psychiatry, marriage counseling, and in the sociology of the family. It is only recently that an impetus has been given to the under standing of human behavior by interdisciplinary efforts among students of the behavioral sciencesAn impor tant unifying concept is "role" which mediates between the social structure and personality structure and bridges the gap between social theory and theory in psychiatry. An analysis has been made of the American nuclear family as a social system. The writers hold that in the majority of societies the husband performs the instrumen- 2 tal role and the wife the expressive role. The analysis of middle-class marital roles in terms of instrumental and expressive components, and the relationship between mari tal role definitions, role expectation, role perception Roy R. Grinker (ed.), Toward a Unified Theory of Human Behavior (New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1^56), pp. x-xi. 2 Talcott Parsons and Robert F. Bales, Family. Socialization and Interaction Process (Glencoe, 111.: The Free Press, 19551 ) P» l6. 1 2 and. marital adjustment form the focus of the present research study. I. THE PROBLEM Statement of the Problem It is the purpose of this study: (1) to compare a group of adjusted and unadjusted married couples with res pect to their perceptions of themselves as husbands and wives, and their perceptions of their spouses as marital partners; (2) to compare the two groups in terms of the discrepancies between the perception of the spouse and the conceptualization of the ideal spouse; (5) to discover whether the degree of disparity between the individual's self-perception of role and his ideal role will distin guish between the adjusted and the unadjusted marital groups; (4) to make an analysis of the ideal marital role conceptualizations to determine how well-defined are the marital roles of the middle-class and whether the defini tions are in the equalitarian or traditional direction; and (5) to make an analysis of the ideal marital roles as to the dominance of instrumental or expressive role com ponents to determine whether there is a differentiation between the husband and wife role in terms of these two facets. 3 Ma.ior hypotheses The analyses of the data of this research will test the following major hypotheses: 1. The greater the degree of similarity between the mate's self perception and the spouse's perception of that self, the greater will be the degree of marital adjustment. 2. The greater the degree of divergence between role expectation and role fulfillment, the greater will be the degree of marital maladjustment. 3. The greater the degree of the spouses' concur rence on role definitions, the greater will be the degree of marital adjustment. 4-. The greater the degree of similarity between the individual's self perception and the definition of his ideal marital role, the greater will be the degree of marital adjustment. 5. There is a cultural definition of the ideal marital role for the husband and for the wife, and the greater the similarity between the spouses' definitions of their ideal marital roles, and the cultural ideal mar ital roles, the greater will be the degree of marital adjustment. 6. The ideal marital role of the husband con tains more instrumental role attitudes than does the ideal marital role for the wife. 7. The ideal marital role of the wife contains more expressive role attitudes than does the ideal mari tal role for the husband. 8. Where there is a reversal of role in terms of instrumental versus expressive role attitudes for the hus band and wife, whether this is with respect to role expec tation or role perception, it is correlated with marital maladjustment. Importance of the Study In a rapidly changing society^ new and old patterns of interpersonal relations exist side by side. However, adaptive behavior in such an intimate relationship as mar riage depends to a fair degree upon an awareness of and adjustment to role expectations on the part of the spouses. Role theory has assumed a prominent place in the social sciences because it is proving to be an effective tool for the analysis of behavior of individuals as mem bers of social groups. Role research is of importance for x In 1790 about 5 per cent of the population lived in cities; in 1961 about 70 per cent are urban. In 1790 the American family consisted of 5-7 persons; in 1950 the figure was 3«6. In 1890 5 per cent of married women worked outside the home; in 1959* 32.3 per cent of mar ried women worked. In 1885 there were 60 divorces per 1,000 marriages; in 1950 there were 230. marital counselors, as effective methods of dealing with actual or potential role conflict may in a number of cases contribute to the prevention or the solution of marital difficulties. Studies have been made dealing with frustration of 4 role expectation and its relation to marital adjustment, 5 and of role perception in relation to marital adjustment. This study deals with these relationships, and is also a continuation of previous research into definitions of cul tural norms for middle-class marital roles, conceived of in terms of qualities or attitudes rather than as behavior . . 6 or action. II. DEFINITIONS OF TEEMS USED Marital Adjustment Defined operationally, marital adjustment refers to the scores the couple received on the marital adjust ment scale. This test measured the extent to which the ^See Robert S. Ort, "A Study of Role-Conflict as Related to Happiness in Marriage," The Joy?nal of Abnor mal and Social Psychology. 4-5:691-699, 19^0. 5 ^For example, see Malcolm Preston, William Peltz, Emily Mudd, and Hazel Froscher, "Impressions of Person ality as a Function of Conflict," The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. 4-7:326-533* l9$2. c : Sally L. Kotlar, "Attitude Differentials and Their Relationship to Marital Adjustment" (unpublished Master's thesis, University of Southern California, 1959)* p« 6. spouses were satisfied with the marriage and each other, shared common interests and activities, were affectionate, and agreed or disagreed in various areas of marital inter action. The unadjusted group.— Couples in the unadjusted group were clients of marriage counselors in the Los Angeles area. This method of sample selection was chosen so that an outside criterion could he utilized to differ entiate the two groups. Most research on marital adjust ment has relied solely on scores received on a marital adjustment index to validate groups differences. The important exception was a study hy Locke differentiating a happily married from a divorced sample."'7 For unadjusted husbands the scores on the marital adjustment index ranged from J2 to 124; and for wives, from 14 to 129. The mean of the combined husband and wife score in no case fell above 72 per cent of the high est possible score. The adjusted group.— The assumption made in this study was that adjustment varies on a continuum, from those persons who have very good adjustment, to those who 7 'Harvey J. Locke, Predicting Adjustment in Mar riage: A Comparison of a~Divorced and a happily Married Group (New York: Henry Holt and Company,1951)* P» 1° 7 o are almost completely unadjusted in marriage. The selec tion of the adjusted group was made on the basis of the couples who scored highest on the marital adjustment index; where one or both of the partners considered the marriage to be "happy" or "very happy;" and neither had considered himself on the unhappy end of the continuum. In this group of fifty couples the husbands' scores ranged from 113 to 160; and for wives, from 101 to 164, In no case did the mean of the combined husband and wife score fall below 75 per cent of the highest possible score. Role Expectations Roles consist of organized attitudes and patterns of conduct in response to prescriptions and expectations 9 of the significant others in an individual's life, For this study, role will be considered as the subjective aspect of role behavior, in terms of qualities or atti tudes, rather than with reference to role performance itself.^ Role, of course, can only be conceived of in 8Ibid., p. 42. 9 •\A. R. Mangus, "Role Theory and Marriage Counsel ing," Social Forces. 35:200-209$ March, 1957* ■^Theodore R. Sarbin, "Role Theory," in Gardner Lindsey (ed.), Handbook of Social Psychology (Cambridge, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Company, 1954-;, I, 223-229, 8 relation to status; role is the dynamic aspect of status, or the sum total of cultural patterns associated with a particular status. The "ideal marital role" is defined in the present study as each individual's expectations of the role of husband and of wife, in terms of what the individual wishes himself or spouse to be. It is postu lated that these expectations have their origins in the cultural conceptualization of marital roles; however, each individual re-interprets these expectations in accordance with the experiences in his immediate environment. Basic to role behavior are role expectations, which are the learned, more or less persistent states of read iness to respond in a certain manner, and to be responded to in a certain way by role partners. They are intentional predispositions or atti tudes regarding appropriate ways for one to act and regarding the reciprocal acts that are antici pated on the part of other participants in the same social situation.11 Traditional and Equalitarian Roles Traditional role attitudes represent the value of a definite differentiation between husband and wife roles with the husband having superordinate status. The hus band's major task is conceived of as that of breadwinner, while the wife's major task is conceived of as that of ■^Mangus, loc. cit. housekeeper. The equalitarian role refers to the conception of husband and wife roles which emphasizes personality needs and greater equality between the sexes. The marital rela tionship is seen as a companionship or a partnership in which there is a fuller sharing both of responsibilities and privileges within the family. The modern (equalitar ian) role definition partly obliterates the differentia tion in sex roles. Instrumental and Expressive Roles The conceptualization of role in these terms stems from small group research and from structure-function theory in which the family everywhere is seen as both a sub-system with the larger social system and as a small 12 group. Considered as a social system, the marriage relationship is a differentiated system, consisting of two primary axes. The more instrumental role in the sub-sys tem is taken by the husband, the more expressive by the wife. The husband has the primary adaptive responsibility relative to the outside situation, whereas the wife has the integrative task— the giver of support and love in the task-oriented group, the family. 12 Parsons and Bales, op. cit., pp. vii, 151* 310. Cultural Norms Norms are frames of reference "by which the actions of individuals within social groups are guided and judged. Norms contain the central values by which various atti tudes held may be cemented into an integrated system. Norms, which are culturally prescribed values, serve as dominant frames of reference for the members of a soci- •ty.W The cultural norms in this study are defined in terms of those found for the groups studied at the Kaiser 14- Clinic at Oakland. The emphasis of the subjects was upon conventionality and optimistic, active, responsible independence. These are defined as basic American middle- class values. The values found for the Kaiser sample are those of independence, conventionality, and strength. Strength is here equated with money, power, and effic iency. Translated into role attitudes these serve as the cultural norms by which comparisons are made to the norms found for the sample in the present study. Middle Class Middle-class status in this study will be opera- ^Theodore M. Newcomb, Social Psychology (New York: The Dryden Press, 1950), p. 217* 14- Timothy Leary, The Interpersonal Diagnosis of Personality (New York: The Ronald Press (Jompany, 19^7)» pp. 27-205-303-328. tionally defined according to Hollingshead's Two Factor 15 Index of Social Position. ^ To determine the social posi tion of an individual or of a family two items of infor mation are used: (1) the occupational role of the head of the household; and (2) the amount of formal schooling he has achieved. Each of these factors are weighted as fol lows: Occupation has a weight of seven and education a weight of four. There are seven occupational divisions and seven educational divisions. Scores may range from 11 through 77• The divisions for the social classes, according to Hollingshead are: Class I, 11 to 17; Class II, 18 to 27; Class III, 28 to 43; Class IV, 44 to 60; and Class V, 61 to 77* III. ORGANIZATION OF REMAINDER OF THESIS The organization of this study will be as follows: Chapter II, contains a review of the literature of the concept "role" in social theory, and of role in research on marital relations; it contains a brief review of the major studies on marital adjustment. Chapter III describes the sample, the research instruments used and their validity. The social charac- ^August B. Hollingshead, Two-Factor Index of Social Position (New Haven, Connecticut: Private publi- cation, 1957)* Communication received from Dr. Hollingshead, giving permission to use the Index. 12 teristics of the sample, and the statistical procedures are dealt with in this chapter. Chapter IV considers the findings on self percep tion in relation to marital roles, and mate's perception of spouse in terms of marital roles. The relationship of the discrepancy between these two indices to marital adjustment is also discussed. Chapter V deals with the conceptualizations of the "ideal husband" and the "ideal wife" roles. The relation ship to marital adjustment of discrepancies between ideal spouse concept and the perception of the marital partner is also discussed. Chapter VI discusses the patterns that emerge from the picture of the ideal husband and the ideal wife found in the sample. The relationship of this pattern to mari tal adjustment and to present-day cultural values is con sidered therein. Chapter VII reports the findings on the relation ship to marital adjustment of discrepancies between the individual's self-perception and the conceptualization of his ideal marital role, and deals with the findings on total disparity scores between role perceptions and role expectations. Chapter VIII deals with self perceptions, mate perceptions and ideal marital role definitions in terms 13 of instrumental and expressive role attitudes. It reports the findings on differences between the groups, and the meaning of the differences with respect to marital adjust ment. The findings on instrumental and expressive roles are compared with the findings on the dominance-submission and hostility-affection dimensions with special reference to ideal marital role concepts. Chapter IX covers the comparison of the maritally adjusted and unadjusted groups in relation to traditional versus companionship role attitudes. The findings on the relationship between role orientation and marital adjust ment is reported therein. Chapter X discusses the major areas of marital interaction and the relative contribution of each, as indicated by this research, for adaptive marital rela tions. The correlations between the areas of interaction and length of marriage, number of children, degree of edu cation, and income are also reported. Chapter XI compares the findings from the pilot and the present studies in terms of traditional and equalitar- ian role orientations and discusses the significant find ings of both studies with respect to the variables stud ied. Chapter XII reviews the findings of the study and discusses their implications for the sociology of the family and for marriage counseling. Suggestions for future research are discussed. A bibliography and appendices conclude the study. CHAPTER II REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE With, the increase of interdisciplinary research in the effort to better understand the behavior of individu als in the socio-cultural milieu, there has arisen the need for unifying concepts which will enable the workers in the behavioral sciences to communicate more effec tively.1 Role is a concept which links the individual as a behaving entity to the social structure. Some of the major hypotheses of this study deal with the family as a small group, or as a social system, in which the inter locking roles of the members function to maintain the family system within the larger social system. Another part of the present research deals with role in terms of the interactional framework. This approach views inter personal relations as being determined by self perception and role perception in a given social situation, with pri macy being given to role expectations in terms of specific 2 reference groups. The literature on role in marital and ^oy R. Grinker (ed.), Toward A Unified Theory of Human Behavior (New York: Basic fiooks, Inc., 1956)* pp. 55-^9. 2 Hubert Bonner, Social Psychology: An Interdis ciplinary Approach (New York: American Book (Jo., 1$$3), pp. 44-4$. 16 family research, although of recent origin, has become quite extensive and will be disucssed in this chapter as well as the other approaches to role described above. The most important studies on marital adjustment will also be covered briefly in this chapter. I. HOLE IN SOCIAL THEORY The structural-functional approach, which views the family as a social system, has its roots in anthropol ogy and sociology and is gaining wide acceptance in both the United States and in Europe. The interactional frame work stems from theories in social psychology and sociol ogy . It is an outgrowth of the work of the "Chicago i School" and has been most frequently used in the past * twenty years in American family sociology. Structure-Function Approach Important theorists in this approach are: Talcott Parsons, Robert K. Merton, Kingsley Davis, and Robert F. Bales. Parsons considers role to be the dynamic aspect of status, and status-role (a person's particular place in a system and behavior in it) is conceived as an important unit of analysis. Institutions are said to be role-com- ^Reuben Hill and Donald A. Hansen, "The Identifi cation of Conceptual Frameworks Utilized in Family Study," Marriage and Family Living, 22:299-311 * November, I960. 17 q. plexes of integrative, regulative, and cultural types. Institutions consist of patterned expectations and are related to the functional needs of actors (individuals) and the requirements of the social system. The basic task of systematic theory, Parsons indicated, is to carry out structural-functional analysis from the standpoint of the functional pre-requisites of the system: biological and psychological provisions for the needs of the members and the structural provision for social order.' Parsons' approach is described by Martindale as follows: In this formulation, social system is the object of analysis, and "actor-situation" (rather than social action) is conceived as the unit part. While actors are the units of the social system, a social system has a structure, i.e., a relatively stable system of units. The role is offered as the concept that links two systems: the actor and the social structure. Prom the standpoint of the actor, social structure organizes expectations and defines proper behavior. From the standpoint of structure, an institutionalization of roles is the mechanism for integrating many different individualities.® Social systems, conceptualized as the basis for ’the integration of value patterns and need dispositions, Talcott Parsons, The Social System (Glencoe, 111.: The Free Press, 1951); and Talcott Parsons et__al., Working Papers in the Theory of Action (Glencoe, 111.: The Free Press, 1955. 5 "Don Martindale, "Talcott Parsons' Theoretical Metamorphosis from Social Behaviorism to Macrofunction alism," Alpha Kappa Peltan. 29:38-46, Winter, 1959« 6Ibid. 18 are the units of analysis. Three facets are contained in the Parsonian theory of the social system: (1) the cul tural system; (2) the social system; and (3) the personal system. The social system consists of roles, rather than of individuals, and can be defined as a network of roles and role-relationships. This network of roles or collec tive action, organized around relations among actors, gives rise to shared systems of values. The individual, as a personality, participates in processes of social interaction through his various 7 roles.' "Social systems and personality systems are not merely interdependent, but they interpenetrate. That is, the role as a unit and a part of the social system is, in Q fact, part of the personality." Personality system is seen as being determined by the various roles played: Role is not simply what the personality does— it is part of the personality, because the person ality is what the person does. The condition of optimum integration is that the same cultural patterns, with special reference to the normative aspect, which are institutionalized in the social q system, are internalized in the personality system. 7 Talcott Parsons, "General Theory in Sociology," Sociology Today, ed. Robert K. Merton, Leonard Broom, and Leonard S. Cottrell, Jr. (New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1959), PP. 7-8. Q Talcott Parsons, "Boundary Relations Between Sociocultural and Personality Systems," Toward A Unified Theory of Human Behavior, ed. Roy Grinker (New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1^$S), p. 330. 9Ibid. 19 Parsons in his theories of the "Social System" and "Theory of Action," attempts to bring about the conver gence of psychological and sociological concepts. He con ceives of the psychoanalytic concept, "the superego," as the part of the personality structure which is the con necting link between the individual and the social system. In his formulations, Parsons focuses on the common culture as the Core of the stabilizing mechanisms of the sys tem of social interaction, and as the orientations and "moral" content of what is internalized as part of the personality structure.10 The superego provides the bridge between the theory of personality and the theoretical analysis of culture and of the social system. Parsons postulates that this is so because it is not explicable on any other basis other than that the superego develops through the process of social 11 interaction. The crucial components of that aspect of the struc ture of personality which interpenetrates with systems of social interaction are the same as those composing social systems. Within the frame of reference of action these are "culturally" patterned and organized objects, invested 10Talcott Parsons, "The Superego and the Theory of Social Systems," A Modern Introduction to the Family, ed. Norman W. Bell and Ezra F. Vogel (Glencoe, 111.: Free Press, 1060)7 11Ibid.. p. 647. 20 with motivation, and organized in terms of symbolic mean ings, and patterns of value-orientation. The role-expectation, that is, which is a unit of a system of social interaction, is itself also a motivational unit— an internalized object of the personality of the actor. When a person is fully socialized in the system of interaction, it is not so nearly correct to say that a role is something an actor "has1 1 or "plays" as that it is something that he is.^ Parsons points out that some have gone so far as to consider personality to be a direct "microcosm" of the society. He states: Now, however, we have begun to achieve a consid erable clarification of the bases on which this intimacy of involvement rests, and to bring person ality, conceptually as well as genetically, into relation with social structure. It goes back essentially to the insight that the major axis around which the expectation-system of any person ality becomes organized in the process of social ization is its interlocking with the expectation- systems of others, so that the mutuality of socially structured relationship patterns can no longer be thought of as a resultant of the motivation-systems of a plurality of actors, but becomes directly and fundamentally constitutive of those motivation sys tems. Parsons' discussion is in terms of any social sys tem, and he suggests that his formulations are directly applicable to that basic, prototypical group, the family. 12 Talcott Parsons and Robert F. Bales, Family. Socialization and Interaction Process (Glencoe, 111.: The Free Press, 1955), p. 107* (Italics in original.) 13 ^Talcott Parsons, Essays in Sociological Theory (Glencoe, 111.: The Free Press, 1954-)* p. 359. (Italics in original.) 21 The family can best be analyzed in this theoretical frame work as follows: The functionalist might conceive of the family as one of many components of the complete social system (society) and as best studied for the func tions it performs in society. Internally, the family itself is composed of individuals who are best studied through their status-role bundles and who are significant for their functions in the maintenance of the family system and ulti mately, of the social system. Individuals con tribute to the boundary maintenance of the system either by acting in response to demands of their structure or by acting under the constraint of the structure.!^ Family members are guided by social norms in their role behavior. It can be said that The family structure includes the expectations of other members and is oriented toward boundary maintenance of the system. Subjective dispositions, reference groups, and definitions of the situation, as well as the more structural mechanism of bound ary maintenance, mediate this structure into overt behavior or "function as consequence" of structure and mechanism.15 The structure-functionalists hypothesize that: If the nuclear family constitutes a social system stable over time, it will differentiate roles such that instrumental leadership and expressive leader ship of the system are discriminated; and if the nuclear family consists in a defined "normal" com plement of the male adult, female adult and their immediate children, the male adult will play the role of instrumental leader and the female adult will play the role of expressive leader.16 ■^^artindale, op. cit.. p. 4-3. 15 ^Hill and Hansen, op. cit.. p. 303. ^■^Parsons and Bales, op. cit., p. 307. 22 The family has a value-system which is a deriva tive of the common value system of the society as a whole, but which defines its system-goals and norms in a singular manner due to its somewhat limited functions. The mar riage relationship is a sub-system of the family with a further specialization of common values with special reference to tension-management as a system goal. Parsons states that these specialized functions are not met, in our own or in any other society, in an uninstitutionalized way, but that: The husband is expected to be a "good provider," to be able to secure for the couple a "good posi tion" in the community. The wife . . . is expected to develop the skills in human relations which are central to making the home harmonious and pleasant for both.1? Linton makes the point that it is not to the cul ture as a whole, but rather to specific roles that the 18 cultural phase of personality owes its origin. Roles in terms of sex, age, occupation, etc., are assigned the child, and it is through such serially enacted roles that he proceeds from birth to old age. This gives a dynamic conception of personality, as being ever changing with changing statuses, and consequently, changing roles. 17Ibid., p. 165. ^■®Ralph Linton, The Cultural Background of Person- ality (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1^45), p. $0. 25 Davis illustrates this point by referring to the fact that it is often noted that an individual's person ality changes with a change in social position. "A man regarded as meek and timid often turns out, when placed in a position of authority, to be aggressive and deci- 19 sive." J As Davis notes, if a change in a particular position can have such an effect, then the individual's total system of positions must play the major part in determining his behavior. He views personality as being the product of all the status-roles the individual occu pies. Young indicates that the role and status of a per- 20 son are fundamental to his development. He defines per sonality as: The more or less organized body of ideas, atti tudes, traits, values, and responses (habits) which an individual has built into roles and statuses, for dealing with others and with himself. The source of these roles and statuses, with their supporting ideas, attitudes, traits, and habits is his differential participation in various groups and their cultural patterns.21 However, role must be differentiated from person ality. Merton, in referring to his "typology of modes of individual adaptation," which classifies individuals' 19 ^Kingsley Davis. Human Society (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1949), pp. 247-24-9. 20 Kimball Young, Personality and Problems of Adjustment (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1^2), 21Ibid.. p. 5. 24- modes of adaptation to the means and goals of the social structure, points out that Examination of how the social structure oper ates to exert pressure upon individuals for one or another of these alternative modes of behavior must be prefaced by the observation that people may shift from one alternative to another as they engage in different spheres of social activities. These categories refer to role behavior in specific types of situations, not to personality. They are types of more or less enduring responses, not types of personality organization.22 As has been shown, the concept of role is strategic to the integration of two levels of analysis, the psychol ogical and the sociological. In the personality it is the ego system which has the responsibility for integrating individual roles; in the group it is the leader or govern ment that assumes responsibility for the structuring of social roles. ^ Role expectations are guided by cultural norms and originate through the socialization of the individual as a member of social groupings. The concept of "role" is of major importance in the integration of the various levels of theoretical analyses in the behavioral sciences. Every individual must perform certain roles (functions)— biolog ical, psychological, and interpersonal. Every group 22 Robert K. Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure (Glencoe, 111.: The Free Press, 1957), p. 14-0. 23 ^Clyde Kluckhohn, Henry A. Murray and David Schneider (eds.), Personality in Nature. Societyt and Culture (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1^53T» pp. 18-rS* (social system) must perform a number of social roles to maintain, govern, and reproduce itself. "At times the individual need-aim and the social role-aim may exactly 24 correspond." In view of the origin of the role action needs of the personality, most individuals try to conform to the group's expectations of their role functions. The Interactional Approach This conceptual framework was a direct outgrowth of the work of Mead and the University of Chicago group of symbolic interactionists. As early as 1928 Burgess suggested the importance of viewing the family as an 25 interacting unity. ' In brief the position of these theorists may be stated as follows: The family is a unity of interacting persons, each occupying a position(s) within the family to which a number of roles are assigned, i.e., the individual perceives norms or role expectations held individually or collectively by other family members for his attributes and behavior. In a given situation, an individual defines these role expectations primarily in view of their source 2g (reference group) and of his own self-conoeption. Past studies in this framework have considered the family as a comparatively closed unity with little rela- 24 Harry Bone, "Personality Theory," American Hand book of Psychiatry, ed. Silvano Arieti (New iork: Basic SooETnc?;"19W), I, p. 103. 25 ^Hill and Hansen, loc. cit. 26Ibid. 26 tion to outside institutions. The many studies this approach has stimulated have focused on the internal aspects of the family, hut have neglected consideration of the family as an entity in relation to the wider social structure or consideration of the family group in terms of association with other social groupings in the society. The interactional approach deals with what goes on between persons, i.e., the interpersonal, rather than the intrapersonal. The interpersonal process may be described in terms of the interplay of social roles and the unit of analysis is the social act; the social act relates to the intertwined activities of two or more persons. Hole theory for the social interactionists is almost synonymous with self theory as it bears on the 27 development and perception of self. Self awareness or sense of self develops as the individual acts out the role of others to himself— "he takes the role of the other" as no the social philosopher, Mead, put it. The individual plays as many different "roles" as there are persons to whom he responds. Out of all these roles in response to the behavior of others, there is developed a self which 27 fA. R. Mangus, "Role Theory and Marriage Counsel ing," Social Forces. 35:200-209, March, 1957* 2 8 George H. Mead, Mind. Self and Society (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1934-), Part 3. 27 29 Mead calls a "generalized other." ' A person can stimu late himself as well as being stimulated by others, and in his acting out of the role of others, he then becomes aware of himself. The individual is, therefore, organized in terms of the social organization of the outer world. For Mead, the self includes the "I" or ego, which is an active agent, or activity itself, and an empirical self, or "me," which is constructed through social interaction. He also saw the social consciousness of the individual as developing before any sense of physical consciousness. According to Mead there are two stages in relation to social consciousness: At the first of these stages, the individual's self is constituted simply by an organization of the particular attitudes of other individuals toward himself and toward one another in the spec ific social acts in which he participates with them. But at the second stage in the full devel opment of the individual's self that self is consti tuted not only by an organization of these partic ular individual attitudes, but also by an organ ization of the social attitudes of the generalized other or the social group as a whole to which he belongs.30 From this it follows that interpersonal relations provide the mechanism through which is acquired a large part of the systems of thought, feeling, and action of the individual. Therefore, for these theorists personality is 29Ibid. 28 largely a product of the expectations, actions, or sugges tions of other people transmitted and perceived directly, 51 indirectly, or mediationally in social interaction. The social impress upon the personality is first of all evident in the different membership roles and statuses which the individual has or acquires. Role and associated status, in fact, are the keys to the development of the social self which, in turn, is the core of the personal- 52 ity. Role and status and their accompanying ideas, attitudes and habits have their roots largely in the cul ture of a given time and place. It can be seen that the roles and statuses of a person are fundamental to his development. The pattern of behavior which the person, both as child and as adult builds up in terms of what others expect or demand of him, is related to his accep tance of the definition of the situation by others. A wide variety of social psychological components are encompassed in any given role and status, such as attitudes, ideas, and psychological traits. Especially in ascribed roles will the individual be highly influenced by his assumption of the characteristics which are called for in his particular culture. It follows that "from one ^John J. Honigmann, Culture and Personality (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1954-), pp. 200-201, ^Young, op. cit.. pp. 5-6» 125-126. 29 standpoint personality may be defined in terms of the var ious roles and statuses which the individual has vis-k-vis his fellows. One of the most important facets of personality is the individual's conceptions of himself which arise from the reflected appraisals of the significant others in his social environment. It is around this conception of self that the many other facets of a personality are organized, and what a person thinks of himself, "consciously or unconsciously, determines his behavior to an extent not 54 commonly recognized." The conception of self usually has a social refer ence and in this sense may also be thought of as a role one intends, or is expected to play in a social situation. It can be seen that The nature of the self system an individual acquires in the course of socialization depends largely on the kind of personalities he is associated with and the culture after which his activities are patterned, what the significant people in the environment think of him, and the ways in which the socialization program is car ried out.55 Dai has used many of the concepts of the inter actional approach in his "socio-psychiatric approach to 55 ^ ■'Young, op. cit.. p. 127. 54 ' Kluckhohn, Murray and Schneider, op. cit., P. 547. 35Ibid. 30 personality organization," which is the attempt to inte grate sociological and psychiatric theory. For Dai, human personality, on its higher levels of integration, may be thought of as an organization of selves or self-concepts. Each of the selves has a definite socio-cultural referent situation and has resulted from the interaction between 36 the individual and a specific socio-cultural environment. As Dai points out: All roles or self-concepts seem to have definite socio-cultural referent situations, or consist of what Sullivan called the "me-you patterns." This is as true of the roles or self-concepts acquired in an individual’s primary group environment as it is of those acquired later through membership in the secondary groups. • . • The behavior of a human individual in any given socio-cultural sit uation and at any given point of time may be thought of as a function of the interaction between his personality organization as conceptualized above and the situation as it appears to him.37 So it can be said that the self is really the integrated roles which an individual acts in his group. These integrated roles constitute the "generalized other" which is called the organized self. The generalized other is a general attitude which grows out of the indi vidual's interactions with others and with the customs and 36 ^ Bingham Dai, "A Socio-Psychiatric Approach to Personality Organization," Readings in Marriage Counsel ing. ed. Clark E. Vincent (New York: Thomas i. Crowell Company, 1957), pp. 370-378. 57Ibid. 31 expectancies of the group.The self can be seen as an organization of attitudes with the self as the reference point of all attitudes. Insofar as the attitudes are deeply anchored in the self, they make for its integra tion. The person in his role behavior acts in accordance with cultural norms or forms of behavior which are expected of him by virtue of his status in his group. Bonner states of this expected behavior: The definition of the situation consists of the set of values or norms of a group which sets up certain expected forms of behavior. The "well adjusted" individual is one who behaves in accord ance with the norms or definitions of his cultural group, usually some reference group within the larger social organization.39 \ Social norms are important because they become the basis of "ego" and personality structure. These norms carry expectations, i.e., social perceptions for role behavior. Implicit in behavior guided by social norms are the cultural values and goals which govern role behav ior. Merton speaks of conformity to social norms in terms of the maintenance of the stability and continuity of the social group. He puts it as follows: The mesh of expectancies constituting every social order is sustained by the modal behavior of its members representing conformity to the established • . . culture patterns. It is, in fact, only because behavior is typically oriented ^®Bonner, op. cit., p. 197. ^ Ibid.. p. 255* 32 toward the basic values of the society that we may speak of a human aggregate as comprising a society. Unless there is a deposit of values shared by inter acting individuals, there exist social relations, if the disorderly interactions may be so called, but no society.40 Both social psychological and sociological con cepts are dealt with in the interactional framework. The concepts this study is principally concerned with are: role norms, reference groups, role expectations, inter personal relations, role behavior, self-conception, role 41 attitudes, status, and role attributes or qualities. Summary Although the structural-functional and inter actional approaches are considered as separate conceptal frameworks, there are many points at which they interpen etrate. In this research the two will be integrated in terms of the cultural norms of the American middle-class with respect to marital roles. The self perceptions and role conceptualizations of individuals result indirectly and directly through their interactions with others in their social environ ments. Their role expectations are guided not only by their personal needs, but also by the needs of the social ^^erton, op. cit., p. 141. 4 1 Theodore R. Sarbin, "Role Theory," Handbook of Social Psychology, ed. Gardner Lindzey (Cambridge, Mass.: Addison-Vesley Co., 1954), I, 223-258. 35 system. Self perception, which, is formed through inter action with other individuals in the process of sociali zation, is governed by role requirements, and conformity to the latter is vital to the maintenance of the social system. The motivation for this conformity is found in the fact that role requirements become internalized, and thus, a unit of the social system becomes a unit of the self. Role expectations determine the form of social interaction, and the former have their foundations in the cultural norms and values of the social system. II. LITERATURE ON MARITAL ADJUSTMENT The major aspects of the marital relationship which have prompted studies are: (1) sexual adjustment; (2) background factors; (3) personality; (4) areas of mar ital interaction; and (5) predicting adjustment. Many studies have concerned themselves with more than one of these aspects, but the categorization can be made in terms of the predominating interest through which the study was originated. Only a few of the most important studies will be reviewed, as the literature has been covered previously 42 in the pilot study. U-2 Sally L. Kotlar, "Attitude Differentials and Their Relationship to Marital Adjustment" (unpublished Master's thesis, University of Southern California, 1959)o 34 One of the earliest research studies in marital 42 adjustment was that of Katharine B. Davis, ^ begun in 1920, to determine the importance of the sex factor to 44 marital happiness. Davis compared a group of 872 happily married women with 116 unhappily married women. She found that sex played a major part in the marital relationship, and that a larger proportion of the happily married than the unhappily married were sexually adjusted at the beginning of marriage and throughout the duration of their marriage. A further finding revealed that an equality of sexual desires between husband and wife was correlated with marital adjustment. Hamilton, in his study conducted in 1926, concurs with Davis in finding the sexual area an important one 45 for marital satisfaction. ^ He used standardized inter views and attempted to secure comparable data for all res pondents. Hamilton was the first researcher to devise an index of satisfaction to measure the success or failure of marriage. He concluded that unless a woman was below nor mal in sexual desire or was frigid, she would not find 42 ^Katharine B. Davis, Factors in the Sex Life of Twenty-two Hundred Women (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1$2$). 44 Criteria used to judge marital success is dis cussed on pages 84-85. 45 ^G. V. Hamilton, A Research in Marriage (New York: Albert and Charles Boni, 1^29). 35 satisfaction in being married to a man with low sexual desires or ability* He found that wives who do not achieve orgasm at least 20 per cent of the time are not likely to be happily married. Baber studied the factor of cultural homogamy in 46 relation to marital happiness. Three types of marriages were included in his sample of 325 cases: (1) inter racial, 48; (2) inter-nationality, 118; and (3) inter faith, 159• The conclusion of the study was that the degree of happiness varies inversely with the degree of difference in culture or color. One of the earliest and most important studies dealing with the relationship of background factors to later marital adjustment is the study conducted during the period 1931 to 1933 by Burgess and Cottrell.^ Out of 7000 questionnaires distributed by university students, 526 couples' questionnaires were selected on the basis of residency in the state of Illinois, and length of mar riage. The sample was of an upper income, highly educated smd predominantly urban group. The important conclusions of this study were as follows: (1) the background con ditioning experiences of the husband are much more impor- ^^Ray Baber, "A Study of 325 Mixed Marriages," American Sociological Review. 2:705-716» 1937* 47 Ernest V. Burgess and Leonard S. Cottrell, Jr., Predicting Success or Failure in Marriage (New York: Prentice-Hall Company, 1^39). 36 tant for adjustment in marriage than are similar items of of the wife; (2) affectional relationships in childhood condition the response patterns of the adult and affect his marital relationship; (3) the socialization of the person, as indicated by his participation in the social and cultural life of his society, is significantly related to his adjustment in the marital relationship, and (4) prediction before marriage of later marital adjustment is 4-8 feasible and should be developed further. In 1938 Terman published one of the most important studies dealing with the psychological factors associated 4-9 with marital happiness. ' He used 792 volunteer couples secured from various groups and agencies throughout California. His sample was also predominantly urban, highly educated and of an upper income bracket. The per sonality correlates of marital unhappiness found in the study were: it is characteristic of unhappy marital part ners to be touchy or grouchy; to lose their tempers eas ily; to fight to get their own way; to be critical of others; to chafe under discipline, to lack self confi dence; to be dominating in their relations with the 48Ibid., pp. 341-3^9. 4 9 'Lewis M. Terman et al., Psychological Factors in Marital Happiness (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1$3&;« 37 opposite sex; and to b§ unconventional in their atti tudes.^0 King used the Burgess-Cottrell adjustment schedule to measure the marital adjustment of 466 Negro couples, representing the various social classes in Greensboro, North Carolina.^ This study indicated, as did the Burgess-Cottrell research, that agreement in the areas of marital interaction such as handling finances, demonstra tion of affection, intimate relations, friends, ways of dealing with in-laws, and philosophy of life, are highly important to domestic harmony. Another research by Terman and reported in conjunc tion with Oden, is a follow-up of the genius sample stud- 52 ied twenty-five years earlier by Terman. The data indi cated that the average marital happiness in the gifted group was higher than that found for the control group, the 792 couples used in Terman1s major study. In another analysis of the data on the gifted group, 591 unbroken marriages and 52 broken marriages were 5°Ibid., pp. 367-377. ^Charles E. King, "The Burgess-Cottrell Method of Measuring Marital Adjustment Applied to a Non-White South ern Urban Population," Marriage and Family Living. 14:280-285, November 195^. ^Lewis M. Terman and. Melita H. Oden, The Gifted Child Grows Up: Twent.y-five Years* Follow-up of a Superior Group (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1W) . 38 53 compared. The ability of the three indices, marital happiness, marital aptitude, and sex adjustment, in com bination, to predict marital adjustment was found to be close to .50; the conclusion of this study was that mari tal success or failure could be predicted with about as much accuracy as college grades by scholastic aptitude tests. Locke, in one of the most recent major studies in the area of marital adjustment, was interested in deter mining whether adjustment scores of a divorced group dif fered significantly from a happily-married group of 54 couples. He secured a fairly representative sample of the general population of a county in Indiana. In all the sample included 929 individuals. The purpose of the study was to determine what behavior and attitudes before and after marriage differ entiated between the divorced and happily-married groups. The criteria for marital adjustment included both the mar ital adjustment test, and the happiness of the marriage as judged by an outsider. Some of the items found to be sig- 53 ^Lewis M. Terman, "Predicting Marriage Failure from Test Scores," Marriage and Family Living. 12:51-54-, Spring, 1950. 54 ^ Harvey J. Locke, Predicting Adjustment in Marriage: a Comparison of a Divorced and a Happily- Married Group (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1951)• 39 nificant were: very great affection for mate before mar riage, adaptable personality, mates about the same age, both belonging to the same church, very little conflict with mate before marriage, usually had own way as a child, sociable personality, have friends in common, childhood happy, parents approved of marriage, and rarely refuses sexual intercourse to mate. ^ The major longitudinal study in the field of mari tal adjustment is the one conducted by Burgess and Wallin.^ As the most important studies in this field have their main focus on the prediction of marital satis faction, the purpose of this study was to secure data dur ing engagement which would predict later marital adjust ment . Students at the University of Chicago were asked during the late 1930's to distribute questionnaires to engaged couples they knew. The engagement success scale used in the study was very similar to that used in the earlier study conducted by Burgess. There were 1,000 questionnaires returned to the researchers. This was a volunteer, highly educated sample. After the couples had been married approximately 55Ibid., pp. 319-357. -^Ernest W. Burgess and Paul Wallin, Engagement and Marriage (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1953). an three years, 666 cou.rles wer<? studled in a f ol low—u”> 60 determine the correlation "between tb° marital adjustment and the errrso*emert ad dustment scoresQ ^he correlation between these two irdicoo was ,4-0 indi o^ti c- " tbat enya^e— ment mooes a he ^ come op] a'tionshi r> no marl ta] h q-nriioo ^ n. Pnmmary A " I f“ )n otj rr>j ’r o T ] m i 0 o' f ^ ' n ^ i p o p i -f; p,i >i o -rr n rappp]ar. "] ] Tr Vn ,- • > 0 ri ■ f'p''V}or> o'i c o n n a t e r \ -f1 t" V> .n ro n n i f" o to 0 ■ " • > _ '' j t; ' n 0 "i T r a n i rj f n r'1 1 4 p n t » r> '*] i r* f; -j -p re ^ h t» j f; q ] ^ *0 i c*__ f* ,p c tr j O H • ^ ^ o i n o r-p jy| n -po r q ^ r i o n p r ] V> o c K . 0 n ri t* n ^ 1 -- Q y o r * f *1 f ~ rci rf\ ,*a ^ Vj i r* "h ^ i f ^ n n ' r , t - | o f ^ f* "H O ^ u o t n ^ f * 70 r\ •an f- !•-> * t *o o o4 -I ^ ^ +- -, A m o n i f* o 1 -a*r» ' P h f t T ' O r' )‘ T 9 j h O W P V D T* , i j f ’ f* ‘ " T ' o n f %, P c! n f ^ T 1 "P j O P n r n p n m* t ; n p r o c o n P C h ^ T ' ' ' 0 0 f; p ^ H p p h p p n p n ^ i o f - I r^r o, f* m ^ -p a -f- n "J ’ ’P ? ’t0" P * T 1 " f " ^ h O ' 1 ^ ^ " h 0 1 i m' tn-^ J ” O 4 - V - r * ■ • pn'-'n’ ni f o - r » i o c i ^ O ^ h p p h n r * f- r> fiTi r> -‘ p o a r-p \ ^ a ^ y-, ,-* -P ^ t> +; n p f i fl] ^ i p rj 1 C b n V * ^ - i P. 1 v "t Q 11 t ’O s - o ^ n a ] - i ^ y \tj i P Va f - ' h o »o T» p o ^ O f* ^ n p i f ^ 1 i * “'Ct'^r'r' a p V» Hi of-’ i - | . - ■ ' ] j i p H +;hn n o r\ p i ' i r — mq-pTa-i nr| f p otti f* r n ’ p ^ o r r . H 1 \r~ T p p T * p 1 # T h e f* lp H i p p-o r>_f t; h e T P . H ^OV ^ P n Of' nrn-pi f t l p ' i ^ i . i o ' h ’p ^ n t ; V] p y n a n o j i . p r i f ^ p r ) - ph ° ^ p'r^*iTr t r! o ^ ° v,r i h ^ /i r' T i n ‘ " h r ] -'‘ r ^ n a * - p V ^ O r > vop/ 1 Ot V P 1 ? o P^ r b.cn ^ 1 . T i - K ' h C ~ aw y * O n a o ^ V . r,] OpnH a - p -rV-tp OP i ] n •iT]r, t-pH doi'nc'nr'i on ^ r > o n n o f ’ i r'i V0' ' 1 r 0 i '*• Tr i n o p ' ™ +' h ' ^ ' h ? n p v i h ^ ^ p s t ~!p'h'° ^ p n n p n H ^ r \ p o o i p 1 o e i e o c ° r»p laprjTac'h ^ ti ^ n f i n ^ ~ j p t ~ q p p '!,i v p p i n o -p^ n of' p r o f n h i ^ f v 41 and the prediction of the marital adjustment for the indi vidual couple is still highly problematical. II. RESEARCH ON MARITAL ROLES The vast number of research studies in the area of marital roles may, for the purposes of this study, be grouped into two categories. These are: (1) changing role definitions and resultant conflict, and (2) role per ception, attitudes and expectations. Changing Role Definitions and Resultant Conflict In our rapidly changing and highly differentiated culture, many profound changes in social institutions have brought about changes in the marital relationship. The subject of acceptable roles, especially for the woman in our society, has presented a picture of contradictions and inconsistencies. One of the earliest studies dealing with incon sistencies in marital roles and conflict was made by 57 Kirkpatrick. r He indicated that the roles available to the American woman are: wife-and-mother, companion, and partner. Each role has a consistent set of obligations ^Clifford Kirkpatrick, "Inconsistency in Marriage Roles and Marriage Conflict," The International Journal of Ethics. 46:444-460, 1936. * 42 and privileges. A major difficulty lies in the indecision as to which role is preferred, and the conflict between husband and wife as to which set of obligations are to be assumed, and which pattern of privileges allowed. Kirkpatrick indicates there is much overlapping of these marital roles, but the tendency is for each spouse to grab a "double dose of privileges" and to leave his marital partner with a "double dose of obligations." Kirkpatrick concluded that "evidence of a decided ambiguity of mari tal roles for women and of ethical inconsistency in regard 58 to them is revealed in this study. The purpose of a research conducted by Seward was to determine the attitude of women toward their role in the period following World War 11.^ Her sample consisted of 147 women college students. The instrument to test the feminine role consisted of forty items concerning women's roles in the domestic, economic, social, and legal areas. The type of attitudes probed was: "I shall want to acknowledge my husband as my superior in professional and civic life." According to the responses recorded, the subjects were placed in a liberal or a conservative cate gory. In commenting on her study Seward stated: 58Ibid. ^Georgene H. Seward, "Culture Conflict and the Feminine Role: An Experimental Study," Journal of Social Psychology. 22:177-194, November, 194-5. 4-3 The present experiment indicates culture con flict concerning the "feminine role." Equality between men and women is permitted in certain spheres and disallowed in others. This confusion is fraught with risk of personal conflict for individual men and women.60 In 194-2 and 194-3 Komarovsky collected data from 153 college women on the feminine role. She concluded that there are serious contradictions in the social environment of the college woman, and that because of this, incompat ible sex roles are imposed upon her. There are two roles available to the woman of col lege age; one of these is the traditional "feminine" role, with certain attitudes present in relation to the male sex role, such as "not as dominant or aggressive," or "more emotional, warm and sympathetic." The other or more "modern" role partly obliterates the differentiation in sex roles and permits women to follow the patterns of behavior allowed to men. Komarovsky indicated that the goals set by these two roles are mutually exclusive, and the fundamental attitudes required for each are essen tially opposed. The full realization of one role is threatened by the personality traits and attitudes evoked in the other. 60Ibid. 61 Mirra Komarovsky, "Cultural Contradictions and Sex Roles," American Journal of Sociology. 52:184-189, November, 194-6. 44 Wallin repeated Komarovsky's study with another 6P sample of college women. He agreed that cultural con flict exists in regard to the feminine role, but he dis agreed with Komarovsky as to how women are affected by these contradictions. Wallin reported that a substantial proportion of college women occasionally pretend inferiority to men, and that many college women are not given clear expectations of their adult feminine role by their parents. However, he concluded that these ambiguities are not taken seri ously by the great majority of college women, or are read ily resolved. 67 Farber and Blackman ^ attempted to assess marital role conflict by means of disparity of spouses' ratings. The sample used in the research were 211 couples who par ticipated in the Burgess and Wallin marital prediction 64 study. Marital role tensions were analyzed in terms of the list of attitudes included in the Burgess and Wallin study. Some of these were: angers easily, takes respon- 6P Paul Wallin, "Cultural Contradictions and Sex Roles: A Repeat Study," American Sociological Review. 15:288-293, 1950. 6-5 ^Bernard Farber and Leonard S. Blackman, "Marital Role Tensions and Number and Sex of Children," American Sociological Review. 21:596-601, 195&- 64 Ernest W. Burgess and Paul Wallin, Engagement and Marriage (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co.,1955)• * ( i b O L ^ * y b ^LjOO-bOSSjA 1 b L O O ^ ^ u b 1 A A 010 lO O ^ (i Q.Uc>LL — lj. l o i l L y ~ x j j _ u 14. L A fc. [jUb £>0 [Uf; " [ U 4 utibbj,, 11 / ] ^ U b l l ^ - I J\_iC , . , , , , - - . • ■ » ■ ■ ■ ■ " ■ ^ ^ r- ) ^ ■/!• j_ IV i_* p p " " L p * C *> ^ L ^ w O w ^ O ^ t* L i t i. L I o p L i L> kJ t. ^4- o Lu \ j u ^bjt; Liiabyj L L a d L °'< j ^-U V t>0 u ci|| L L i • i - ,u o U t ( ^ - l - by L Oa U i. „ U L j. u. t> ' 4 1 . i ti liU o u J. 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O to to. 4 L u b j * ^toto-J 44T.M < 3 to 014 4 U4 U U y b L L J. 0 .. • a 4 L 4 d a d i i 4 4 L b j. b[ 1 1 o «m Jj * o -4 l u-U. > -» lu La l ^ d i fcu [ ... [_ h i ^ L a l ( j u l v i^4 u [ U a o i i w b b ^ ua — pit.../ u.u u o u 1 . u*.u ^ j. o <d ,Ji«f 4 ^ 4 A < = * Li u alu.0 4 0 ^ 0 4 0 Lio 4 L A!| l [ L U L L — 0.c*O. U d d 4-*“ L b jb'c/bU U‘j * ^ O tlO lb t> 94 u l [ L « -•/*, 0 UCi b b d ^ J . L ^ 0144 U l ^^404 i 0 i 4. 0. L i ^ 0 4JS [ a l i u L d ild /H b i/ 4 4 vLO J. o ^ O b L 'U iiS 0 l^ l l 0 o a U l | . d L j p Li L lU O - j j\ *J L. v ^ _ i. a o U i " O t i u lU U 0 . J p o 4 0 L ^ o i I ^ o p b i y p j_ LiU 0 o O [ ' j o . o A L o t> LiupLtfc. a U * u b L u i c i i l [ o t i O d 4 Q . ^ te ^ i- L UU p c l d ^ d q h c) L t ILu. i | o ^ U 4- 4 a LUO 4 4 L; A p U J l b a L L u p L ib ^Lic< o 0 L i.t» L X L Ui O p ^ O 0 L iU . <b 4 L i L p O b i v j_ c; U o U o o p O a [ b u A i p b d ^ O a o 4 T ^ L* 1 4 ° l i O ' L b U O ^ JKJ jL&yUZ Uc. ^ d a u [d J ld p A o p4 L jO cd J.O a r p u' ill c?p4 0-0 ^ U L4 ^’C ^ ^ M . -4 - H - j a o a . 4 ^ ' -i; u 1 4 b a L LUO j_/ ( j U b ‘ d U U X ^ L L L U b4 i a U 0 4 a u U i l l O [ & 4 . 1 1 0 4 1 L * j - b i djddu ‘ A ( _ IS Ltd ipllo Luj. to*#4tui 4 1 1 . | _ - t o U l l [ L i ' i A4f] L H . X £ t o a 1 7 46 orientation was related to "fair" and "good" marital adjustment for the wife. Lu reported that the definition of roles of husband and of wife have become quite ambigu ous, with various patterns of dominance, equality, and 67 submissiveness found among the spouses in the sample. Motz developed an instrument for the measurement of 68 ideal marital roles. She found two rather clear-cut definitions of roles for each sex; there are (1) the con ventional, husband "breadwinner," and wife "housekeeper" role conceptualizations, and (2) the companionship role definitions, which emphasizes personality needs and greater equality between husband and wife. A preliminary investigation indicated there are two conceptions regarding these contradictory definitions. There are the individual's conceptualizations of his own and his mate's roles (or personal), and the conceptualiza tions he has of the roles for husbands and wives in gen eral (or public). These public and personal role expec tations did not necessarily coincide. This made it nec essary to include questions relating to both conceptuali- ^ Yi-Chuang Lu, "A Study of Dominant, Equalitar- ian and Submissive Roles in Marriage" (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago, 1950), p. 50o 6ft Annabelle Motz, "The Role Conception Inventory: A Tool for Research in Social Psychology," American Sociological Review. 17:465-471, August, 1952. 47 zations in the role inventory. Role Perception. Attitudes, and Expectations Behavior in a situation is a function of the way in which the participant views the events taking place, and is also influenced by his anticipation of the res ponses of the other actors in the interpersonal drama. These anticipations and tendencies to respond in a partic ular manner are determined by the various experiences undergone by the individual from early life to the time of 69 acting m that situation. ' Ort used a sample of college students to determine the relationsnip to marital happiness of conflict between 70 role expectations and role behavior.' The subjects were asked 22 questions on role expectations which were com pared to 22 questions answered on the roles played by the subject in his marriage. Questions were also asked con cerning the subject's expectations of his mate's role in marriage, and the mate's role behavior as perceived by the subject. Conflict was defined as unrealized role expecta- 69 Ernest W. Burgess and Harvey J. Locke, The Family: from Institution to Companionship (New York: The American Book Company, 1953)» P» 278. ^Robert S. Ort, "A Study of Role Conflict as Related to Happiness in Marriage," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 45:691-699» 1950. 48 tions for the subject and unrealized role expectations of his mate; the measure of happiness used was the subjects' equating their marital happiness with that of couples known to them. The relationship between role conflicts and happiness rating for this sample was found to be -.83* Hurvitz studied 104 middle-class couples to deter mine the relationship between disparity of role expecta- 71 tions and role behavior to marital happiness. He devel oped what he called an "Index of Strain," which is a meas ure of the difference between role expectations and role fulfillment. He postulated that there is a hierarchical pattern of marital roles, and a wide discrepancy between the marital partners' definitions of this hierarchical arrangement indicates strain in their marital adjustment. Hurvitz found that the husbands' index of strain increases as the husbands' index of deviation of perform ance roles increases, which suggests that husbands who perceive their functional roles differently from the typ ical pattern of role performances in their subculture experience increasing strain as they differ from the modal rank order of performance roles. Where the spouses have a pattern of role expectations that is different from the typical pattern of role expectations of the other spouse, 71 Nathan Hurvitz, "Marital Roles and Adjustment in Marriage in a Middle-Class Group" (unpublished Ph.D. dis sertation, University of Southern California, 1958). &q Pbe spo’ 1!!? ‘ “xperi enc es strain in the marrisn'p. Another findin'r war that wives who ho14 tradi tional ntti- tudes reverb in? the source and hind of authority expressed wi.tMn the family are married to husbands who experience 90 greater strain m their marris.ye.'' Roserstein used the "Index of Otrai n ," ho study the role conflict present in a samnle consisting of three yrouns: natural parents, Barents who have used s^enci es to adopt children, and parents who used private adoptive 9* means to obtain their children,,'^ Uo found role conflict in all thr e ° ' “poum as to the p^l e t i ve iron ort n f pv>o hi erarchi cal rol°o . The npivapp a^op-t,j ve ' r 'ar°nt s showed role conflict i.n the relative rank importance of the hus band heir? a companion to his wife, and th» husband •ee.rn- j n0 - a livin? and rusaortins his family. The ar-enoy adop tive a-reup showed rol e oonf 1 i ct as measured by a «i r^oi -p• ? _ cant dif Terence i n the n*0! ati v --> r°n1 r i m^ortr , nc.° of the husband servinr r,s thp mode 1 of men fam* h-i s o 1 droi „ Tho natural parent s showed °vi d enc e of rol e conflict as meas— ured h-m o significant difference ^ n ph« r»el ativo rank importone° of the husband's management of the family 72Ibid., p p . 157-189. 9d ''Albert J. Rosenstein, "A Comparative Study of th° Role Conflict, Marital Adjustment, and Personality Config uration of Private .Adoptive and Agency Adoptive Parents" (unpublished. Ph.P. dissertation, TTniversi tv of' .Southern California, I960). 50 income and finances and his serving as the model of men for his children. Jacobson gave a 28 item questionnaire, dealing with traditional male-dominant attitudes and modern equalitar- ian attitudes to 100 divorced men and their former wives 74 and to 100 married couples. The hypothesis was that divorced couples exhibit a greater disparity in their attitudes toward the roles of the husband and wife than do married couples. Jacobson reported significant differences between the attitudes of men and women towards marital roles; he also indicated that the differences of mean scores between divorced couples were four times greater than between mar ried couples. Fand studied the self-concept and feminine role concepts of 85 college women to determine how they defined their sex role, their "ideal women" the "average woman" 75 and "men's ideal woman.ury She postulated that the choice that each woman makes between a traditional and a pro gressive concept of the feminine role depends upon her 74 ' Alver H. Jacobson, "Conflicts of Attitudes Toward the Roles of Husband and Wife in Marriage," American Sociological Review. 17:146-150, 1952. 75 ^Alexandra B. Fand, "Sex Role and Self Concept: A Study of the Feminine Sex Role as Perceived by 85 College Women," Dissertation Abstracts, 15:1135-1156. 1-955. 51 self concept. As a groun the pc? college women sew the f eminine sex role as combining an approximately equal amount of other-oriented (traditional) and self-oriented (rrogres- sive or modern) elements. They nerceived the "ideal woman" as bavin0- an attitude m'TV'‘ adly similar to their own, whereas, the " overage w o m a n " is seen to be si^nifi— cantlv more other—ori ented than themselves or the "ideal woman." 'They perceived "men's ides] woman" as highly oth<=»r-or.iented and thus different, nob only fnom them selves and their "ideal woman," bun «ven from the "average woman. " The d i stributi or. of the 85 swhiects l°nt itself to division into six distinct ;roirm. The relationship between the mean scores obtained on the "own self," the "ideal woman,"the "average woman," and "men's ideal woman," presented a different pattern for each of the six grours. Steinman, using the rating inventory devised by Fand, studied a sample of 51 middle-class girls, attending ry g a suburban college, and their mothers and fathers. Tn this research on the concert of the feminine role she found that the daughters and thei r mothers considered the ''Anne G. Steinmann, "The Concert of the Feminine dole in the American Family: A Study of the Concent of the Feminine Role of Fifptr_one Middle—Class American Fami lies," Pi ss ert at i on Ahshracts, 19'R°9 , 1958. 52 feminine role to be made up of approximately equal amounts of other-oriented and self-oriented elements. This agreed 77 with the Fand findings.'' Both daughters and mothers saw the "average woman" and "men's ideal woman" as more other- oriented than their own "ideal woman." They saw "men's ideal woman" as more other-oriented than themselves, their "ideal" or the "average woman." The fathers' concept of the "average women" was not as other-oriented as was the mothers' concept of her. Also the daughters thought that "men's ideal woman" was even more other-oriented than did their mothers. Both were inaccurate with respect to what their fathers and husbands actually wanted with respect to the feminine role. The research findings indicate there is a lack of communication between men and women on the subject of the 78 feminine role.' Dymond had 15 couples fill out two copies of a questionnaire made up of 115 MMPI items, each spouse first rating himself and then predicting how his mate would res- 79 pond. y The marital happiness quotient was determined by 77 ''Fand, loc. cit. ^®Anne Steinmann, "Lack of Communication Between Men and Woman," Marriage and Family Living. 20:350-352, November, 1958. 79 'Rosalind'Dymond, "The Relation of Accuracy of Perception of the Spouse and Marital Happiness," American Psychologist. 8:344-» August, 1955* a subjective ranking procedure. Dymond reported that happily-married couples made significantly fewer errors in predicting their spouses' responses; also significant was the higher degree of sim ilarity of self-concepts of the partners in the happy group. In an effort to determine what changes are taking place in role relations in families where the wives work outside the home, Dyer studied a group of 129 urban 80 middle-class families. He found that there was a def inite, if uneven, trend towards the partnership role per formance patterns in 3 role areas: (1) homemaking; (2) social participation; and (3) family providing and fin ancing. Husbands and wives were found to do most sharing in the area of social participation and least in the area of homemaking. The data failed to show significant differ ences between actual role performance patterns and role expectations. The findings suggest that in these two- income families the husband and wife have become equally as emancipated from the traditional conception of "woman's place" and "man's place" in the family as they have from ^Everett Dixon Dyer, "A Study of Role and Author ity Patterns and Expectations in a Group of Urban Middle- Class Two-Income Families," Dissertation Abstracts. 16: 176. 54 traditional role practices and patriarchal exercise of authority patterns. Couch studied 32 married couples to determine the relationship between consensus on marital role definitions 81 and length of marriage. He found there was little rela tionship between length of marriage and how either the husbands or wives evaluated the husbands' role perform ance. In evaluating the wife's performance, the women married more than two years evaluated themselves higher than did those wives married less than two years. How ever, the husbands married over two years gave a lower evaluation of their wives' performance than did those husbands married less than two years. He found that degree of consensus on role performance expectations tended to increase with length of marriage. An investigation, published in 194-1* was concerned chiefly with the relationship between the compatibility of a marriage and the judgments of the husband and wife regarding their relative positions on a number of person- 8? ality traits. The sample consisted of 76 couples who ®^Carl J. Couch, "The Use of the concept "Role" and Its Derivatives in a Study of Marriage," Marriage and Family Living. 20:353-357* November, 1958. Lowell Kelly, "Marital Compatibility as Related to Personality Traits of Husbands and Wives as Rated by Self and Spouse," Journal of Social Psychology. 13:193-198, 194-1. 55 had been married an average of 10.6 years. The criterion of marital adjustment was the score on a Burgess-Cottrell- Terman type of adjustment index. On the personality rating scale, the husband was asked to rate both his own and his wife's personality, and the wife was asked to do the same. Kelly reported that a high degree of marital compatibility seemed to be accompanied by a willingness on the part of both the hus band and the wife to admit the superiority of the spouse. A high degree of marital compatibility was associated with a tendency for both husband and wife to rate them selves above average on personality traits. The Kelly study served as a model for later research concerned with inter- and intra-personal con flict. This was measured by the self-rating of the hus band and his rating of his wife, and the wife's self-rat ing and her rating of her husband on a personality inven tory known as the Marriage Schedule. The sample for this research were clients of the Marriage Council in Phila delphia.®^ The conflicted group consisted of 116 cases who had come for marital counseling, and the adjusted group, of 55 cases, who had come for pre-marital consul tation, and when investigated after living together gave ^Malcolm Preston et al., "Impressions of Person ality as a Function of Marital Conflict," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. 47:326-333» 1^52. no indications of marital difficulties. Preston reported that spouses tend to rate them selves and their partners similarly in personality traits. Spouses counseled pre-maritally showed more similarity between their self perceptions and their perceptions of their partners than did those counseled post-maritally. The data indicated that neither group was behaving real istically, as the correlation between the self-ratings of the spouses were uniformly much lower than the correlation between the ratings of the self and partner. The happily- married group exhibited a larger discrepancy, evidencing more lack of realism in appraisal. A study, which bears some similarity to the Kelly and the Preston, et al. researches just cited, is the one 84 conducted by Mangus at the Ohio State University. The aspects of the present research investigation, dealing with role perception, and role expectation, are modeled after the Mangus research methodology. The subjects of the Mangus study were young married couples from a mid- western county; they were participating in a large mental health research program initiated in 1946 and re-organized as a follow-up study in 1956. The Interpersonal Check 84 A. R. Mangus, "Family Impacts on Mental Health," Marriage and Family Living. 19:256-262, August, 1957. PS List; ’' ' wa 3 u^ed to aspens the followin'” t o ] ° • ’tt'’ tudec ; f 1 1 the oilhioct * s perce'-ti ot of himself os a y-'ouee; (2) the subject1 s perception of the partner os a soonse; (3) the subject* s role °xpectations of a husband; and ( ' • * • ) the sub.iect's role expectations of a wife. The research reported on on actual case in which di.vorce proceedinys had <already been initiated . The mnl— ad artive oualitv of the marriage was o ? . . i d to be ref] eoted in the very■ areat discrepancies of the role descrintions of the husband and of the wife. She perceived him ouite di.ffere.ntlv from the way he viewed himself, and suite dis parate from her expectations of a hushand. He perceived hi mself a.s failin'’ to fulfill either hi s own or his f e' ° expectations of a husband. The husband's expectetions of the role of the wife were suite diff°rent from his reroep— tj on of the role attitudes of his own wife. Luclcey used the Interpersonal fho~h T i at to aeeess Rh the congruence of marital rol.e perceptions. rnHe purpose of her study was to test the relationship between marital sati sfacti on and congruence of role nerce-tions. The assessment was made i r terms of f'nnTT>upncf ' of pol e con cents of spouses in relation to solf perception and mate See Chapter TIT navee Rp_"|no for ° description of this instrument. Ileanore Braun Lucbey, "Marital Satisfaction and Its Association with Congruence of Perception," Terriaye and Family Liviny, 22:4-9-?^, Februar^r, lO(S0o 58 perception; self-concept and ideal self; in relation to congruence of ideal self and concept of spouse; concept of parent of the same sex and self-concept; and in rela tion to congruence of concept of spouse and parent of the opposite sex. She found that the congruence of perceptions in all the above had a significant relationship to marital satisfaction, with the exception of the relationship Q r p between self-concept and concept of the ideal self. Luckey also found that men who identified with their fathers were found more often in satisfactory marriages than in unsatisfactory ones, but women who identified with their mothers were not found more often in satisfac- 88 tory marriages than in unsatisfactory ones. She believes that the reason for this difference may lie in the changing American culture and the consequent confu sion of the role of women in our culture. Summary A review of the literature on roles indicates that this field of study has great importance for the sociology of the family, for social psychology, and for marital counseling. That marital roles have changed is indicated 87Ibid., p. 54. 88 Eleanore Braun Luckey, "Marital Satisfaction and Parent Concepts," Journal of Consulting Psychology. 24:195-204, June, 19^0. by the increasing number of researches which report role definitions in terms of equalitarian attitudes. Role per ceptions and role expectations have been shown to play an important part in the determination of marital satisfac tion. Frustrations, leading to conflict, result from role behavior of a spouse which is significantly different from that anticipated or desired by the marital partner. CHAPTER III THE SAMPLE AND THE METHODOLOGY USED This chapter includes a description of the method of sampling used in the present study, the manner of gathering the data, the social characteristics of the sample, statistical procedures, the integrity of the sub jects' responses, the marital adjustment test and its validity, the Interpersonal Check List and its validity, the development of the Attitude Survey, and the limita tions of the study. I. THE SAMPLE The Sample of the Present Study This study is a continuation of a pilot study which used a sample composed entirely of members of the Jewish faith.^ To determine whether the findings would be applicable to a wider segment of the middle-class, a pre dominantly Protestant sample was used in the present study. The sample of the present study consists of 50 ^Sally L. Kotlar, "Attitude Differentials and Their Relationship to Marital Adjustment" (unpublished Master's thesis, University of Southern California, 1959), p. 35. 60 61 ad insted and c,0 unad insted couples. The nnad.iusted sample was secure1 ! through m^TTi c^e counselor0, o ^ r one—half of the cases eomin^ from two sources, The American Inst ■'tuts of Pami lv deletions, and the ?pt<>rson — 'tipr)«] ‘ Pnmi Iv Cen ter. The remaining cases came from six marital counselors in nr! vate rrnctice in the I-os Anmel®s and suburban areas • In all instances tha ouestionnaires were handled throncth the connselors, the subiects know! n^, hnweveT>, that they were ^articinq.t j nc-* in a research T>rof ; , rem< > The ad.ins ted samrle was selected from amonp el'^htv- ein-ht casee in terms of s-cores on thp mq-cital ad iustment test. Tn no case, in the selected n,roir-, did the mean of the combined husband a n d wife scores fall below 7b per cent of the hi 'Thoct; one Qi b] p cc ore. Also one or both ■partners considered the mor-pi a '*r> to be "'fiqnnv1 1 or " verx b p n n v " and n e 11 n ° r had oopo-jap. pqa hi i-r-oi f nj) n n uphnrmr end of" t ha ^nnhir'i]|]Tni ■ P h .n couples In t.hn ar]-inpfod , Tpo’lT' ! were apj]l)ppp of voupr mqT'T’ i ed—conn ! . e S rrT'oipc -in ph’ jprhpp in the Jos " n -al n" o p i ' ’i|r>T'0"nd i r1 a r> e a a # 1 : 1 h o s o c h n t*o. ’ ’ ’ P n WPfp O 0 h O p o p f r>" hhfl-j p :,m i b d l ° — C l o s e o h a p p o # 1 1 r | 1 h i q ripe] <—n at! On was made in terms of the area in which tho obn-pch wns 1 nested , and the denom-’ not! on o-p the eb’ireb „ Part.i ci net— o Tpf-npri pifc with pppt oof ant ’ air’step.s vjPT'e 1 n s t ru — mental in the assessment of th° denomi.nati nno iyt-i o s~ t.;er*e poos i depeH to bo M p - i h h 1 0 — pi nop ohppchop,” 6? inp* in the research program were members of two ^ethodist churches in the western section of Los An3el.es, three Presbyterian churches in the western section, two Chris tian churches, one in Hollywood end one in a suburban area, and two Lutheran churches, one in the western area and one in the Valley. All of the members nf the youn"'—m^rri ed "•roup? present rart iciested in the research. Tn only one oa?r t did a counle refuse ho fill out a ouestionusire, and. thr°e other? were dlsnorded herause of incomplete informntjon, mating a refusal rate in this ^roiU' ot about per c»nt. These were considered refusals bec^u00 the method, of fill — i.nr r out the questionnaires had been fulir er^lained, the researcher was ^resent at all time? to answer cuestions, end the subiects were asked to make sure that no nupsti on bed been omitted before turnin'" u th° form• In the un ad.■’us ted group tbe refusal rvnt« was about 10 ner cent. This includes only those c o u p 1ee wHo were asked to mrt i cinnte, but did not wish to do so. The counselors selected the casep 1 p of social class, ace, and number of ■^ear? married. counselors were asked to i nc 1 udc onl.v those rase? where both husband and wife were Protestant, or wh?r° one member of an inter faith marriage was Protestant, T'ais sample included, ner on Protest ant-Cat holi 0 marriages . 63 Gatberin0; the Data The f’irst sten in "stberin" the 'into wop? to. dete-r*- mine whet type of instruments were needed to elicit the information needed to illnmine the problems posed bv the study. Criteria of marital adjustment were the first con sideration. in outpi de cri terion , the fact that the couple was secu.ri.nfr marriage counsel j n", and n marital adjustment index are th« pro criteria used in the nresent study. The Wallace Adiustment Seal e, which bud Ids m o n the instruments used in the ^ur^or^-hot^rell, German, and T.ri^Vp 01 lid i.e S is "*"he ad "iuaprriert i nd °x us °d to a s S0 S the y level of the .marital relationship. Pol low in a * the methods o f t ho ro search conducted bv o flanpus ,- role expectations and role percentions were assessed through the use of the Intermersoral Chock List, an instrument devised by the Kaiser Institute. Thir instrument is used to determine cole perceptions and role expectations in terms of qualities rather than as actions or behavior. Sarbin points out that both kinds of role expectations, riphts and obligations, may be analyzed as d "'See r a y e s 63—66. y Karl Miles Wallace, "Construction and Validation of Marital Adjustment and Prediction. Scales," (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Southern California, Los Anmel.es, 1Q6-7), p p . 171 -l?c. c A. P. Mon "us "Fa mi. ly Impacts on Mental P e a 11 h , " Marriave and Fami lv Li vi n?” 1 Q ; P'-b-.^h^ ^ Aurust, 1*167 „ 64- to action® or in t°rms of ona l ■ * tieo op attribut esa Another instrument, used in the nnppti onnnire , to deterrai ne traditional on enu?.lit»rien role stti tudes, w°s n designed for end used In the pilot study. ,nhe "Attitude Survey" contains thirty statements to which the sn^.yct recoords in terms of decree of .qrr^pi^i^pYit on disagreement • Tn the pilot study the scori ny • w ’s on the basis of a four- roint scale; in the ^resent study a neutral catepony wo® added, making; it a Likert f j ve-roint scale as follows: "Stronyly ayree, " "Ayreo," ? for "Neut-^el, " "Di sagree,1 1 and "Strongly dissyree . " The total research instrument consisted of the "Farital Survey" or marital adiustment scale; the Inter- oarsonal Check List, scored by each spouse in terms of "self so a husband or as a wi f°," "mare «s a hn.sb«r d or wife," "ideal, husband," and "■’ .deal wife,"; gnd the "Atti tude Survey." r nbe ei mbt — r a <re ouesti.onn-’i r>n oouia to oom— . q pleted in approximately th- ’ rty mi nutes. The confidence and cooperation, of the subjects were secured by statin ^ that the research rro.iect w'-s, beiny conducted under the directi on of the faculty of the Theodore P. Sorbin, "Role Theory," handbook of Social Psychology, ed. Gardner Lindsey (Cambridge: Addison Wesley Publishing Co., 1934), I, pp. 926-299• 9 Ko11ar, or. cit., r. 5b. A See A' 'end 1 y A for complete nuestionn'iire. 65 Sociology Department of the University of Southern California. We stated that those involved in the project hoped the information gained from studies of this kind might enable students and researchers to secure the facts necessary to deal with grave social problems existing in society. Husbands and wives were placed on opposite sides of the room in order to guard against collaboration. Care was taken that no husbands or wives saw the responses given by their mates. The questionnaires were matched by means of duplicate numbers for the husband and wife, i.e., 331H and 331W. However, a sheet was placed at the end of the questionnaire where the subject could fill in his name, address, and telephone number if he wished an anal ysis of the information gleaned from his responses. The majority of the subjects filled in this sheet, giving identifying information. Social Characteristics The "Marital Survey" elicited from the subjects information concerning the number of years married, age, education, number of children, and social class. Number of years married.— The average number of years married for the total sample was 6.04 years. For the unadjusted group the average was 7.36 years, and for 66 the ad iusted « it; was b *7? rears . mhpre wa°. no < = c i e_ ■ ' < J ^ — /"" ~ - 7 1 u * * “ '■ “ ' ...... nl.fi cant difference between the means of number of years Q married between the two eroimso ' The 3VprPp-e number of years married for the sample in the -pilot studv was p .? yearso Terman reported that there is an absence of any indication that adjustment between the husband and. wife improves very materially after five year? of marriaye. He indicated that if by that time a satisfactory adjust ment had not been achieved, it probably never would bp. Table 1 presents the per cents of m a r r i e d couples in both mro tit's fop different lengths of marri a ve. Jn the unadjusted yroun 60 per cent had b "“eo marri ed • 2 6 per cent, 6—10 veers ; a.nd ?b. per c°nt hnd heen marr^ ed 11 or more ^ears. Her the adius+"ed "reiur> tbe comnnra'*'! e fi «Hires are! 68 e-er cent had been marri.ed 2 - c years; 29 pep cent, 6—10 years; and b ^er cent over i 1 year''. C h o o p 1 Tr T a p .-p r) i f f p r a n n a h a f p n n t h e t w o - p n i i n ^ 1 i ■ < * len^th of -"ears married was in the "11 on mppe" oatei " rorv °nd the number0 were too small to be treated statisti cal " . ^ o i i r o i . r p ■p ^ t h p P U m b ° r f ) f p n t ' ^ rr* r> o S i.r n t~| p o __ Q - The Chi Sruar»p anppo-yimetion was onl v at the , ?o level of con.fidance. con f 1 d ence level chosen for analysis of data in fhfs study is ,06 for si rnificance of differences. See section on "Stetistical Procedures" on typ. ift-Rn, 1 0 . "Lewie Id. ^epnv’n eh el., Psvo nolosd cal factors In Marital Happiness (New Tort: MoOraw-Hill Doot Co., jo 68 Y ~ e s r e c i a 11 v "Bao]ro*ro’md Pa ctorp ; C-eneml," tively correlated with the mean of the combined husband and wife marital adjustment scores for the total sample. For both husbands and wives the correlation was -.27, which was significant beyond the 1 per cent level of con fidence.^^ TABLE 1 LENGTH OF MARRIAGE OF ADJUSTED AND UNADJUSTED MARRIED COUPLES, BY PER CENTS Years Adjusted Couples N=50 Unadjusted Couples N=50 1-5 68 50 6-10 28 26 11 or more 4 24 100 100 Mean number of years 4.72 7.36 The implications are that euphoria in the marital relationship decreases as the number of years married increases. This area of the process of adjustment in mar riage over a period of years has received relatively ^J. P. Guilford, Fundamental Statistics in Psy chology and Education (McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1^50), see Table D for significance of coefficients of correlation. 68 little study. This may he due to the emphasis given to "disillusionment" in the early years of marriage, which is said to be the result of "romantic idealization" in the dating and courtship stages. How the marital happin ess of the couples who weather the storms of the early period, but later experience "disenchantment," is affected by the passage of time is only now beginning to 12 be the object of research. Interpersonal relations, whether in the family or in any other role relationship, should not be conceptualized in a static sense, They are better viewed in a processual manner whether in terms of research or with respect to counseling with individuals experiencing difficulties in some area of interpersonal relations. The effect of length of marriage upon the var ious areas of marital interaction will be discussed in Chapter X.^ The average number of years married for the total sample was about 6 years; the indications are that 36 per cent of all divorces take place in marriages of under 5 years duration, while 64 per cent occur to couples married 12 Peter C. Pineo, "Disenchantment in the Later Years of Marriage," Marriage and Family Living. 23:3-11. February, 1961. ■^See "Areas of Marital Interaction," pp. 205-211. 69 14 5 years or more. Age.— The present sample included individuals between the ages of 20 and 46. The average ages of hus bands in the adjusted and unadjusted groups were, respec tively, 30.7 and 30*6. For the wives the comparable mean ages were: 28.3 for the adjusted group, and 28.7 for the unadjusted. The mean age of husbands in this sample was 30.66 as compared with a mean of 33.0 for husbands in the pilot study. The mean of the ages of wives in this sample was 28.5» the mean of the pilot study wives, 29«6. Number of children.— The mean of the number of children for the adjusted group was .96; for the unad justed group, the mean was 1.42. There was no significant 15 difference between the means of both groups. ^ The number of children was negatively correlated with the mean of the combined husband and wife marital adjustment scores, i.e., the larger number of children was correlated with a lower marital adjustment score. For wives the correlation was -.28, and for husbands, it was -.26; both of these coeffi cients of correlation were significant beyond the 1 per cent confidence level. 14 James A. Peterson, Education for Marriage (New York: Charles Schribner's Sons, 1^56), p. 240. 15 ^The Chi Square approximation was only significant at the .20 confidence level. 70 Social Class.— The class status of the individuals in the samrle wn« determined by the criteria used in the - | ^ Hollingshead "Two-Factor Index of Social Position. This Index is premised upon three assumptions: "(1) the existence of a . status structure in the society; (7) posi tions in this structure are determined mainly by a few commonly accented symbolic characteristics; and (d) the characteristics symbolic of status may be scaled and com bined by the use of statistical ’ ’rocedures so that a researcher can quickly, reliably, and meaningfully strat- 1 t ify the population under study." * Occunation and educa tion are the two factors utilised to determi ne tho soci nl positions of individuals or familles. There are seven occupational naten*ories which are a-iven the following numerical values: (1) A "one" is s-j ven to binher “T°^nt i ves , afoafi etors of 1 ar°*e onr«ns , and ma.ior m o f a a qt on a 1 a j (7! Fusi.ness man an-cr0 , rrorri etors of medi.um-si 7,ed businesses , and 1 e s s eT> npnfopc; jnn'i i ^ ro^oi vn a sonr° of "two"; (dl a "tv'T>pp1 1 i_c van to ad mi ni °t'napi/»rr > personnel , small ind euend <=»nt business owners, and minor professionals; (A) a va 1 ue of "four" is ^i v^n to clerical o p a b o Tre , n q " " p c 1 0 — I d , f 0 "n w o ' i <TV>f i n r n f t ^ O factors and cansra of scores for class divisions 0 1n Aunust B. Foil ingshead and Freder- 5 oF 0. Pedlioh t Soci0! Class and Mental Illness (New York: -Tohn '11 i and Sons, l.QBB) , pp.' ??B-40r 7. 71 and sales workers, technicians, and owners of little busi nesses (value under $6,000); (5) a "five" is given skilled manual employees; (6) machine operators and semi-skilled employees receive a value of "six"; and (7) unskilled employees receive a "seven" score. This scale is premised upon the assumption that occupations have differential values in the eyes of the members of society. Table 2 reports a breakdown of the occupational groupings of the husbands in the present sam ple. It was found that 80 per cent of the adjusted and 72 per cent of the unadjusted husbands were in the profes sional, business, administrative, sales, and managerial occupations, i.e., the categories one, two, and three listed above. Both the occupational and educational scales are combined and weighted to determine social class position. For the purposes of this study Classes I, II, and III are considered to be the "middle-class" group whose marital roles are being studied. The majority of the wives of both groups were full time homemakers, with 36 per cent of the adjusted and 4-0 per cent of the unadjusted wives being employed outside the home. This is slightly higher than the national aver age of per cent of wives with outside employment— the 72 TABLE 2 OCCUPATIONAL GROUPINGS OP ADJUSTED AND UNADJUSTED HUSBANDS, BY PER CENTS Occupational Score Adjusted Husbands N-50 Unadjusted Husbands N-50 1 34 22 2 34 26 3 12 24 4 4 6 5 14 16a 6 2 6 7 - - 100 100 Occupations listed under scores one through five are essentially middle-class occupational groupings* These encompass 96 per cent of the adjusted and 94- per cent of the unadjusted husbands* 73 18 figure being 32.3* The average annual income for both groups was about $7,500.00 dollars per year, compared to the average of $8,500.00 per year in the pilot study. This is much higher than the national average annual income for fami lies of similar age group. The national average (median) as of 1959 was $5*880.00;for professional and semi-profes sional the national average was $7*4-50.00. Although income is not used as an index of social class in the Hollingshead Index, income is highly correlated with occu pation. The educational scale is premised upon the follow ing assumption: Men and women who possess similar educations will tend to have similar tastes and similar attitudes, and they will also tend to exhibit similar behavior patterns. The educational scale is divided into 7 positions: (1) Graduate Professional Training. (Persons who complete a recognized professional course leading to a graduate degree are given scores of 1). (2) Standard College or University Gradua tion. . . (3) Partial College Training" (Individu als who complete at least one year but not a full college course are assigned this position. Most individuals in this category complete from 1 to 3 years of college.) (4-) High School Graduates. . . (5) Partial High School, (individuals who complete the 10th or the 11th grades, but do not complete high school are given this score.) (6) Junior High 18U.S., Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstracts of the United States: I960, p. 214-. School. (7) Less Than 7 Years of School. (Indi viduals who do not complete the 7th grade are given the same scores irrespective of the amount of education they receive.)19 Table 3 gives the breakdown of the educational cat egories of the husbands in the sample. It was found that 88 per cent of the adjusted and 76 per cent of the unad justed husbands were in groups one, two, and three, i.e., the categories as listed above. The educational level of the present sample is slightly higher than the average for men and women of com parable age in the city of Los Angeles, the mean number of 20 years of education for the latter being 11.8 years. The mean number of years of education for husbands in the adjusted and unadjusted groups were, respectively, 15.6 and 14.5. The mean number of years of education for hus bands of both groups was 15*05 as compared to 14.3 for husbands in the previous sample. The mean number of years of education for wives was 13.9» for the adjusted and 13.4- for the unadjusted group. The mean for both groups of wives was 13.7 as compared to a mean of 13*3 for the wives in the pilot study. Every husband in the sample was given a score on iq 'August B. Hollingshead, Two-Factor Index of Social Position (New Haven, Connecticut: Privately pub lished by author, 1957)» P* 9. 20 U.S., Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, Population Characteristics, Series P-20, Number 7 2» p. 3» 75 TABLE 3 EDUCATIONAL GROUPINGS OF ADJUSTED AND UNADJUSTED HUSBANDS, BT PER CENTS Educational Score Adjusted Husbands N-50 Unadjusted Husbands N-50 1 32 12a 2 22 28 3 34 36 4 12 16 5 - 6 6 - 2 7 - - 100 100 Educational and occupational scores cure combined to determine social class position. the "Index of Socle] Positi on" by orivinp* a weight of 7 to his ocouoet i on a 1 score end a . weight of 4 to his educa tional score value. Table 4 elves the distribution of both e-pour? in terms of the five social, classes. The mean score for the sample was 2S.4 which is et the top of T,8?r III; the sc ores f * or thqf class ran^e from 28 to 4*, belonpine" to the "Tinner Class," the i rdividuals in that oatevory were °o >dicoi because of r>rof essi oria 1 occupa tions and conseoue1111 v a * ' ii''rh ehucat.i onal 1 "■’ /•el, is to whether ■'rdividuals in that cat°~ou^ should so called "TTooer Class," which usually inn] i pp i nhori t ed wealth and v>i p-h status of the f*a”’- ’ " I v i n t^e san,p common i tv over a po Ions' oeriod of tine, is debatable. November 28, 19b0, confirmin'1 * such delineation of the social, classes and a - r an t inn- rerm1 ssi on fo1* it« us e in this d1ssQrt«tion. «oi i i.nvshead 2] differentiates. th° classes a e foilow°: Class I nrmpr Class Class IT TTrn°r—m1 dd 1 o fl ngp C b v ITT Middle C1 a s s Pl-.cn TV ’lo r V i n C1 ass Class V Lower Class Although 28 r>er cent of the samnle i s class1 fied as Letter to wri.ter> from Dp. August p.. wol 1 . ina’shead Chairman 7 )oT'crtsfint of Snoiolo'~v, v0in Uni iro-eQi tv. d at ed. op Interview w.i th D1 ’. Pdward McDnna: -Th , Chairman berartment of Son1 olo^y, TTn 1 . versi t v of Southern California. 77 TABLE A SOCIAL CLASS POSITION POE ADJUSTED AND UNADJUSTED GBOUPS, BY PEE CENTS Class Scores Adjusted Group N-50 Unadjusted Group N-50 Total Sample I 11-17 34 22a 28 II 18-2? 32 26 29 III 28-43 18 28 23 17 44-60 16 22 19 V 61-77 - 2 1 100 100 100 For the purposes of this study Classes I, II, and III are considered to be the "Middle-Class" group whose marital roles are being studied* When the com parison was made in terms of per cents in the combined Classes I, II, and III between adjusted and unadjusted groups, no significant difference was found. The critical ratio was *50* 78 II. THE METHODOLOGY USED In addition to selection of the sample and the gathering of data, there were other methodological aspects of the study. These were the statistical procedures, integrity of the subjects' responses, the marital adjust ment scale and its validity, the Interpersonal Check List and its validity, the Attitude Survey, the limitations of the study, and a general summary. Statistical Procedures Statistical procedures are available which give the relative probability that obtained differences between two groups are the result of sampling processes. The t-ratio, which measures the significance of the differences between means, and the z ratio, which is used to determine the significance of. differences between proportions, were the techniques used. To test the degree of association or correlation between the variables, the statistical techniques used were Pearson's product-moment coefficient of correlation (r), Chi Square, and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Two-sample Test. The Chi Square and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests were used to determine whether there was some association between two variables, beyond mere chance association. The product-moment correlation measures the degree of 79 association "between two variables. Correlations as low as .20 to .40 indicate a definite, but low degree of rela tionship between the variables. Above .40 there is a substantial relationship between the variables being stud- led.2? The data to be analyzed were punched on IBM cards, and the statistics were calculated on the IBM 709 Elec tronic Computer. This service is provided for research students at the Western Data Processing Center located on the campus of the University of California at Los Angeles. In social research the investigator arbitrarily selects the level of risk he is willing to assume that his obtained differences may be due to sampling error. In the present study, it was decided to accept a difference between the adjusted and unadjusted groups as significant if there were 5 chances or less in 100 that it might be 24 the result of sampling. A critical ratio (CR) of 2.0, and a t of approximately 2.0 yields this level of risk. The larger the critical ratio, the level of t, or the chi 23 In this study degree of association between two variables means measurement by the chi square and Kolmogorov-Smirnov Two-sample tests; the degree of corre lation refers to the use of the Pearson's product-moment coefficient of correlation statistical technique. 24 The z ratio will be referred to in this study as the "critical ratio" or (CR). In essence a t ratio, which measures the significance of differences is also a "critical ratio." 80 square, the greater the probability that a difference or an association is real and is not due to chance factors. However, it should be remembered, that no matter how small the probability of an obtained difference being due to chance, there is always the possibility that this is so. Sometimes no difference is found between two groups, when an hypothesis had assumed there might be. It is often as important to discover that two groups do not differ sig nificantly on given items and to determine why, as to dis cover that differences do exist. Integrity Of the Sub.jects1 Responses Investigation has shown that, even though subjects believe they are being honest and are giving true answers, their replies are sometimes unintentional departures from the truth. There are sometimes intended falsifications, or discrepancies may be due to misunderstandings and 25 errors of memory. However, Lo'cke ' has indicated that what is important is not whether the reported behavior actually occurred, but rather the meaning of the behavior for the subject. The question of the "visibility" of marital adjust ment tests is still being discussed in this area of 25 'Harvey J. Locke, Predicting Adjustment in Mar riage: a Comparison of a Divorced and a Happily-Married Group (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1951), P» 8. 81 research. The term "visibility" refers to the ability of the respondent to know how his answers will be inter preted. That subjects do give false information, is shown by the fact that some spouses receive a perfect score, indicating complete agreement with their mates in all areas of marital interaction. In other instances great disparities were found between happiness in marriage as reported by one spouse as compared with the report of his mate— in one case, 82 score points differentiating the two. It is considered a negative value in our culture to be maritally maladjusted; therefore, it is difficult for some individuals to give the answers which they know will present a picture of poor marital relations. George Devereux has stated, concerning a report of a research conducted by the Institute for Sex Research: The Report also accepts the sincerity of a factual statement as proof of its accuracy, even though both the degree of accuracy of any given respondent's statement and the ratio between the accurate and inaccurate statements made by a population of respondents varies according to the degree of anxiety which the actual fact elicits.26 The answer to the problem of "visibility" is sought by some researchers in the devising of instruments for the Pfi George Devereux, "Anxiety Distortion," Saturday Review, May 31* 1958. (Italics in the original). 82 27 indirect assessment of marital adjustment;. ' For example, an instrument for assessing disparity of role expectations could be considered an indirect method of measuring mari tal adjustment if it were determined that these two var iables are highly correlated. Although the findings from this type of research are as yet not definitive, the indi cations are that these methods are less susceptible to examinee manipulation and/or examinee antagonism. Even though it is known that responses are not always accurate, the number and type of questions used on the typical marital adjustment test distinguishes between groups. These instruments~have been shown to have suffi cient validity to differentiate between groups of subjects when some outside criteria are used, such as divorce or the recommendations of friends that the individuals are 28 happily married. Also, an outside criterion, such as the one used in this study, i.e., differentiating the groups in terms of those couples receiving marital counseling for some difficulty in interpersonal relations, from those couples who received high scores on the marital adjustment index, serves to give more confidence as to the validity 27 'Robert Frumkin, "The Indirect Assessment of Mar ital Adjustment," Marriage and Family Living. 14:215-218, August, 1952. 28Locke, op. cit.. p. 359« 83 of the findings of the research study. The Marital Adjustment Test The marital adjustment index can give the general level of adjustment for a particular marriage, but it does not measure the actual adjustment of the individual marriage. The work which has been done, using the marital adjustment test, demonstrates that "today one can measure the probability that a certain general level of marital 29 adjustment will characterize a given marriage." 7 A score for each subject was obtained by adding the weights assigned to the given answers for 16 questions dealing with the marital relationship. Fifteen of these 30 items were taken from the Wallace Adjustment Scale, and 31 one from the Locke Marital Adjustment Test. The weight ings given the items in the original studies were used here. The Wallace Adjustment Scale has been shown, to differentiate between well-adjusted and maladjusted mar- 32 riages, although it uses relatively few items. Another ^ Ibid.. p. 46. ^Wallace, loc. cit. 31 ^ Locke, op. cit.. pp. 48-52. 32 ^ Harvey J. Locke and Karl M. Wallace, "Short Marital-Adjustment and Prediction Tests: Their Reliabil ity and Validity," Marriage and Family Living. 21:251-255, August, 1959. 84 question, dealing with some of the areas of marital inter action which have caused serious difficulties in marriage and not inquired into by the items in the Wallace Test, was edded to the test in order to determine what each area specifically contributes to the marital adjustment of couples. Validity of the Marital Adjustment Test The question as to the criteria for measuring suc cessful marriage is an important one in research in the field. Most marital prediction studies have ostensibly used a single criterion, but careful scrutiny of their scales reveals the presence of items weighted to give 33 recognition to several criteria of marital success. 34- Burgess and Locke^ have recognized 8 criteria for assessing successful marriages. These ares (1) perman ence of the marriage; (2) happiness of the members of the couple; (3) social expectations of the community; (4) per sonality development of husband and wife; (5) companion ship; (6) satisfaction with the marriage; (7) the integra tion of the couple; and (8) marital adjustment. Each of these criteria has its advantages and disadvantages, as 33 -^Wallace, op. cit., p. 85. 34 Ernest W. Burgess and Harvey J. Locke. The Family (New York: American Book Company, 19535* PP» 432-444. 85 Burgess and. Locke indicate. ^ The adjustment index used in the present study takes into consideration several criteria of marital suc cess. The items used originate from the Wallace and the Locke studies, which include these criteria: (1) happi ness of the marriage; (2) companionship; (3) satisfaction with the marriage; (4) integration of the couple, and (5) marital adjustment. The Wallace Adjustment Scale consists of 15 of the 36 most significant items used in other studies. Most of the items were assigned weights roughly proportional to their significance in the original studies; some of them were weighted arbitrarily. That this is a valid procedure is indicated by Burgess and Cottrell, who report a corre lation of .95 between arbitrary weighting of adjustment items and the method they used, namely assigning weights according to their association with marital happiness rat- 37 ings. The successful use of the marital adjustment test in many research studies, justifies its validity for use as one of the criteria of degree of marital adjustment in 55Ibid. ^Sfallace, op. cit., pp. 5-6, 125. 37 ''Ernest W. Burgess and Leonard Cottrell, Predict ing Success or Failure in Marriage (New York: Prentice- Hall Company, 1939)» PP* 5^*65. 86 the present study. Comparison of Adjustment Scores of Spouses Table 5 shows that the range of difference between scores of adjusted married couples was less than the range between the unadjusted group. A divergence of 30 or more points was found for 42 per cent of the unadjusted couples and for only 4 per cent of the adjusted couples; this is a 38 significant difference. The degree of agreement between spouses as to their marital adjustment can be considered another index of marital satisfaction, as other studies 39 have indicated.The correlation between marital malad justment and large difference scores between mates was 40 .43, which is significant beyond the .01 level. The correlation between the adjustment scores of the husbands and their respective wives in the total sample was .77. This compares with a correlation of .59 for the husbands and wives in the pilot study, and a correlation of .88 found in the Burgess and Cottrell study. Terman, who found a correlation of .59 believed that it was unreason- 58The CR was 4.5. 39 "^See Locke, op. cit.. p. 59; also Nathan Hurvitz, "The Significance of Discrepancies between the Scores of Spouses on a Marital Adjustment Scale," Alpha Kappa Deltan, 29:45-47, Spring, 1959. 40 For an N of 100 an r of .20 is significant at .05 level, an r of .25 at the .01 level. 87 TABLE 5 DIFFERENCES IN SCORES OF ADJUSTED AND UNADJUSTED SPOUSES, BY PER CENTS Difference in score points Adjusted couples N-50 Unadjusted couples N-50 0-9 48 22 10-19 28 20 20-29 20 16 30-39 - 14 40-49 2 16 50-59 2 4 60-69 - 4 70-79 - 2 80-89 - 2 100 100 30-89 4 42a ^Thirty or more points divergence was found for 42 per cent of the unadjusted couples and for only 4 per cent of the adjusted couples. The critical ratio was 4.5 and significant beyond the .01 level. 88 able to expect spouses to be equally satisfied with the marriage„ The mean score for husbands was 110.4 and the mean score for wives was 107.3; there was no significant dif- 41 ference between these two means. There was a very sig nificant difference between the means of the scores of the adjusted and the unadjusted groups. Table 6 shows the scores for the combined means of the husband and wife mar ital adjustment scores and gives the comparison of the husbands' scores of the adjusted and the unadjusted groups and of the wives. The mean score for the husbands in the adjusted group was 137*3 and for the wives, the score was 140.2; 42 there was no significant difference between the means. The mean score for the husbands in the unadjusted group was 83.5 and for the wives, the score was 7^.4; this was 435 not a significant difference. ^ The scores for the hus bands in the total sample ranged from 32 to 160. For the wives the range was 14 to 164; this was out of a possible range of from 2 to 164 for both husbands and wives. 41 The t of .59 was not significant. 4 2 The t ratio was 1.03» ^This was only a t of 1.6. 89 TABLE 6 COMPARISON OF MEANS OF MARITAL ADJUSTMENT SCORES OF ADJUSTED AND UNADJUSTED GROUPS Group Adjusted N=50 Unadjusted N-50 t-ratio Husbands 137.3 83.5 13.4a Wives 140.2 74.4 12.9 Couple 158.26 78.68 22.5 aA t ratio of 2.0 is significant at the .05 level. These are very significant differences. The Interpersonal Check List The instrument in the present study for the assess ment of role perception and role expectation is the same as that used in the study of marriage and family living at the Ohio State University Institute on Child Development / ) i \ and Family Life. The Interpersonal Check List or (ICL) was developed by the Kaiser Foundation psychology staff as an interpersonal system of personality assessment and -4-5 diagnosis. ^ i\i\ Mangus, loc. cit. 45 ^Timothy Leary, The Interpersonal Diagnosis of Personality (New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1957). 90 The definition of personality in this theoretical system differs from most found in psychological litera l-6 ture in that here the social factors in personality development are emphasized. Personality is viewed as "a totality of a person's conceptions of himself in all of his family and nonfamily roles, together with his more or less enduring predispositions to act in ways that are con- ,,47 sistent with those self concepts." ' The role of anxiety in the development of human personality is central in the interpersonal system of per sonality assessment. The warding off of anxiety is the motivating force for the human security operations; this behavior in relation to other persons in the environment is the object of study in this theoretical system. All social or interpersonal activities of an individual "can be understood as attempts to avoid anxiety or to establish and maintain self-esteem." The source of the interper sonal theory of personality can be traced to Harry Stack Sullivan, and beyond him to James Mark Baldwin, Charles 4-9 Horton Cooley, and George H. Mead. 7 These latter social theorists, in their development of the concepts of the 4-6 Gordon Allport, Personality: A Psychological Interpretation (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1937). 4-7 48 fMangus, loc. cit. Leary, op. cit., p. 16. 49 ?Edgar Borgatta and Henry Meyer (eds.) Sociologi cal Theory QNew York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1956). 91 "social self," laid the foundation upon which all later theories of interpersonal relations are built. The ICL permits the subject to describe his role perceptions and expectations in terms of qualities or attitudes rather than as actions or performance. Role attitudes are more basic than role behavior as they are the dynamics which determine the form of role playing, being inculcated early and throughout life in terms of the experiences shared with the significant others in the life of the individual. Personality, in its social stimulus value, is in considerable degree a matter of role behavior; even more, however, it is a matter of role perception and of self- 50 perception in the light of the social role.y The social role or social self is an organization of attitudes or qualities, and the adjective is a linguistic device which enables the subject to define his attitudes. The ICL uses adjectives or short adjectival phrases to permit the sub ject to translate his role perceptions and expectations into language symbols. This device also permits another individual to assess a subject in terms of the latter's role attitudes. The ICL contains 128 self-reference or role-refer- 50 ^ Gardner Murphy, Personality (New York: Harper and Brothers, 194-7), pp. 559-^0. 92 ence items. They are arranged to represent and provide scores for 16 types of role descriptions. These are labeled autocratic, responsible, docile, hyper-normal or over-generous, cooperative, over-conventional, dependent, self-effacing, masochistic or modest, distrustful, rebel lious or skeptical, aggressive, sadistic or blunt, com petitive, narcissistic or exploitative, and managerial. Table 7 gives the role attitudes pertaining to each of these role types. This system of interpersonal diagnosis has several distinct features. The sectors are arranged on a circular profile, each sector containing 8 of the 128 descriptive items. Those items placed near the center of the circle represent necessary or adaptive intensities, those near the perimeter represent nonintegrative or maladaptive 51 degrees of intensity.^ The variables are so related that the 16 sectors may be combined into eight to give octant scores. A subject who has high scores in any one sector or octant of the circle usually has progressively lower 52 scores in the other octants. The vertical axis through the center of the circle -^The items near the center of the circle are those in Table 7 with a "1" or a "2" placed in front of them; those near the perimeter are given a "3" or a "4." 52 The sectors which are combined into octants are given in Table 7° 93 TABLE 7 HOLE ATTITUDES PERTAINING TO OCTANTS IN THE INTERPERSONAL CHECK LIST Role Type Octant Number Role Type (A) MANAGERIAL Octant 1 (P) AUTOCRATIC laAble to give orders 1 Well thought of 2 Forceful 2 Makes a good Good Leader impression Likes responsibility Often admired 3 Bossy Respected by others Dominating 3 Always giving advice Manages others Acts important ^dictatorial Tries to be too successful 4 Expects everyone to admire him (B) EXPLOITIVE Octant 2 (C) COMPETITIVE 1 Self-respecting 1 Able to take care 2 Independent of self Self-confident 2 Can be indifferent Self-reliant and to others assertive Businesslike 3 Boastful Likes to compete Proud and self- with others satisfied 3 Thinks only of Somewhat snobbish himself 4 Egotistical and Shrewd and cal conceited culating Selfish 4 Cold, and unfeeling aA "1" role attitude is near the center of the circle and is considered an adaptive mechan sm. The attitudes become less adaptive as they reach the periphery of the circle— the most maladaptive being a "4" intensity. 94 TABLE 7— continued. Bole Type Octant Number Role Type (D) BLUNT Octant 3 (E) AGGRESSIVE 1 Can be strict if 1 Can be frank and necessary honest 2 Firm but just 2 Critical of others Hardboiled when Irritable necessary Straightforward and Stem but fair direct 3 Impatient with others' 3 Outspoken mistakes Often unfriendly Self-seeking Frequently angry Sarcastic 4 Hard-hearted 4 Cruel and unkind (F) SKEPTICAL Octant 4 (G) DISTRUSTFUL 1 Can complain if 1 Able to doubt necessary others 2 Often gloomy 2 Frequently dis Besents being bossed appointed Skeptical Hard to impress 3 Bitter Touchy and easily Complaining hurt Resentful 3 Jealous 4 Rebels against Slow to forgive a everything wrong Stubborn 4 Distrusts everybody 95 TABLE 7— continued. Role Type Octant Number Role Type (H) SELF-EFFACING Octant 5 (I) MODEST 1 Able to criticize self 1 Can be obedient 2 Apologetic 2 Usually gives in Easily embarrassed Easily led Lacks self-confidence Modest 3 Self-punishing 5 Passive and unag- Shy gressive Timid Meek 4 Always ashamed of self Obeys too willingly 4 Spineless (J) DOCILE Octant 6 (K) DEPENDENT 1 Grateful 1 Appreciative 2 Admires and imitates 2 Very anxious to be others approved of Often helped by others Accepts advice Very respectful to readily authority Trusting and eager 3 Dependent to please Wants to be led 5 Lets others make Hardly ever talks decisions back Easily fooled 4 Clinging vine Likes to be taken care of 4 Will believe anyone 96 TABLE 7— continued. Role Type Octant Number Role Type (L) COOPERATIVE Octant 7 (M) OVERCONVENTIONAL l®Cooperative 1 Friendly 2 Eager to get along 2 Affectionate and with others understanding Always pleasant and Sociable and agreeable neighborly Wants everyone to Warm like him 3 Fond of everyone 3 Too easily influenced Likes everybody by friends Friendly all the Will confide in time anyone Wants everyone's love 4 Agrees with everyone 4 Loves everyone (N) HYPERNORMAL Octant 8 (0) RESPONSIBLE 1 Considerate 1 Helpful 2 Encouraging others 2 Big-hearted and Kind and reassuring unselfish Tender and soft Enjoys taking care hearted of others 3 Forgives anything Gives freely of self Oversympathetic 3 Generous to a fault Too lenient with others OVerprotactive of 4 Tries to comfort others everyone Too willing to give to others 4 Spoils people with kindness A "1" role attitude Is near the center of the circular continuum and is considered an adaptive mechanism. The attitudes become less adaptive as they reach the periphery of the circle— the most maladaptive being a "4" intensity. Essentially "1" and "2" are adaptive; the "3" and "4-” intensities are maladaptive. °7 represents the dominati on-submission dimension (Dom), and the coordinate horizontal axis represents the hostility- affection dimension (Lov).^ The four ouadrants of the interpersonal system comprise blends of the noda.1 dichoto- 04 raies: love versus hate and rower versus weakness.' These same dimensions of interrersonal relations are pos tulated by Erika Chance as bein'" the most important in the assessment of family role-constellations0 ' T^e research by Chance draws uoon earlier research on vari°bles for anaivzdnp interpersonal relati.ons. In the Chance study the analysis of the family is made in terms of negative active relationship's, nosi.ti ve active rel ationshi r>s , neg ative passive, and positive passive relationships. Another theoretical system for the analysis of interrersonal behavior uses three dimensions which are com- parable to the TCI framework. • The inclusion dimens,ion is. equi valent to the Intensity variable in the ICL, the con trol, factor is comparable to the dorni nance—submi ssion dimension, and the affection variable is comparable to the S3 04 See Fipure 1, na^e 99* ' Leary, on. cit., p. Ti . Erika Chance, Families in Treatment (New York: basic Books, Inc., 195oyj -p. 4B-SQ. 56 ' William C. Schutz, PTRO: A Three-Dimensional Theory of Interpersonal qehavior (New York: Rinehart and Co., Inc., l°o<3, p. 36„ ICL affection-hostility continuum. Figure 1 indicates the 4 quadrants of the ICL sys tem, i.e., hostile dominance, affectionate dominance, hostile weakness, and affectionate submissiveness. Each subject analyzed by means of the ICL can be located at one point on the circular continuum; this one point sum marizes all of the interpersonal behavior in terms of its 57 distance and direction from the center of the circle. ' The sector of the circle in which that point is placed tells what interpersonal operations are involved, and the distance from the center represents how extreme or intense CQ these mechanisms are. The summation point is determined 59 by the formulas' Dorn - AP - HI + .7 (NO + BC - FG - JK) Lov = LM - DE + .7 (NO - BC - FG + JK) The number of items checked in each of the individual octants are plugged into the formula with no considera- 60 tion being given to the weighting of the items. The raw scores obtained by the formulas are converted into stand ard scores by use of the table of norms. The great advan- -^See Figure 1. ^Leary, op. cit.. pp. 217-19. 59 "Dorn refers to the vertical, or dominance-sub- mission axis; "Lov” refers to the horizontal or love-hate axis. See Leary, op. cit., p. 69. 60 The ICL can be used to assess five different levels of behavior; for Level II, the Level of Conscious Communication the weighting of the items are not consid ered. See Leary, op. cit.. p. 197. 99 AFFECTIONATE DOMINANCE HOSTILE DOMINANCE Dom AP Hw; NO Lov Lov - HI HOSTILE WEAKNESS AFFECTIONATE SUBMISSIVENESS I Dom Figure 1 Figure 1. --Circular continuum for interpersonal diagnosis of role attitudes. * Wife’s picture of husband ** Husband’s perception of self Dom 75; Lov 60 Dom 60 Lov 70 T5 TO *** Discrepancy in Dom, 15; discrepancy in Lov, 10; total discrepancy 25, which equals the linear distance in centimeters. 100 tage of the circular grid method of summarization is that the summary points for 2 or more individuals can be graphed on the same diagram for comparison; for example, one can make a.graphic analysis of the role perceptions and/or role expectations of a husband and his wife. The check list is administered to the subjects with 61 the items in alphabetical order. The resultant scores may be translated into a graphic profile of each role des cription— the score for the individual in each of the octants, or into the summation of his interpersonal behav ior. The latter is in terms of the point at which his scores on the dominance-submission and hostility-affection axes intersect. The last named procedure was used in the present research because it was necessary to obtain dif ference scores and to treat the data statistically. In the present study each spouse filled out 4 ICL 62 forms. Each form was scored by means of the formulas given above, and the discrepancy between the Dom scores in the role perceptions of each spouse, and the discrep ancy between the Lov scores of both mates were determined. These two discrepancy scores were added to get the total 61 See Appendix for form of ICL used in study. The items were arranged in alphabetical order in the various forms used for research at the Kaiser Foundation in Oakland, California. 6? See page 64 of this report. 101 disparity of role perception or role expectation. The former was according to whether the ICL was answered in terms of self or mate perception while the latter involved the conceptualization of the "ideal husband" or the "ideal wife." This combined discrepancy score would indicate the linear distance in centimeters between the summation points of husband and wife scores if these were placed on 65 the circular grid. The analysis of the ICL forms for the 100 couples in the present study was made in terms of the discrepan cies between: (1) the wife's picture of herself as a wife versus her husband's picture of her as a wife; and (2) the husband's picture of himself as a husband versus his wife's picture of him as a husband; (3) the husband's per ception of his wife compared to his expectations of the ideal wife; and (4) the wife's perception of her husband compared to her expectations of the ideal husband; (5) the husband's expectations of the ideal wife versus the wife's expectations of the ideal wife; and (6) the husband's expectations of the ideal husband versus the wife's expec tations of the ideal husband; (7) the wife's picture of herself as a wife compared to her expectations of the ideal wife; and (8) the husband's picture of himself as a husband compared to his expectations of the ideal husband. ^See Figure 1 102 The ICL was employed to assess instrumental and 64 expressive roles. Fourteen expert judges analyzed the ICL items in terms of those which pertained to the instru mental role, those which pertained to the expressive role, and those which were neutral. Those items on which at least nine of the judges agreed were considered to be applicable; the neutral items were not included. For example, all 14 judges agreed that "able to give orders" was indicative of the instrumental role; they also agreed that "enjoys taking care of others" applied to the expres sive role. The instrumental role contains 26 items and the expressive role, 28 items. It is interesting to note that 12 of the instrumental role items are found in the managerial-autocratic octant (AP) and 12 of the expressive role items are in the responsible-overgenerous octant. The Validity of the Interpersonal Check List This measuring device was developed by the Kaiser Foundation psychology staff and had been subjected to intensive empirical study over a period of at least 5 years. Four major forms had been devised successively, the 3rd having been revised twice; the form used in the present study is Form 4. 64 For definitions see pages 9 and 21-22 of this study. For a list of those role attitudes judged instru mental and expressive, see Appendix. 103 The Kaiser Foundation hospital functions in connec tion with a health insurance plan, and the clientele includes a broad cross-section of the community. It con sists not only of industrial groups such as labor unions, but also such groups as university employees and consumer 65 cooperatives. ' During the period of revision, the check list was administered to several thousand subjects in a variety of ways; the principal use had been as part of the evaluation procedure for incoming patients to the psychi atric clinic of the Kaiser Foundation at Oakland. Other samples included several hundred students at the Univer sity of California, Berkeley; 100 students at San Francisco State College; a group of dermatitis patients secured through a physician in private practice, a group of 200 overweight women who were participating in the Herrick Hospital Research Project on obesity, 50 prison inmates, and 100 Army officers. The following methods were used to validate the diagnoses of the instrument: (1) summary of ratings of patients’ behavior by clinicians on the ICL; (2) summary of patients' self-descriptions on ICL; (3) summary of 66 patients' self-descriptive ratings on 8 MMPI scales 6^Timothy Leary, and Hubert S. Coffey, "Interper sonal Diagnosis: Some Problems of Methodology and Valida tion," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. 50:110-124, 1^55. ! ^^Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. 104 (approximately $20 items), combined by indices; (4) sum mary of interpersonal themes attributed to heroes in 10 TAT^ stories (approximately 15 ratings), and (5) summary of scores on 4 MMPI scales which combine to predict the location of the data on the level of private perception (approximately 160 items). The MMPI was used as a main criterion of psychiatric diagnosis because it is the most reliable estimate available and because its pattern of scores are widely accepted as valid. The reliability of the ICL was determined by the method of test-retest correlation; a somewhat homogeneous group of 77 obese women patients were used in the relia bility test. The average octant correlation was .78, and may be considered as a high correlation in view of the fact that the self-concept is subject to change resulting from changes in the external and internal environment of the individual. The correlation coefficient suggests that the ICL scores can have sufficient stability to make it a £ L Q useful research instrument. The ICL has been shown to be a valid instrument for diagnostic purposes in a psychiatric setting; however, the use of this measuring device in terms of role attitude 69 assessment is of more recent origin. y The rationale for 67 'Thematic Apperception Test. 68 69 Leary, op.cit.t pp. 457-463. -Tlangus, loc. cit. 105 using the ICL as a method, of role assessment is the fact that the instrument was devised to measure behavior at different levels, at different times and in different sit uations; these are postulated as comprising the basic pat- 70 terns and changing processes of personality. They are called structural, temporal and situational variation pat terns, respectively. This research deals with situational variation, which refers to varying patterns of behavior in different interpersonal situations (different role rela tions). This is to say that the reaction of an individ ual often varies according to the sex, age, and cultural status of the "other one" with whom he is dealing. This view of personality as a process is similar to that of Cottrell who stated: Personality, or the most significant part of it, is the organization of the roles the person plays in group life. . . The role is the organization of habits and attitudes of the individual appropriate to a given position in a system of social relations. First in our use of the concept role we are prone to think of certain characteristic responses or tendencies to respond which the person makes or tends to make to persons or situations. Frequently we fail to recognize clearly enough what might be called expectations entertained by the subjects as to the actions or responses which are to come from other persons. . . There is no conception of one's role, conscious or unconscious, without a reference to what action is expected in the situations of which the role is a part.71 ^°Leary, op. cit.. pp. 75* 243-244. 71 Leonard S. Cottrell, "Holes and Marital Adjust ment ," Publications of the American Sociological Society, 27:107-112, May, 1935. 106 The use of the ICL in terms of role research is justified in that it was developed as an interpersonal system of personality assessment. However, personality in its social stimulus value is in a considerable degree a matter of role behavior, and even more a matter of role perception and of self perception in the light of the social role. Role behavior and role expectations are to a considerable extent influenced by the reciprocal action expected on the part of the role partner. Therefore, interpersonal relations such as those in the marital group are best studied through an instrument of this type which can assess personality in terms of structural, temporal and situational variation. The problem of conflict in marital roles and its relationship to marital adjustment is important for mari tal counseling and for the sociology of the family. Research with the ICL has indicated that it will prove to be a useful instrument for the assessment of marital roles in terms of role perception and role expectation. If the significant relationship between disparity of role expec tations and marital maladjustment found in the early 72 study' is validated in the present research, it is postu lated that the ICL may be used as an indirect method for the measurement of some aspects of marital adjustment. ^Kotlar, op. cit. , pp. 124-127* 107 The ICL may be used to furnish information on traditional and/or equalitarian role definitions in terms of the mode for samples on ideal role conceptualizations for the hus band and for the wife in relation to the dominance-sub- mission dimension. The Validity of the Attitude Survey The attitude Survey used in the present study was very similar to the one developed in the pilot study for the purpose of measuring traditional and equalitarian 73 role attitudes.The 30 statements submitted to the sub jects were of the kind used in the Iiotz and Jacobson stud- 74 ies, i.e., "A woman's place is in the home." The inter est in these studies was in determining the role defini tions of spouses in terms of traditional or equalitarian attitudes, and to determine what relationship these role definitions bore to marital adjustment. The scores received by the subjects in the pilot study on the Attitude Survey were significantly different to distinguish between adjusted and unadjusted couples. The rationale for the inclusion of this instrument in the 73 r^See page 64. A copy of the instrument will be found in the Appendix. 74 Annabelle Motz, "The Role Conception Inventory," American Sociological Review. 17:465-471, 1952; and Alver H. Jacobson, "Conflicts of Attitudes Toward the Roles of Husband and Wife in Marriage," American Sociological Review. 17:146-150, 1952. 108 present study is that this type of questionnaire has fur nished information concerning marital role definitions, and as to the relationship disparity of role definitions between spouses bears to their marital adjustment. Very similar information can be secured through the analysis of the material obtained with the ICL. It may prove very valuable to compare the data procured in such different ways. III. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY The adjusted couples were secured through Protestant churches in supposedly middle-class neighbor hoods. The fact that the forms were filled out by only the members of the groups present at specified times may have been a biasing factor; it is not possible to say that the couples who were present were not significantly different from those who were not present. Since the sample consists predominantly of Protestant couples and since 20 per cent of the sample, according to education and occupational criteria, are not of the middle-class, the findings may not be applicable to the American middle- class as a whole. The refusal rate of 14.5 per cent, while small, still has to be kept in mind when the find ings are viewed. The outside criterion used in the study is the 109 major change between this research and the pilot study. The use of the marital adjustment test scores for the sel ection of the adjusted group in the present study, while justified, is not choice. The marital adjustment index has a certain degree of "visibility" and is subject to too much respondent manipulation to assure perfect confidence as to its validity. The ICL has been shown to have sufficient validity in a psychiatric setting. However, its use for the assessment of role perceptions and role expectations is still being explored. If only validated instruments were used in social research, no new diagnostic tools could be developed; it is necessary for the advancement of knowledge in the var ious areas for new techniques to be given a fair trialo This can be considered one such pilot study, but the find ings will have to be viewed in that light. IV. SUMMARY The present sample matched the requirement that it be a predominantly Protestant, fairly young, middle-class group of couples, married on the average about 7 years. There was no significant difference between the 2 groups in such social characteristics as age, number of years married, number of children, education or income. Number 110 of years married, was found to be negatively correlated with marital adjustment, the longer the couple had been married, the lower the marital adjustment scores, and the statistic was significant beyond the .01 level. The mean and the median scores coincided, indicat ing that the sample, as well as the population were nor mally distributed. This justifies the use of the para metric statistical techniques. The measures used for testing statistical significance were Chi Square, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Two-sample Test, the t ratio, the z ratio and Pearson's product-moment coefficient of corre lation. The level of risk accepted for significance was the .05 level. Even though it is known that the responses given by subjects do not always coincide with reality, the num ber and kinds of questions used on marital adjustment indices have been shown to have sufficient validity to distinguish between groups. The questions contained in the marital adjustment test of the present study, have been used in other studies in the field of marital adjust ment, and have had sufficient validity to distinguish between groups when some outside criterion of marital adjustment was used. There was a significant difference between the agreement of adjusted and unadjusted spouses concerning Ill their marital happiness. Thirty or more points divergence was found for 42 per cent of the unadjusted, but for only 4 per cent of the adjusted couples. The correlation between the adjustment scores of husband and wife for the total sample was +.77. There was a significant difference between the means of the marital adjustment scores of the adjusted and unadjusted husbands, and between the means of the scores of the adjusted and unadjusted wives of the sample. The role attitudes of the subjects can be analyzed by means of the ICL in terms of what interpersonal mechan isms are involved and to what degree. One point summar izes the attitudes on the dominance-submission continuum, and intersects with another summation point for the hos- tility-affection continuum. ICL items are used to assess the instrumental and expressive roles of the husbands and wives in the sample. The Attitude Survey, which was developed for use in the pilot study, is employed in the present study to meas ure equalitarian and traditional role definitions. Used in conjunction with the ICL, it may shed more light on the relationship between role expectations and role conflict. The following are possible limitations of the study: the questionnaires were filled out by members of church groups present at specified times; it is not known 112 whether members not present would differ in ways signifi cant for the results of the study; the sample consists predominantly of Protestants and 20 per cent of the sam ple, according to the "Index of Social Position," do not fall in the middle-class classification; the sample may not be representative of the American middle-class; and the ICL has not been proven to be a valid instrument for this type of research. CHAPTER IV SELF PERCEPTION AND NATE PERCEPTION An individual's behavior is determined by the par ticular way in which he perceives himself, and by his attitudes towards himself. Few perceptions are made without some sort of context; what is involved here is a particular quality of perception of reality (.interpreted in the context of interpersonal relationships). Groups provide frames of reference for individual self-percep tions, but the individual's motivations play a part in his behavior. When an individual takes on a set of motivated role behaviors, he does so by a process of interacting with other individuals who have already taken on their sets of motivated reciprocal role behaviors.^ This applies espe cially to a relationship, such as that of husband and wife. Individuals interiorize social norms and interact, not merely by stimulating and responding to one another, but also through the use of shared norms, and become moti vated to interact with one another by means of role atti tudes. The self- and other-perceptions, which are so ^Theodore N. Newcomb, Social Psychology (New York: The Dryden Press, 1950), pp. 512-330. 113 114 important to personality development, are patterned by culturally prescribed roles. The impressions an individual entertains of another's personality, rather than that personality per se, are important to their interpersonal relations. The ratings an individual makes of another, furnish informa tion about the rater and about the relations between them. The findings dealt with in this chapter concern the self-perceptions of the couples in both the adjusted and the unadjusted groups, the mate-perceptions of both groups, the discrepancy scores between these two indices and its relationship to marital adjustment, and the self perceptions and mate perceptions of this sample in rela- 2 tion to the cultural norm. I. SELF PERCEPTIONS Husbands Table 8 shows the mean scores for the husbands of both groups on the dominance-submission (Dom) and on the hostility-affection (Lov) dimensions. A comparison of self-perceptions of the husbands of both groups on the Dom dimension revealed no significant difference. The chi 2 The cultural norms are defined in terms of the sample norms found at the Kaiser Foundation Clinic. See Timothy Leary, The Interpersonal Diagnosis of Personality (New York: The Ronad Press Company, 1957)» pp* 205-206, 529« 115 TABLE 8 SELF PERCEPTION AND MATE PERCEPTION MEAN SCORES FOR ADJUSTED AND UNADJUSTED GROUPS, BY STANDARD SCORES WITH t-RATIOS OF THE DIFFERENCES Category Ad justed Mean Dom N-50 Unad justed Mean Dom N-50 t Ad justed Mean Lov N-50 Unad justed Mean Lov N-50 t Self Per ception Husbands 58.6 58.8 51.9 47.6 2.45a Inter personal ^ Mechanism AP BC Wives 56.0 50.0 3.30 57.2 52.9 2.49 Inter personal Mechanism NO LM Mate Per ception Husbands 64.3 59.4 2.83 53.8 41.8 4.96 Inter personal Mechanism AP BC Wives 57.5 55.2 2.42 58.0 49.1 3.53 Inter personal Mechanism NO BC aOnly significant t ratios are given. ^Octant in which Dorn and Lov scores intersect. 116 square was .16, and the correlation between degree of dom inance and marital adjustment was .04-. The self-perceptions of the husbands in the adjusted group on the Lov dimension were significantly * higher than those of the unadjusted group. The chi 4 square was 4.89. The correlation between the degree of hostility and a low marital adjustment score was .24, and was significant beyond the .05 level. Wives The wives in the adjusted group scored signifi cantly higher on the Dom dimension than did the wives in the unadjusted group.^ The chi square of the higher degree of dominance and category of marital adjustment was found to be 14.49, or very significant. The correla tion between dominance and marital adjustment score was As was found in the analysis of the scores of the husbands, the wives of both groups differed significantly ^The t ratio was 2.45. With the 98 degrees of freedom (df.) a 1.98 is needed for significance at the .05 level, and a 2.65 for significance at the .01 level. 4 A chi square of 3*84 is significant at the .05 level; 6.64 is significant at the .01 level with one degree of freedom. yThe t score was 3.30. See Table 8, page 115* With 98 df. a correlation of .195 is significant at the o05 level, and .25 significant at .01 level. 117 7 on the Lov dimension. The correlation between the degree of hostility and a low marital adjustment score was .31 and significant beyond the .01 level. Comparison of Spouse Scores A comparison of the mean scores of the unadjusted group on the Dom dimension revealed that the scores of the husbands were significantly higher than the scores of the wives; the t ratio was 4.85 and. was significant beyond the .01 level. There was no significant difference between the mean scores of the husbands and wives of the adjusted group on this dimension.® There were significant differences between the mean scores of the husbands and wives of both groups on the Lov dimension, the wives of both groups scoring significantly higher. This indicated a greater degree of emotional 9 warmth in the self-perceptions of the wives. II. MATE PERCEPTION Wives' Perceptions or Their Husbands The wives in the adjusted group perceived their hus bands as being significantly higher on the Dom dimension ^The t was 2.49. ®See Table 9, page 119• 9 -'The t for the adjusted group was 3*57; the t for the unadjusted was 2.76* Both were significant beyond the .01 level. 118 than did the wives in the unadjusted group. Table 8 summarizes the mate perceptions of husband and wives. The husbands in the unadjusted group were perceived by their wives as being significantly less affectionate than the husbands in the adjusted group were perceived.'*'"*' Husbands’ Perception of Their Wives The husbands in the adjusted group perceived their wives as being significantly higher on the Dom dimension 12 than did the husbands in the unadjusted group. As with the wives’ perceptions, the husbands in the unadjusted group perceived their wives as significantly less affec tionate than the wives in the adjusted group were per- 15 ceived by their husbands. Table 8 indicates that the interpersonal mechanisms both as to self-perception and mate perception for the adjusted group of husbands and wives were in the friendly- dominance quadrant; the husbands in the unadjusted group perceived themselves (on the average) and were in turn perceived by their wives in the competitive-exploitative (narcissistic or BC) octant, which is located in the hos- tile-dominance quadrant. The unadjusted wives perceived "^The t was 2.83. ^The t was 4.96. ■*"^The t was 2.42. ^The t was 3»53« 119 TABLE 9 COMPARISON OF MEAN SCORES OF SPOUSES, BY GROUPS, WITH t-RATIOS OF THE DIFFERENCES Dom Score Mean Lov Score Mean Group Hus bands N-50 Wives N-50 t Hus bands N-50 Wives N-50 t Adjusted 58.6 56.0 51.9 57.2 3.57a Unadjusted 58.8 50.0 4.85 4?. 6 52.9 2.76 Only significant t ratios are given. The statistics given in this table are all significant beyond the .01 level. 120 themselves in the affectionate-dependence quadrant, but were perceived by their husbands as being in the hostile- dominance quadrant. These findings are of importance to the theory that perception or attitude toward the self has an important bearing upon the mode of interpersonal relations. Research has indicated that the acceptance of others, and feelings about others, as well as perception of others, are all positively and significantly correlated with the degree of acceptance of, feelings about and per- 14 ception of the self. Husbands and wives in the adjusted groups used more similar mechanisms of role attitudes than did the mates in the unadjusted groups. The octants AP and NO are only one sector apart, whereas, the octants BC and LH are 3 sectors 15 disparate. This finding is in accord with other studies which found that happier couples see themselves more alike 1 6 than do the unadjusted in marriage. Discrepancy Scores The scores for the total sample were obtained for 14 Dorothy Stock, "An Investigation into the Inter relation between the Self-concept and Feelings Directed Toward Other Persons and Groups," Journal of Consulting Psychology. 13:176-180, 1949. ■^See Figure 1, page 99. 16Malc elm Preston et al., "Impressions of Person ality as a Function of Conflict," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 47:326-333* 1952; and Rosalind Dymond, ' ‘The Relation of Accuracy of Perception of the Spouse and 121 the discrepancies between the self perception of each individual on the Dom and Lov dimensions and the percep tion of that individual by his mate. The two discrepancy scores, for Dom and for Lov were added; also the discrep ancy scores for both husband and wife were added, giving a total discrepancy score between self-perception and mate-perception for each couple. The hypotnesis.— The greater the degree of similar ity between the individual's self-perception and the spouse's perception of that self, the greater will be the degree of marital adjustment. This is analogous to one of the hypotheses in the Mangus study: "... the integrative quality of a mar riage is reflected in the degree of congruence between . . . the way a spouse views himself as compared to the 17 way he is seen by his partner." He also stated that it is taken for granted that the spouses' perceptions of their marital roles and of each other are closely assoc iated with the adaptive or maladaptive character of their marriage. Marital Happiness," American Psychologist, 8:3^4-; August, 1953® ^Ao R. Mangus, "Family Impacts on Mental Health," Marriage and Family Living, 19:256-237, 1957® 122 The findings.— Table 10 indicates the mean of the discrepancy scores for all categories. The discrepancy scores between the husbands' self-perception and their mates' perception of them in the unadjusted group ranged from 3 to 44 (linear distance in centimeters if placed on circular grid). The comparable discrepancy scores in the adjusted group ranged from 2 to 41. There was a signifi cant difference between the mean discrepancy scores of " I Q both groups. The correlation between the discrepancy and marital adjustment scores was -.29 and was significant beyond the .01 level. The discrepancy scores between the wives' self-per ception and their mates' perception of them in the unad justed group ranged from 1 to 37. The comparable discrep ancy scores in the adjusted group ranged from 3 to 31. There was no significant difference between the mean scores of the wives. The correlation between discrepancy scores and marital adjustment scores was -.13» and not significant. There was more variability in the discrep ancy scores for the husbands in the unadjusted group than in any other. The discrepancy scores for the couples in the total sample ranged from 10 to 71 points. There was a signifi cant difference between the mean scores of the couples in ^See Table 10, page 123. 123 TABLE 10 MEM OF DISCREPANCY SCORES WITH t-RATIOS FOR THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE MEANS, AND CHI SQUARE VALUES Ad- Unad- Chi Category justed justed t Square Group Group Values N-50 N-50 Self per ception of husbands versus per ception of their wives 14.0 18.3 2.53 8.17a Self per ception of wives versus perception of their husbands 14.2 16.6 1.39 0.36 Total dis crepancy self per ception versus mate perception values 28.2 34.8 2.83 3.31 A chi square of 3*84 indicates a significant association between discrepancy score and marital adjustment category at the .05 level. 124 the adjusted, and the couples in the unadjusted groups. The t ratio was 2.83<> The hypothesis assumes that a low disparity between an individual's self-perception and his mate's perception of him was associated with good marital adjustment. The correlation between the couples' marital adjustment and discrepancy scores was found to be -.30 and significant beyond the .01 level. The hypothesis is accepted as valid according to the findings of this study. These findings 19 concur with other research relating to this variable y and indicate a positive relationship between congruence of perception and good interpersonal relationships. The indications are that the adaptive quality of the marriage is reflected in the degree of similarity between the way each partner sees his own role and the way that role is perceived by his spouse. However, it is not possible to say whether this finding relates to marital role empathy, or whether the congruence of perception results from acceptance by individuals of their marital roles, and to similarity in the conceptualizations of marital roles. The findings may be the result of the positive attitudes of the adjusted toward their marital roles and toward each 19 ^Eleanore Luckey, "Marital Satisfaction and its Association with Congruence of Perception," Marriage and Family Living. 22:49-54, I960; and Mangus, loc. cit. l?s p n onh°T o ITT. SEI/F-OOMC NORMS An analysis wns made tn determi ne whether any dif- ferenc° obtained. between the ad .-justed end unadjusted nToiPP in ternp of devi ance f row the cultural ideal♦ At the Keizer Pound ati on Clinic, thin cultural ■'hen] was found to ■ > n th« fr*i <=>nd 1 v—domi nance ouadrant (the AP end the MQ octanfcs',P ' In one ssm.ole at the P ini c hj n«nt ni ec^d thoi r» Honi i n the AP octant end v > '■.pr cent thni r i aoq] i -n the mo octant. In over 2, f'OO n.svchi a trio cl i nl.c o n i c e n d over " * , O OO n"vahos<aniati c a n d n o r m e 1 ^nh.iaat'-} the 1 arr,p at po-pc^nt e^e of nub ■ ?oc t ^ r>d ■ * o^toH t h -> t tho -} > ~ i p o r» r-' n> t» o o p n 1 m o p h p p t p rp f> ~ r' y h o c; i ^ n H i.' ° ° f 1 1 rp o p o rr p p t p 1 — r>utocreti c •1 1 Thnt i ^ thp surumof5 on r^i ht^ o ^ tho Dam and Lov avfl0 Cor pio S^- "nor’°1' 7" 1 " i nd i Vi dun 1 s " n aiir cij 1 tvvn- op tails in t h o A_P end n P opt •> ntr ," n'hp ane l.vsi s wes "'ade 1 n ' teres of the d i f f'ar°ncp between 'eta ant ace*' °f hnphands and wi in the ad dusted and thp rrpH '11 pt p d °’'pO'TS who pp-po oi ved t h p m c ; o 1 1/-P ' p i - ' frien d 1 v —do?'p p a a p o oindtapt , ° n d wh o oo-nco- 5 ved th°i r rrv’ten p n Charles W. Hobart and V/il li am J. Kleusner, "Some Social Interact- * onal Correlates of Marital Cole Disagree ment, and Mierital Adjustment," Marriage and Family Living, 21: 2( ?f>~2f>3, Au'.-ust, lq?Q._ n L p ^ ' - , QQ . cit . , nr. POS-POh, S?c*-ddO. PP ■' See ■P-’ mire 1 . * 126 in that quadrant. The per cents of the adjusted and unad justed husbands who perceived themselves in the friendly- 23 dominant quadrant were, respectively, 66.0 and 50.0. The comparable figures for the adjusted and unadjusted 24 wives, respectively, were 68.0 and 26.0. The mate perceptions of both husbands and wives in terms of adherence to the cultural norm bore a significant relationship to marital adjustment. The per cents of adjusted and unadjusted wives who perceived their husbands in the friendly-dominant quadrant were, respectively, 80.0 25 and 24.0. The comparable figures for the husbands' per- P6 ception of their wives were 66.0 and 22.0. There were significant differences between the interpersonal mechanisms (role attitudes) of adjusted and unadjusted wives in terms of both self perceptions and mate perceptions in relation to the cultural norms. The mate perceptions of unadjusted and adjusted husbands were significantly different. The indications are that the adjusted husbands and wives both as to mate perceptions and self perceptions view their roles as closer to the cultural ideal— managerial, efficient, responsible, inde pendent, and conventional role attitudes than did the 2^The z ratio or Critical Ratio (CR) was 1.6. A critical ratio of 2.0 is significant at the .05 level. 24CR - 4.2 25CR = 5«6 26CR - 4.4 127 unadjusted husbands and wives. IV. SUMMARY The adjusted wives perceived themselves signifi cantly higher on the dominance-submission (Dom) dimension than did the wives in the unadjusted group. The mates of the husbands and wives in the adjusted group also per ceived them as being significantly higher on the Dom dimension than did the mates of the unadjusted spouses. There were significant differences between groups on the hostility-affection (Lov) dimension both as to self-per ceptions and mate perceptions; the Lov scores for the adjusted groups were (on the average) much higher than those of the unadjusted spouses. There was a significant difference between the Dom scores of the husbands and wives in the unadjusted group, but no significant differ ence between the Dom scores of adjusted husbands and wives. The interpersonal mechanisms (role attitudes) for the adjusted in marriage (on the average) was found in the friendly-dominant quadrant. The unadjusted wives per ceived themselves in the affectionate-submissive quadrant, but were viewed by their husbands as being in the hostile- dominance quadrant; the unadjusted husbands pictured them selves and were also perceived by their wives in the hos- tile-dominance quadrant. Husbands and wives in the 128 adjusted groups used more similar mechanisms of role atti tudes than did the unadjusted. The hypothesis that a similarity between self per ception and spouse perception was significantly related to adaptive marital relations was accepted. The integra tive quality of the relationship is reflected in the degree of congruence between the way a spouse views his marital role compared with the way he is perceived by his marital partner. An analysis in terms of deviance from the cultural norms, indicated a significant relationship between self- perception, mate perception, and marital adjustment. There was a significant difference between the interper sonal mechanisms (role attitudes) of adjusted and unad justed wives. The summation points for the former, in terms of self-concepts, was found in the friendly-dominant quadrant (the cultural norm) a significantly higher pro portion of the time. The adjusted mates perceived their spouses in the friendly-dominant quadrant in a signifi cantly higher per cent of the cases than did the mates of the unadjusted husbands and wives. The meaning this has for sociologists is that the role attitudes of the unadjusted spouses differ signifi cantly from the attitudes found in the adjusted spouses. The latter perceive their marital roles in conformity with the cultural expectations or norms. The "well- adjusted" individual is one who behaves in accordance with the norms or definitions of his cultural group. Behavior can be gauged only in relation to expectations; the mesh of expectancies which constitute every social order is sustained by the modal behavior of its members represent ing conformity to the cultural patterns. It is only because behavior is typically oriented toward the basic standards of the society that we may speak of an aggregate of individuals as comprising a society. CHAPTER V MAPITAL ROLE IDEALS Family organization, according to Baber, can be regarded as an arrangement of member roles. Very few people are aware of or understand the roles which they bring to marriage. Some roles may be quite conscious, others vaguely conscious, and still others completely unconscious. "These roles involve wishes and attitudes, both surface and subsurface, integrated in such a way as q to bring pleasurable responses." There is more to roles than their cultural defini tion, or the stereotyped roles as defined in the folkways and mores of society; ". . . within these definitions by a given culture there are individual patterns or roles that are determined by the peculiar social experience of 2 the individual." The unique experiences of an individual color his role expectations or role ideals and may greatly influence his marital success or failure. Since some phases of role are wholly unconscious, ^Ray E. Baber, Marriage and the Family (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1953), p. 208. ^Willard Waller and Reuben Hill, The Family: A Dynamic Interpretation (New York: Dryden Press, 1951)* pp. 284-285. 130 131 conflicting expectations may exist for the individual in his conceptualization of the ideal mate. Because of these conflicting expectations, the assumption is that no per fect agreement is ever achieved between the individual's concept of the ideal mate, which is culturally and psycho logically determined, and the individual's actual spouse, as perceived by him. In this chapter we are going to examine the find ings concerning the husbands' and wives' expectations of marital roles, the discrepancies between the spouses' perceptions of their mates and their expectations of the ideal mate, and whether this disparity differentiates between good and poor marriages. I. IDEAL HUSBAND Husbands' Expectations The expectations of the ideal husband for the adjusted and unadjusted husbands on the Dom dimension did not differ significantly. The expectations on the Lov dimension was also very similar for both groups. Wives' Expectations The unadjusted wives conceptualized the ideal hus- 5 -'The t of 1.85 was not significant. ^See Table 11, page 155* band as being significantly higher on the Dom dimension 5 than did the adjusted wives. The correlation of -.20 between low marital adjustment scores and high Dom expec tation scores was significant at the .05 level. It is interesting to note that the unadjusted wives perceived their husbands as being significantly lower on the Dom dimension than did the wives of the adjusted husbands. There was no differentiation between the groups of wives in terms of the mean scores of their "ideal husband" on the Lov dimension. II. IDEAL WIFE Husbands1 Expectations The role conceptualizations of the ideal wife for the adjusted and unadjusted husbands did not differ sig nificantly with respect to the Dom dimension. Table 11 presents the mean scores on the Lov dimension; there was no differentiation between the two groups on this vari able . Wives1 Expectations The difference of conceptualization of the ideal wife for the adjusted and unadjusted wives on the Dom dimension was not significantly different. Also the mean ^The t ■ 2.14 and was significant at the .05 level. ^See Table 8, page 115- 133 TABLE 11 IDEAL MARITAL ROLES FOR ADJUSTED AND UNADJUSTED GROUPS, BY STANDARD SCORES Category Mean Dom N-50 Mean Lov N-50 Inter personal Mechanism (Octant) Ideal Husband Adjusted Husbands 65.6 56.5 AP Wives 66.3a 57.5 AP Unadjusted Husbands 67.1 55.4 AP Wives 67.8a 56.3 AP Ideal Wife Adjusted Husbands 63.3 59.3 NO Wives 63.5 60.3 NO Unadjusted Husbands 63.7 58.5 AP Wives 63.6 60.4 NO ^he only significant difference was between the adjusted and unadjusted wives in their conceptual izations of the ideal husband role on the Dom dimension. The t of 2.14 was significant beyond the .05 level. 134 scores for the Lov dimension did not distinguish between the two groups. III. IDEAL MARITAL ROLES OF THE SAMPLE Inspection of Table 11 shows that the ideal hus band and ideal wife definitions for the total sample are in the friendly-dominant quadrant. The ideal husband role-concept for all groups is in the managerial-auto cratic (AP) octant; the ideal wife concept for all groups, with the exception of the unadjusted husbands, is in the responsible-generous (NO) octant. For the unadjusted hus bands this conceptualization is in the AP octant. There were significant differences in the compari sons between the conceptualizations of the groups on the ideal husband and ideal wife roles on both the Dom and Lov dimensions. Table 12 gives the t ratios for these differ ences. Both adjusted and unadjusted husbands and wives perceived the ideal husband role as being significantly higher on the Dom dimension, more dominant, than they per ceived the ideal wife role to be. They also conceptual ized the "ideal wife" role as being significantly higher on the Lov dimension, i.e., one of more emotional warmth, than they perceived the "ideal husband" role. The findings indicate a differentiation between the ideal husband and the ideal wife role for the sample. 135 TABLE 12 COMPARISON OF DIFFERENCES BETWEEN IDEAL HUSBAND AND IDEAL WIFE ROLE CONCEPTUALIZATIONS, WITH SIGNIFICANT t-RATIOS Mean Mean Group Dom IHa N-50 Score IWb N-50 t Lov IHa N-50 Score IWb N-50 t Adjusted Husbands 65.6 63.3 2.99 56.5 59.3 2.73 Wives 66.3 63-5 4.24 57.5 60.3 3.32 Unadjusted Husbands 67.1 63.7 3.82 55.4 58.5 2.57 Wives 67.8 63.6 5.86 56.3 60.4 3.87 defers to conceptualization of "ideal husband." bRefers to conceptualization of "ideal wife." 136 Although the ideal wife role is defined as containing less dominant role qualities than the ideal husband role, it is interesting to note that the ideal wife role is not defined in terms of submissive role attitudes. In our society which theoretically stands for an equality of the sexes, the dilemma is due to the fact that the man, at least in his occupational role, is expected to be autono mous and independent. However, the woman as a wife and mother is expected to subordinate her individualistic goals and drives to further the integrative quality of her 7 family as a group. Perhaps this dilemma is partially resolved by allowing to the woman in her marital role a certain degree of autonomous, independent and managerial role qualities, so long as she is less autonomous and less managerial than her husband. These findings will be dis cussed more fully in connection with the data on "Instru- 8 mental and Expressive Hole Attitudes." Discrepancy Scores The scores for the total sample were obtained for the discrepancies between the individual's conceptualiza tion of the ideal mate on the Dom and Lov dimensions and 7 'Florence Kluckhohn, "Dominant and Variant Value Orientations," Personality in Nature. Society, and Cul ture. eds. Clyde Kluckhohn and Henry A. Murray (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1953), pp. 342-337. ®See Chapter VIII, pp. 189-191. 137 his perception of his own spouse on these dimensions. The discrepancy scores for both husband and wife were added, giving a total discrepancy score between ideal mate con ceptualizations and mate perceptions for each couple. The hypothesis.— The greater the degree of diver gence between role expectation and role fulfillment, the greater will be the degree of marital maladjustment. The data pertaining to the hypothesis regarding concurrence of spouses on ideal marital role definitions will be dealt with in the following chapter. The findings.— The discrepancy scores between the husbands' expectations of the ideal wife and their percep tion of their spouses in the unadjusted group ranged from 9 to 60 (linear distance in centimeters if placed on cir cular grid). The comparable discrepancy scores in the adjusted group ranged from 3 to 35 points. The mean of the discrepancy scores for the unadjusted group was sig nificantly different from the mean of the scores of the 9 adjusted husbands. Table 13 indicates the mean scores, the t ratios and the chi squares of the association between low marital adjustment and high discrepancy score categories. The correlation between the discrepancy and marital adjustment scores was -.61 and was significant 9 'The t of 6.73 was significant beyond the .01 level. 138 TABLE 13 MEAN OF DISCREPANCY SCORES OF IDEAL AND MATE PERCEPTIONS, WITH t-RATIOS FOR THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE MEANS, AND CHI SQUARE VALUES Category Adjusted Group N-100 Unadjusted Group t N-100 Chi Square Ideal Wife con- c eptuali sat ion of husbands ver sus perception of their wives 13.14 28.46 6.73 16.23a Ideal Husband conceptual isation of wives versus perception of their husbands 11.04 29.24 8.67 36.95 Total discrep ancy, ideal mate percep tion versus mate percep tion values 24.18 57.72 12.02 67.92 A chl square of 6.64- indicates a significant association between discrepancy score and marital adjustment category at the .01 level. 139 beyond the .01 level. The discrepancy scores in terms of the wives' expectations of the ideal husband and the percention of their spouses in the unadjusted group ranged from 6 to 54. The comparable discrepancy scores in the adjusted group ranged from 2 to 26. There was a significant difference between the mean scores of the adjusted and unadjusted wives.The correlation between discrepancy scores and marital adjustment scores was -.68. There was more vari ance in the discrepancy scores of the husbands in the unadjusted group than in any other. The discrepancy scores for the couples in the total sample ranged from 9 to 113 points. There was a very sig nificant difference between the mean scores for the 12 adjusted and unadjusted couples. The chi square of the association between discrepancy scores and marital adjust ment category was 67.92. The hypothesis had assumed that a low disparity between role expectation and role fulfillment was associ ated with good marital adjustment. This was accepted as the correlation between disparity scores and marital adjustment scores was found to be -.77. To the extent 10Por N-100 a correlation of .25 is significant at the .01 level. ■^The t ratio was 8.67. ^The t ratio was 12.02. 140 that we can generalize from the findings we may say that if the individual perceives his mate as closely approxi mating his ideal for that marital role, this is signifi cant for adaptive marital relations. However, where the disparity is great, the frustration of role expectations leads to disruptive interpersonal relations and makes for dissatisfaction with the marriage. This was supported by 15 the findings in the Mangus study. IV. SUMMARY The ideal wife conceptualizations of adjusted and unadjusted husbands and wives were very similar. There was no significant difference in the ideal husband defin itions for the husbands of both groups; however, the unad justed wives perceived the ideal husband as being more dominant than did the wives in the adjusted group. All of the ideal marital role expectations of the sample were placed in the AP and NO octants; the expectations were that the husbands have the more dominant role and that the wives have the more affectionate role for the ideal marital relationship. The hypothesis of a significant relationship between disparity of role expectation and role fulfillment 15 VA. R. Mangus, "Family Impacts on Mental Health," Marriage and Family Living. 19:256-262, 1957. 141 to marital adjustment was accepted, as all statistical procedures indicated a reliable association— beyond the o01 level. There is a reliable negative correlation between the two variables in that a low disparity was associated with a high rating of marital adjustment in the sample. CHAPTER VI CULTURAL NORMS FOR THE IDEAL MATE Not enough research has as yet been done to deter mine the etiology of role ideals. It has been theorized that role conceptualizations are formed in childhood, the parents acting as models for the marital roles to be assumed in later years by the child.1 However, the inter nalization of role expectations involve more than the tak ing over of the standards of the parents; it also implies the internalization of the values of the social system as a superordinate object, and involves the individual's motivational systems for the assumption of the role behav- 2 ior in the appropriate situations. It is noted that role conceptions evolve along with changes in the technological structure of society; these changes have a consequential influence upon the structure and functions of the family. New conceptions of marital roles are found existing along side the old or former definitions, making for ambiguity 1Ray Baber, Marriage and, the Family (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1953)> P« 209. 2 Talcott Parsons and Robert F. Bales, Family, Socializations and Interaction Process (Glencoe, 111.: The Free Press, 1955)» PP- 16^-163. 142 143 5 in the cultural ideal for marital roles. This chapter gives the norms for the ideal husband and ideal wife for the sample in terms of octant place ment, and discusses the relationship of these norms to cultural values. The concurrence of spouses on role def inition and the deviance from the sample norms, and the relationship of these to marital adjustment is also dealt with in this chapter. I. ROLE NORMS FOR HUSBANDS There was no significant difference between the groups in their conceptualization of the ideal husband in terms of modal role attitude. For the adjusted and unad justed husbands the per cents which placed their role ideals in the AP (managerial-autocratic) octant were, res pectively 68.0 and 78.0. However, the remaining per cents in both group were divided among the NO and BC octants. The expectations of the ideal husband role in terms of the AP octant did not distinguish between the adjusted and unadjusted wives. Table 14 gives the per cents which were, respectively, 70.0 and 78.0. In the adjusted group ^Yi-Chuang Lu, "A Study of Dominant, Equalitarian, and Submissive Roles in Marriage." (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1950), p. 50. ^See Table 14. 144 TABLE 14 OCTANTS 07 IDEAL HUSBAND AND IDEAL WIPE CONCEPTUALIZATIONS, BY PER CENTS Ideal Ideal Category Husband Wife Critical N-50 N-50 Ratio Adjusted Husbands 68 - AP 44 - AP 2.4a 28 - NO 54 - NO 2.6 4 - BC 2 - LM Wives 70 - AP 40 - AP 3.0 30 - NO 60 - NO 3.0 Unadjusted Husbands 78 - AP 50 - AP 2.9 18 - NO 44 - NO 2.7 4 - BC 4 - BC 2 - TM Wives 76 - AP 44 - AP 3.3 22 - NO 56 - NO 3.5 2 - BC Only significant differences in octant conceptu alisations between the ideal husband and ideal wife role are given. 145 the remaining 30 per cent placed the ideal husband in the NO octant; 22 per cent of the unadjusted wives placed the ideal husband role in the NO octant and 2 per cent placed it in the BC octant. Table 15 shows the comparisons of means on the Dorn and Lov dimensions between self-percep tion, mate perception, and conceptualizations of ideal marital roles for the sample. TI. ROLE NORMS FOR WIVES There was no significant difference between the wives of both groups in their conceptualizations of the ideal wife in terms of modal role attitude. For the adjusted and unadjusted wives the per cents who placed their ideal wife concepts in the NO (responsible-generous) octant were, respectively, 60 per cent and 5& per cent. However, 40 per cent of the adjusted and 44 per cent of the unadjusted wives placed their ideal wife concept in the AP octant. There was no significant difference between the husbands in their ideal wife concepts. In the adjusted group 54 per cent of the husbands and in the unadjusted group 44 per, cent of the husbands placed the ideal in the NO octant. However, 44 per cent of the adjusted and 50 per cent of the unadjusted husband placed the ideal wife concept in the AP octant. 146 TABLE 15 SELF PERCEPTION, MATE PERCEPTION, AND IDEAL MARITAL ROLES FOR ADJUSTED AND UNADJUSTED GROUPS, WITH t RA.TIOS Category Ad justed Mean Dorn N-50 Unad justed Mean Dorn N-50 t Ad justed Mean Lov N-50 Unad justed Mean Lov N-50 t Self Per ception Husbands 58.6 58.8 51.9 47.6 2.45a WiV68 56.0 50.0 3.30 57.2 52.9 2.49 Mate Per ception Husbands 64.5 59.4 2.85 53.8 41.8 4.96 Wives 57.5 53.2 2.42 58.0 49.1 3.53 Ideal Husband Husbands 65.6 67.1 56.5 55.4 Wives 66.5 67.8 2.14 57.5 56.5 Ideal Wife Husbands 65.3 63.7 59.3 58.5 Wives 65.5 65.6 60.5 60.4 aOnly significant t ratios are given. 147 With the exception of a few cases who conceived the ideal marital roles in the BC octant, the sample concep tualized all ideal marital roles in the friendly-dominance quadrant. The Hypothesis There is a cultural definition of the ideal marital similarity between the spouses1 definitions of their ideal marital roles, and the cultural ideal marital roles, the greater will be the degree of marital adjustment. The Findings Table 14 indicated that the norm for all groups in terms of ideal marital roles, both husband's and wife's, for this sample was in the friendly- or affectionate-dom- inance quadrant. Table 16 shows that the predominant role attitude both in self-perception and mate-perception for the adjusted husbands and wives was also in this quadrant. The deviance from this norm distinguished between adjusted and unadjusted wives in terms of self-perception and mate- percept ion, and between adjusted and unadjusted husband in 5 terms of mate perception. In the light of the findings it is now possible to sharpen the hypothesis as follows: ^See page 126, and Table 17» p.150. * 148 TABLE 16 OCTANTS OP SELP-FEHCEPTION AND MATE PERCEPTION, BT PER CENTS Category Self Perception N-50 Mate Perception N-50 Adjusted Husbands 40 AP 52 AP 26 — NO 28 NO 16 — BC 16 — BC 10 - DE 4 - LM 2 — PG 2 — JK 4 - LM Wives 36 AP 26 _ AP 32 - NO 40 - NO 8 - BC 6 - BC 4 — JK 4 - DE 20 — LM 2 — PG 4 - JK 18 — LM Unadjusted Hu sb an da 38 AP 16 — AP 12 - NO 8 — NO 30 - BC 32 - BC 8 — DE 22 - DE 6 — PG 10 — PG 2 - JK 2 - HI 4 — m 2 — JK 8 LM WiV68 16 AP 10 AP 10 - NO 12 - NO 10 — BC 18 - BC 10 - DE 18 - DE 8 - PG 6 - PG 12 — HI 8 — HI 16 - JK 10 — JK 18 — IM 18 — IAt 14-Q There is a, cultural definition of the ideal marital role for the husband end for the wife, end the greater the siro- ilnrlty between the arouses1 rerce^tions of their self, mete and ideal merit el. roles, °rih the culture! ideal mar - It el roles, the greater will he the decree of marital ad.iu stment. This revised hypothesis is accented end. Table V? indicates that a siyni fieantly greater rronortion of the unad -iijc-t ed “ > nd i vi do a 1 s perceived themselves end/or their 'rates in the "hostile weak’" section of the circular conti nuum, h."', Pd, wT, t; nn was ♦’m e for ftp adjusted hus bands and wives.^ Tarit°l mslad iuslment can be defined in terms of deviance from the cultural norms, which for the husbands was primarily in the manayeria.l-autoorati c (AP) octant, and for wives was found nrimarily in the resnonsible-^en- erous (NT) octant. Inspection of Table IS shows that hoth husbands and wives °xnect that the wife role be less dom inant and mere af f ect.i onate— more ^i vi n^— than is expected for the hus'>'nnd nolo, uowev^r, both ah hunted and un-ad — i us ted wives * • < = > • • » thpjjipaj \rac- an rqn c h 1 e s s . ^runi rmt than the- ’ r husband s except tho ideal w- 7 f e to be. This findinc n is in agreement with that of Steinmann whose study -ind-7- poo ST ■anill nr r^Pi d , (T'lrP 1 t , 9 Anne fit°1 umonn , 1 1 !.-ao]< of f m-’ nnni rati on RQtwp°n Mon °nd ’ •/nmori } * * MnT'T’i nr»o a^d F°ilil . 1 V T.o Tr i r > n - PO : d bO— d t P T 1 o V ( ■ ' m b e "a , 1 ^ ^ . 150 TABLE 17 PER CENTS OP ADJUSTED AND UNADJUSTED SPOUSES IN AFFECTIONATE-DOMINANCE AND HOSTILE-WEAK QUADRANTS WITH CRITICAL RATIOS Quadrant Ad- Unad justed justed Hus- Hus- CR hands hands Ad justed Wives Unad justed Wives CR Affectionate- Dominance Self- Percoption 66.0 50.0 1.6a 68.0 26.0 4.2 Mate- Perception 80.0 24.0 5.6 66.0 22.0 4.4 Hostile-Weak Self- Perception 12.0 14.0 .6 30.0 4.2 Mate- Percoption 34.0 4.5 6.0 32.0 3.3 aA critical ratio of 2.0 is needed for signif icance at the .05 level. 151 cated that the fathers' concept of the ideal woman was not as traditional as their wives and daughters conceived it to be. Discrepancy Scores The scores for the total sample were obtained for the discrepancies between the spouses' conceptualizations of the ideal husband and the ideal wife. The hypothesis.— The greater the degree of the spouses' concurrence on role definition, the greater will be the degree of marital adjustment. The findings.— The mean discrepancy scores between the conceptualizations of the ideal husband role for the husbands and wives of the adjusted group was 8.52 with a range of 1 to 22. The mean of the scores of the unad justed group on discrepancy of ideal husband role concepts was 8.72 with a range of 1 to 25* There was no signifi- 8 cant difference between the means of the two groups. The mean of the discrepancy scores of the spouses conceptualizations of the ideal wife was 8.22 for the adjusted group with a range from zero to 22. The mean of the discrepancy scores of the unadjusted group was 10.38 with a range of 2 to 23. There was a significant differ ence between the means of the two groups oh discrepancies ®iSee Table 18, page. 153» 152 Q of ideal wife concepts. The discrepancy scores for the couples in the total sample ranged from 5 to 41. Table 18 indicates that there was no significant difference between the mean discrepancy scores for the adjusted and unadjusted groups in the com parison between the husbands' and wives' concepts of the ideal wife role and of the ideal husband role. The chi square of the association between discrepancy scores and marital adjustment category was 1.98 and the correlation between discrepancy scores and marital adjustment scores was only -.186 and was not significant at the .05 level. The hypothesis of a significant relationship between concurrence on role definition between spouses and marital adjustment was rejected. However, there was a significant difference between the groups on the "Ideal Wife" concepts, and the statistics of the couple discrep ancy scores for the total sample, although not quite reaching the .05 level of significance, were in the right direction. The correlation Detween low marital adjustment and high discrepancy scores almost reaches significance. III. MIDDLE-CLASS CULTURAL VALUES Leary stated that conventionality and optimistic, active, responsible independence are the basic middle- ^See Table 18. 153 TABLE 18 MEAN OF DISCREPANCY SCORES OF IDEAL HUSBAND AND IDEAL WIFE CONCEPTS, WITH t RATIOS OF THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE MEANS, AND CHI SQUARE VALUES Category Adjusted Group N-100 Unadjusted Group N-100 t Chi Square Ideal Husband concepts of husbands versus concepts of wives 8.52 8.72 .20 .16a Ideal Wife conoepts of husbands versus concepts of wives 8.22 10.38 1.98 4.06 Total discrep ancy, ideal marital role concepts of husbands versus concepts of wives 16.74 19.10 1.48 1.98 A chi square of 3*84 indicates a significant association between discrepancy score and marital adjust ment category at the .05 level. 154- class cultural stereotypes; these are the values which the American middle-class set as an ideal.The emphasis in the American ideal is upon conventionality and strength; this strength is equated with money, power and efficiency. These ideals of conventionality, self-confident independ ence, competent strength, and drive for status are symbol ized, respectively, by the octants LM, NO, AP, and BC. Table 14- indicates that all of the individuals in the sam ple perceived their ideal husband and ideal wife role as being in one of these octants. Table 16 indicates that at least 88 per cent of adjusted husbands and wives perceived their self-percep tions and mate perceptions in one of those octants. How ever, only 64 per cent of the unadjusted husbands were perceived by their wives in these octants, and only 58 per cent of the unadjusted wives were viewed by their husbands in the above-named octants. Again, only 52 per cent of the unadjusted wives perceived themselves in the octants LM, NO, AP, or BC. The role attitudes idealized for this sample in terms of qualities desired were very similar for both hus bands and wives and included such attitudes as: able to 10Timothy Leary, The Interpersonal Diagnosis of Personality (New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1957), pp. 27, 205, 505-340. 155 give orders, businesslike, can be frank and honest, can be strict if necessary, cooperative, eager to get along with others, firm but just, good leader, hardboiled when neces sary, independent, likes responsibility, likes to compete with others, makes a good impression, often admired, res pected by others, self-confident, self-reliant and asser tive, stern but fair, sociable and neighborly, very res pectful to authority, well thought of, and warm. For this sample the findings indicate that marital roles are defined in terms of the equalitarian orientation in which extreme differentiation between the sex roles are partly obliterated.^ The ideals for both the husband and wife role, in the affectionate-dominance quadrant, stresses strength and responsibility as the ideal for both marital roles. The similarity of the Leary cultural norms to the findings for this sample indicates that marital roles, as measured by the ICL, have to a great extent been redefined in terms of American middle-class ideals. Figure 2 represents the self, mate and ideal mari tal concepts for the adjusted group. Figure 3 represents the role concepts of the unadjusted group. The great sim ilarity between the ideal role concepts of the two groups, and the dissimilarity of the self and mate perceptions "^See "Definitions of the Terms Used" in Chapter I, pp. 5-11. SELF--WIFE YOUR HUSBAND IDEAL WIFE IDEAL HUSBAND SELF— HUSBAND YOUR WIFE IDEAL HUSBAND IDEAL WIFE Figure 2. --Role perceptions and role expectations of the adjusted group. *Octant in which Dom and Lov scores intersect--the summation point. IDEAL HUSBAND YOUR HUSBAND IDEAL WIFE SELF--WIFE SELF--HUSBAND YOUR WIFE IDEAL HUSBAND IDEAL WIFE Figure 3. --Role perceptions and role expectations of the unadjusted group. Octant in which Dom and Lov scores intersect--the summation point. 157 158 between the two groups are very significant. The individ uals in the adjusted group approach their ideal marital roles and the cultural norms in their self and mate per ceptions, whereas the members of the unadjusted group do not. What meaning does the finding of the adherence of adjusted middle-class couples to the cultural ideals have for the welfare of the American family and for the society as a whole? Emphasis is placed upon conformity to pre scribed standards and good marital adjustment is identi fied with factors making for conservatism and convention ality as well as conformity to the social expectations of the community. This is the criticism which one hears 12 about our conforming culture in general, and it should not be a surprising finding in a study of one of the basic institutions of the society, the family. A finding of research studies indicates that the most highly integrated middle-class families meet crises less well than families not so committed to the middle- 15 class way of life. ^ The reason is that the integration 12 William H. Whyte, Jr., The Organization Man (New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1957); and David Riesman, The Lonely Crowd (New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1953)• 15 ^Reuben Hill, Families Under Stress (New York: Harper and Brothers, 194-9), pp. 207-210. 159 around such material norms as home ownership, status in a given community, or success, measured in monetary terms, may render the marriage less capable of quick adaptability to changed situations of crises, such as unemployment or war. A criticism by Kolb is that American family sociol ogy in the analyses of factors associated with successful marriage has committed itself to the "happy middle-class 14 family." Kolb suggests that on the basis of various types of evidence, two different, but not irreconcilable images of the middle-class family group emerge: One is that of a family characterized by absence of conflict, the prevalence of accomodative habits, mutual affection, the middle-class paraphernalia of status, i.e., an owned home, radios, bathtubs, and automobiles, social conservatism and conformity, discreet and cautious extra-marital adventures, and the unending struggle for success. This is the family depicted by the advertiser, the slick maga zines, and the middle-class attitude toward the self and toward the family. The other image contains the above characteristics as easily observable phen omena, but emphasizes the structure of this family as the breeding grounds of neurosis and conflict. It pictures the role of the middle-class wife as empty, stultifying, and confused; the role of the husband as that of the individual subjected to all the pressures of the struggle for success; and the role of the child as determined by the ambivalent attitudes of his parents toward one another and toward him. This is the middle-class family of social psychiatry and the realistic branch of con temporary literature. The evidence supporting these typological images comes from the social 14 Willard Waller and Reuben Hill, The Family: A Dynamic Interpretation (New York: Dryden Press , 1951), p. 355. 160 15 psychologist and the writer of fiction. The criteria of personality growth and the sharing of new experience would he more in keeping with a con stantly changing, complex society and also more expressive of the democratic values of freedom than are the criteria for marital success of conventionality, conservatism, and conformity. Also the factors making for success are dif ferent at different stages of the family life cycle, and a developmental conception of marriage and family success would be more realistic than is a static concept. IV. SUMMARY Adjusted and unadjusted husbands placed their expectations for the ideal husband in the AP octant as did the wives of both groups. The adjusted and unadjusted husbands and wives divided their concepts of the ideal wife almost equally between the NO and the AP octants. With the exception of a few cases who conceived the ideal marital role in the BC octant, the sample conceptualized all ideal marital roles in the affectionate-dominance quadrant. The hypothesis of a significant relationship - between spouses concurrence on role definitions and mari- 15 ^William L. Kolb, "Sociologically Established Fam ily Norms and Democratic Values," Social Forces. 26:451-456, May, 1948. 161 tal adjustment was rejected since all statistics did not reach a significant level. A greater proportion of the unadjusted spouses perceived themselves and/or their mates in the hostile-weak section of the circular continuum. The hypothesis regarding cultural definitions was accepted as the significant relationship to marital adjustment was in the conformity to the cultural ideal of affectionate- dominance. Both husbands and wives expected the wife role to be less dominant and more affectionate than their expectations for the husband role. The emphases in the American ideal on conventional ity, self-confident independence, competent strength, and drive for status are symbolized by the octants LM, NO, AP and BC and all individuals in the sample perceived their ideal husband and ideal wife role in one of these octants. The marital roles are defined in terms of more equalitar- ian rather than traditional role definitions as extreme differentiation between the sex roles are partly obliter ated. Marital roles have been to a great extent redefined in terms of present-day American middle-class ideals, and the meaning this has for the welfare of the American family and society as a whole was pointed out. CHAPTER VII SELF PERCEPTION AND CONFLICT The self is the reference point of all attitudes and much distress and conflict results from the individ ual's inability to make his self-image congruent with his role status.^ There are several factors involved in this conflict. First, an individual's negative self-image affects his perceptions of his mate, his friends and all others with whom he is involved in interpersonal rela tions; it also affects his ability to perform his roles 2 in a manner satisfactory to his role partners. Secondly, lack of precision of role definition in our rapidly chang ing and socially mobile society makes for behavior that is not socially adaptive. Women's education in the United States has been modeled, almost exclusively, on male education. There is little training for being a modern housewife and mother, and still less recognition obtains for these important ^Hubert Bonner, Social Psychology: An Interdiscip linary Approach (New York! American Book Co., 1953)» pp. 197, 256-257- p Carl R. Rogers, Client-Centered Therapy (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin Company^ 195l)» PP* 323-327 ■ > 162 163 occupations. If a girl goes through college, she gradu ates, in most cases, trained for a job and a career and with the idea that a good job brings a certain amount of prestige to her. With the traditional pattern, that is training girls for the feminine role of wife and mother solely, and the modern pattern of training girls to func tion to the fullest extent of their capabilities as human beings, with both of these present in the American cul ture, it is not surprising that there is not only inter personal conflict between spouses, but also intra-personal conflict. A recent study indicated that the average girl of college age does not have a clear conception of her x adult sex role. The total number of things the average girl expected to do added up to an impossible time sched ule for her. In the conventional marriage, the husband wins rec ognition in the outside world and the wife wins it in the home; however, the line of status demarcation between the sexes has become quite blurred, with husband and wife now competing for the same kind of status and displaying keen rivalry over what was once exclusively a male or a female a prerogative. If lack of clear role definition means X ^Arnold M. Rose, "Adequacy of Women's Expectations for Adult Roles," Social Forces. 30:69-77, October, 1951. ^Willard Waller and Reuben Hill, The Family: A D.ynamic Interpretation (New York: Dryden Press, 1951), p. 281. 164 intra-personal conflict for the wife, it also affects the reciprocal role relationship, that of the husband. Much emphasis has been put upon the conflict inher ent in the present feminine role; not enough recognition has been given to the fact that the male marital role has, in certain of its aspects, become Just as ambiguous. This lack of clarity makes for intra-personal conflict in hus bands as well as interpersonal conflict between the spouses. This chapter considers the discrepancies between the individual's self-perception and his conceptualization of the ideal marital role and the relationship of this variable to marital adjustment will be discussed. Also this chapter deals with the findings in terms of total disparity between role perceptions and role expectations. I. DISCREPANCY SCORES The scores for the total sample were obtained for the discrepancies between the self perception of each individual on the Dom and Lov dimensions and the concep tualization of that individual of his ideal marital role. The discrepancy scores for both husband and wife were added, giving a total discrepancy score between self-per ception and ideal marital role for each couple. The Hypothesis 165 The greater the degree of similarity between the individual's self perception and the definition of his ideal marital role. the greater will be the degree of mar ital adjustment. The Findings The discrepancy scores between the adjusted wives' self-perceptions and ideal marital role conceptualizations ranged from 2 to 36. The comparable scores in the unad justed group ranged from 7 to 52. There was a significant difference between the mean discrepancy scores of both groupsThe correlation between discrepancy and marital adjustment scores was -.4-8 and significant beyond the .01 level. The discrepancy scores between the husbands' self- perceptions and ideal role conceptualizations in the adjusted group ranged from 1 to 38, and in the unadjusted group from 1 to 39. Table 19 indicates the mean discrep ancy scores of the groups, and the t ratio of the signifi- 6 cant differences between the means. The correlation between discrepancy and marital adjustment scores was -.27 and significant beyond the .01 level. 5 ^The t ratio was 6.13 and significant beyond the .01 level. See Table 19. 0 The t ratio was 2.99 and significant beyond the .01 level. 166 TABLE 19 MEAN OF DISCREPANCY SCORES OF SELF PERCEPTION AND IDEAL MARITAL ROLE CONCEPTS, WITH t RATIOS FOR THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE MEANS, AND CHI SQUARE VALUES Category Adjusted Group N-100 Unadjusted Group N-100 t Chi Square Self-perception concepts of wives versus Ideal Wife concepts 15.20 26.18 6.13 23.65a Self-perception concepts of husbands versus Ideal Husband concepts 14.48 19.48 2.99 4.86 Total self versus ideal marital role concepts of couple 29.68 45.66 6.52 25.25 Mean of total disparity scores for couples 98.76 157.32 9.85 53.20 A chi square of 3.84 indicates a significant association between discrepancy score and marital adjust ment category at the .05 level. 167 The discrepancy scores for the couples in the total sample ranged from 4- to 77. There was a significant dif ference between the mean discrepancy scores of the 7 adjusted and the unadjusted groups. The chi square of the association between discrepancy scores and marital adjustment category was 25*25 and was significant beyond the .01 level. The hypothesis had assumed that a low disparity between self-perception and marital role conceptualization was associated with good marital adjustment. This hypo thesis was accepted as the correlation between discrepancy score and marital adjustment score was -.51 and was sig nificant beyond the .01 level. II. TOTAL DISPARITY RATINGS All the discrepancy scores for each couple were added to give a total disparity picture between self-per ception versus mate perception, mate perception versus ideal mate, ideal marital role conceptualizations, and self-perception versus ideal marital role conceptualiza tion. The relationship between this total score and mar ital adjustment rating was obtained. There was a very significant association between discrepancy score and mar ital adjustment; the chi square was 53*20. The correla- ^The t ratio was 6.52. 168 tion between discrepancy score and marital adjustment score was -.70 and significant beyond the .01 level. Table 19 shows the mean discrepancy scores for the adjusted and for the unadjusted group. Figure 4 gives a graphic representation of the role attitudes of an adjusted couple in terms of the indi vidual octants. The total disparity score for this couple was 70 points. Figure 5 represents an unadjusted couple. Note the wide disparity between the wife's conceptualization of the ideal husband and her perception of her spouse. A similar discrepancy can be noted for the husband's "ideal wife" and his picture of his wife. A comparison between the self-perceptions of this couple and their ideal marital roles indicates intra-personal conflict as well as the interpersonal conflict resulting from frustration of role expectations; the total disparity score for this couple was 206 points. The finding of the significant relationship between positive self-perception and positive mate perception to adaptive marital relations concurs with the findings of other research studies. For example, Kelly found that a high degree of marital compatibility seemed to be accom panied by a willingness on the part of both husband and SELF--WIFE YOUR HUSBAND IDEAL WIFE IDEAL HUSBAND SELF--HUSBAND YOUR WIFE IDEAL HUSBAND IDEAL WIFE Figure 4. — Role perceptions and role expectations of an adjusted couple. * Octant in which Dom and Lov scores intersect--the summation point. 169 SELF— WIFE YOUR LUSBAND IDEAL WIFE IDEAL HUSBAND SELF— HUSBAND YOUR WIFE IDEAL HUSBAND IDEAL WIFE Figure 5. --Role perceptions and role expectations of an unadjusted couple. $ Octant in which Dom and Lov scores intersect--the summation point. 170 171 8 wife to admit to the superiority of the spouse. Also a high degree of marital compatibility was associated with a tendency for both husband and wife to rate themselves above average on personality traits. It is found that there is a tendency for acceptance q of self to increase during therapy.' Acceptance of self means that the client tends to perceive himself as more independent and more able to cope with life problems. Sheerer found a marked and fairly regular increase in the measured acceptance of and respect for self from the beginning to the end of therapy cases.The perceptions an individual holds of himself are the bases of his inter actions with others. It might be assumed that a good mar riage, like good therapy, provides the atmosphere for per sonality growth and for the increase of concurrence between self perception and ideal marital role. On the other hand, an individual whose self-image is congruent with his concept of his ideal marital role might be Q E. Lowell Kelly, "Marital Compatibility as Related to Personality Traits of Husbands and Wives as Rated by Self and Spouse," Journal of Social Psychology. 13:193- 198, 194-1. q 'Rogers, op. cit., pp. 315-323. "^Elizabeth Sheerer, "An Analysis of the Relation ship between Acceptance of and Respect for Self and Acceptance of and Respect for Others in Ten Counseling Cases," Journal of Consulting Psychology, 13:169-175, 1949. 172 expected to bring to marriage a set of attitudes which would make for more satisfactory interpersonal relations. III. SUMMARY Rapid social change has resulted in intra-personal conflict for individuals in terms of marital role defini tions, as well as in interpersonal conflict between spouses. The individual's inability to make his self- image congruent with his role status makes for maladaptive marital relations. There was a significant difference between adjusted and unadjusted couples in relation to discrepancy between self-perception and ideal marital role conceptualization. The group which had the most variabil ity in terms of discrepancy scores was the unadjusted wives. The hypothesis of a significant relationship between good marital adjustment and low disparity between self-perception and ideal marital role definition was accepted as all statistical procedures indicated a reli able association, beyond the .01 level. The computation of a total discrepancy score for each couple indicated there was a significant difference between adjusted and unadjusted couples in terms of this total disparity between role perceptions and role expecta tions. Graphic representations are given of an adaptive and of a maladaptive marriage. CHAPTER VIII INSTRUMENTAL AND EXPRESSIVE ROLES The family has become more sharply differentiated from the other agencies of our society and also more specialized in its function than was the American family in the past or the family of other societies. The nuclear family in our society is structurally isolated from extended kinship solidarities and is functionally differ entiated from other systems in the social structureThe structure-functionalists hypothesize that: If the nuclear family constitutes a social sys tem stable over time, it will differentiate roles such that instrumental leadership and expressive leadership of the system are discriminated; and if the nuclear family consists in a defined "normal" complement of the male adult, female adult and their immediate children, the male adult will play the role of instrumental leader and the female adult will play the role of expressive leader.2 In the American society the nuclear family is specialized in terms of the "expressive" tension-manage- ment and socialization aspects. The family has a value- system which is a derivative of the common value system Talcott Parsons and Robert P. Bales, Family, Socialization and Interaction Process (Glencoe, 111.: The Free Press, 1955)* P* 307. 2Ibid., pp. 314-515. 173 174 of the society as a whole, hut which defines its system- goals and norms in a singular maimer due to its somewhat limited functions. The marriage relationship is a sub system of the family with a further specialization of com mon values with special reference to tension-management as a system goal. The marriage relation is a simpler subsystem because it is a two-member system. The husband role is specialized more in the instrumental, i.e., meeting the adaptive requirements, whereas the wife role is special ized more in the direction of the expressive-integrative aspects of the relationship. However, they share the mar ital system values of providing for mutual and collective gratifications and satisfactions, even though their roles relative to these common values are differentiated. Parsons states that these specialized functions are not met, in our own or in any other society, in an uninstitu tionalized way, but that: The husband is expected to be a "good provider," to be able to secure for the couple a "good posi tion" in the community. The wife on the other hand is expected to develop the skills in human rela tions which are central to making the home harmoni ous and pleasant for both. She is expected to be "attractive," "charming," etc. This is also an institutionalized pattern composed of values she shares with other women as her husband's is shared with other men. Then both sexes cooperate in dif ferentiated roles which are institutionalized in terms of values common to other collectivities to which they respectively belong, but do not 175 5 shareo It can be said that a social system must differen tiate behaviors and attitudes in order to continue to function as a system. Also a further condition of stabil ity is that some specialization must occur in responsibil ity for the attitudes and behaviors involved in the recip rocal roles. In this study we are testing the Parsonian hypothesis of differentiation of marital roles in terms of instrumental and expressive leadership. This chapter deals with the self-perceptions, mate perceptions and ideal marital role definitions of the adjusted and unadjusted husbands and wives in terms of instrumental and expressive role attitudes and considers the differences between the groups and their meaning and relationship to marital adjustment; the findings on instrumental and expressive roles are compared with the findings on the Dom and Lov dimensions with special refer ence to the ideal marital role definitions of the sample. I. SELF AND MATE PERCEPTIONS The mean scores for the adjusted and unadjusted husbands and wives were compared for self-perceptions as well as for mate perceptions in terms of instrumental and ^Ibid., p. 163. 176 expressive role attitudes. The differences between the mean scores of the groups were analyzed to determine whether these differences were significant beyond the level of chance expectation; the .05 level of confidence was used as heretofore. Self Perceptions The self perceptions of the adjusted and unadjusted husbands and the adjusted and unadjusted wives were com pared to determine whether a difference between the mean scores bore a significant relationship to marital adjust ment . Instrumental role scores.— Table 20 indicates the mean scores for the adjusted and unadjusted husbands on instrumental role attitudes; there was no significant dif ference between the groups. No significant difference was found between the means for the wives of both groups on this variable. Expressive role scores.— Table 20 also gives the mean scores for the adjusted and unadjusted husbands on expressive role attitudes; there was a significant differ- 4 See Appendix for lists of instrumental and expres sive role attitudes, and page 102 for methodology of iden tifying pertinent qualities. 177 TABLE 20 MEAN SCORES OF SELF PERCEPTION AND MATE PERCEPTION ON INSTRUMENTAL AND EXPRESSIVE ROLES WITH t RATIOS AND CHI SQUARE VALUES Category Adjusted Group Unadjusted Group t Chi Square Self Perception Instrumental Role Scores Husbands 14.94 15.76 1.09a 1.00* Wives 12.82 11.76 1.06 1.00 Expressive Role Scores Husbands 18.26 16.50 2.18 1.97 Wives 19.94 18.08 2.35 4.03 Mate Perception Instrumental Role Scores Husbands 16.34 15.76 .63 0.0 Wives 12.98 12.64 .32 .04 Bxpveivive Sole Seoree Husbands 19.48 12.40 6.87 25.84 Wives 20.40 15.88 4.48 10.26 aA t ratio of 1.98 ia needed for significance at the .05 level. *A chi square of 3*84 is significant at the .05 level for one degree of freedom. 178 ence between the means of the groups.^ The difference between the means for the wives of both groups was also significant, the t being 2.55* However, the chi square for the association between marital adjustment category and expressive role attitude was significant for the wives, but not for the husbands. This indicates that it is more vital to the success of the marriage that the wife perceive herself as more supportive, more capable of giving succor, than it is for the husband to so perceive himself. The findings denote, however, that it is import ant for both the husband's and wife's behavior to be integrative. Inspection of Table 20, will show that both adjusted husbands and wives perceived themselves as hav ing more expressive role attitudes than was true for the unadjusted husbands and wives. Hate Perceptions The mate perceptions for the groups were compared to determine whether a difference between the mean scores related in a significant manner to the category of marital adjustment. Instrumental role scores.— Table 20 indicates the scores for the perception of their mates of the wives of ^The t was 2.18 and significant beyond the .05 level. 179 both groups on this variable; there was no significant difference between the mean scores. No significant dif ference on instrumental role score means was found for the perceptions of their wives between the adjusted and unad justed husbands. Expressive role scores.— There was a significant difference between adjusted and unadjusted wives in terms of their picture of their husbands on this variable. Table 20, shows a chi square of 25.84 for association between expressive score and marital adjustment category— the higher expressive score being significantly related to good marital adjustment; the correlation coefficient was .61. The adjusted and unadjusted husbands perceived their wives as significantly different on expressive role attitude scores. The chi square was 10.26 and the corre lation between high expressive score and high marital adjustment score was .52 and significant beyond the .01 7 level. The findings may be interpreted as indicating, as was found for self perceptions, that when an individual perceives his spouse as emotionally comforting, this makes for integration in the marital relationship. The unad- g The t was 4.48 and significant beyond the .01 level. 7 See Appendix for specification of expressive role 180 justed individuals appear to perceive their spouses as lacking in the expressive role qualities which make for functional integration and stability of the marital and family group. Inspection of Table 20 shows that the unadjusted individuals perceived their spouses as being significantly lower in expressive role qualities, even lower than the individuals had perceived themselves, whereas, the spouses of the adjusted individuals perceived their mates as higher in expressive role attitudes than the mates had so perceived themselves. II. IDEAL MARITAL ROLES The mean scores of the adjusted and unadjusted hus bands and wives were analyzed for instrumental and expres sive role attitudes on the ideal husband and on the ideal wife role conceptualizations. Ideal Husband The ideal husband role conceptualizations of the adjusted and unadjusted husbands and of the adjusted and unadjusted wives were compared to determine whether there were significant differences between the groups. Instrumental role scores.— Table 21 shows the mean scores for the adjusted and unadjusted husbands on the attitudes. 181 TABLE 21 MEAN SCORES OF IDEAL HUSBAND AND IDEAL WIFE CONCEPTUALIZATIONS ON INSTRUMENTAL AND EXPRESSIVE ROLES WITH t RATIOS AND CHI SQUARE VALUES Category Adjusted Group Unadjusted Group t Chi Square Ideal Husband Instrumental Role Scores Husbands 16.20 16.10 .20 1.98 Wives 16.20 16.10 .19 .36 Expressive Role Scores Husbands 20.22 19.70 .87 .16 Wives 21.06 19.78 2.79a 2.56** Ideal Wife Instrumental Role Scores Husbands 14.30 13.80 .83 .04 Wives 14.58 13.62 1.92 1.45 Expressive Role Scores Husbands 21.16 20.80 .64 .39 Wives 22.12 21.66 1.12 .04 aA t ratio of 1.93 Is significant at the .05 level. ^A chi square of 5*84 is needed for significance at the .05 level for one degree of freedom. 182 ideal husband role; there was no significant difference between the means of the husbands. No significant differ ence was found between the means of the wives on ideal husband conceptualizations for instrumental role atti- Q tudes. Note on Table 21 that the mean scores are almost identical for all 4 groups. Expressive role scores.— Table 21 also gives the mean scores for the adjusted and unadjusted husbands on the ideal husband role; there was no significant differ ence between the means on this variable. However, there was a significant difference between the means of the adjusted and unadjusted wives in terms of expi'essive role Q attitudes for the ideal husband role. The indications are that the adjusted wives conceptualized the husband role as having more expressive role attitudes than was true for the unadjusted wives. Ideal Wife The ideal wife role conceptualizations of the adjusted and unadjusted husbands and of the adjusted and unadjusted wives were compared to determine whether there were significant differences between the means. Q See Appendix for instrumental role attitudes. Q 'The t of 2.79 was significant beyond the .01 level. 183 Instrumental role scores.— Table 21 indicates the scores for the adjusted and unadjusted husbands on the ideal wife role; there was no significant difference between the means. No significant difference was found between the means of the wives on ideal wife conceptua lisations for this variable. Expressive role scores.— There was no significant difference between the means of the adjusted and unad justed husbands or between the means of the wives in terms of expressive role qualities on the ideal wife conceptua- lizationo^ With the exception of the difference between the means of the wives in terms of expressive qualities for the ideal husband role, there were no significant sta tistics with reference to ideal husband or ideal wife con ceptualizations between the groups. The implications are that both adjusted and unadjusted spouses conceive of the ideal husband role in a similar manner; this also applies to the ideal wife role and raises the question as to whether these may not be the middle-class cultural ideals. III. COMPARISON BETWEEN HUSBAND AND WIFE ROLES The important question with which this study is concerned is whether there is a difference in our culture 10See Table 21 between the conceptualizations of the ideal husband and the ideal wife roles in terms of instrumental and expres sive role qualities. Hypotheses The hypotheses tested were as follows: (a) the ideal marital role of the husband contains more instrumen tal role attitudes than does the ideal marital role for the wife: (b) the ideal marital role of the wife contains more expressive role attitudes than does the ideal marital role for the husband; and (c) where there is a reversal of role in terms of instrumental versus expressive role atti tudes for the husband and wife, whether this is with res pect to role expectations or role perceptions, it is indicative of marital maladjustment. The Findings Table 22 indicates that both adjusted and unad justed husbands perceived the ideal husband role as sig nificantly different from the ideal wife role in terms of 12 instrumental qualities. The ideal husband was expected "^See pp. 173-175 of this report. ■^The t's of 3«73 for the adjusted, and 4.04- for the unadjusted husbands were significant beyond the .01 level. 185 (CABLE 22 COMPARISON OP INSTRUMENTAL AND EXPRESSIVE IDEAL MARITAL ROLE CONCEPTS AND SIGNIFICANT t RATIOS Category Adjusted Group IHa IWb t Unadjusted Group IH* IWb t Husbands' per ception of ideal wife versus ideal husband role Instrumental 16.20 14.30 3.73 16.10 13.80 4.04° Expressive 20.22 21.66 19.70 20.80 Wives' percep tion of ideal wife versus ideal husband role Instrumental 16.20 14.58 3.38 16.10 13.62 4.59 Expressive 21.06 22.12 2.72 19.78 21.66 3.92 *Ideal husband role conceptualization. ^Ideal wife role conceptualization. °Qnly significant t ratios are given; a t of 2.62 is significant at the .01 level. 186 to have a significantly higher amount of instrumental attitudes in his role than was expected for the ideal wife. There were no significant differences between the expectations of the adjusted nor of the unadjusted hus bands in terms of expressive role attitudes in the compar isons between ideal husband and ideal wife roles. Both adjusted and unadjusted wives conceptualized the ideal husband as being significantly higher in instru mental role qualities than they conceived for the ideal 1-5 wife role. However, the ideal wife was expected, by both groups of wives, to have a significantly higher amount of expressive attitudes in her role than was 14 expected for the ideal husband. This finding was dif ferent from that of the husbands, who expected no signifi cant difference between the marital roles in terms of expressive role attitudes; however, the means of expres sive role attitudes were higher for the ideal wife role for both groups of husbands. The hypotheses, which assumed that the ideal hus band role contains more instrumental role attitudes and the ideal wife role more expressive role attitudes, were 1-5 Table 22, indicates that for the adjusted wives the t was 3.38, for the unadjusted the t was 4059« 14 For adjusted wives the t was 2.72, for unadjusted the t was 3«92<> 187 both accepted as six of the eight statistics were signifi cant beyond the .01 level, and the other two, while not significant, were in the right direction. The indications are that in our culture the husband is expected to play the more instrumental-adaptive role, whereas the wife is expected to play the more expressive-integrative role. Table 23 gives the self perceptions of husbands versus the self perceptions of wives of both groups. There were significant differences between all groups on these variables. The husbands perceived themselves sig nificantly higher on the instrumental attitudes while the adjusted wives perceived themselves higher on expressive role attitudes; there was no significant difference between unadjusted spouses on expressive role qualities. The hypothesis of the association between the reversal of role attitudes and marital maladjustment was accented for expressive role attitude, but not for instru mental role attitudes. As Table 20 shows there were reversals of expectations for the unadjusted groups with the self perception and mate perceptions of unadjusted wives being lower than even the perceptions of the adjusted husbands on expressive role qualities. This means in our society that good marital adjustment is par tially a function of the perceptions by individuals of themselves and of their spouses as emotional.ly warm, 188 TABLE 23 COMPARISON OP INSTRUMENTAL AND EXPRESSIVE SELF CONCEPTS OP HUSBANDS AND WIVES, WITH t RATIOS OP SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES Category Adjusted Wives Husbands t Unadjusted Wives Husbands t Self Percep tion of wives versus self perception of husbands Instrumental 12.82 14.94 2.68a 11.76 15.76 4.12 Expressive 19.94 18.26 2.33 18.08 16.50 aOnly significant differences are indicated. i 189 supportive and succoring mates; this makes for integration in the marital relationship. The findings reported in this chapter with respect to expressive role qualities give impetus to the acceptance of structure-function theory of the specialization of the American nuclear fam ily in terms of the "expressive" tension-management func tion as a system goal. As was noted in Chapter V on "Marital Role Ideals" (particularly pages 134--136) the ideal husband role is conceptualized by all groups as being higher on the Dom 18 dimension than the ideal wife role. ^ The ideal wife role was perceived as higher on the Lov dimension. The corrob oration of the differentiation between marital role ideals in terms both of Dom and Lov dimensions and instrumental and expressive role attitudes is important for the reason that research on marital roles has indicated changing def initions and the implications were that the feminine and masculine marital roles were becoming undifferentiated or even reversed. However, even though a differentiation was found between the masculine and feminine marital role defini tions, the patterns of expectations for both marital roles were so similar, that what is shown is that there is merely a difference in emphasis of role qualities 15See Table 12, p. 135* 190 expected, a difference in degree rather than in kind. Figures 2 and 3 present the role expectations or role ideals, and we find that the patterns for the two marital roles are strikingly similar. The woman in her marital role is expected to have autonomous, independent and man agerial role qualities, so long as she displays a lesser degree of these instrumental qualities, and more of the expressive (affectional, warm, supportive, and succoring) role qualities than her husband. The import of the finding of a differentiation for structural-functional theory is that even in American middle-class culture, to which some sociologists have declared the differentiation of roles in the nuclear fam ily in terms of expressive and instrumental leadership between wife and husband, respectively, does not apply or 1 f t is equivocal, we do find this marked differentiation and a significant relationship between the differentiation and good marital adjustment. Whether the differentiation of ideal marital roles would be as definite or even more dif ferentiated for other than a Protestant sample within the middle-class is problematical, as research has indicated that marital role definitions are affected by religious 17 affiliation. ' This will be discussed further in the ^Parsons and Bales, op. cit.. pp. 339 > 3^7. 1 7 Alexandra Fand, "Sex Role and Self Concept," Dis sertation Abstracts. 15:1135-H36» 1955; and Anne G. 191 chapter on comparisons between the findings of this research and those of the pilot study. However, the pres ent findings validate the hypotheses of the structure- functionalist s of the family as a small group, subject to the functional requisites of role differentiation for the stability of the social system. IV. SUMMARY The family, as a small group and a subsystem within the larger social system, must differentiate roles in order to survive as an ongoing system. The hypotheses of the differentiation of marital roles in terms of instrumental role leadership for the husband and expres sive leadership for the wife were accepted as both adjusted and unadjusted husbands and wives conceptualized the husband and wife role as significantly different on these variables. There were no significant differences between adjusted and unadjusted spouses on instrumental role atti tudes but there were in terms of expressive role atti tudes. The implications were that the adjusted individ uals perceived themselves and their spouses as emotionally supportive, whereas the unadjusted individuals perceived Steinmann, "The Concept of the Feminine Role in the American Family," Dissertation Abstracts, 19:899, 1958. 192 themselves as well as their mates as lacking in the degree of expressive qualities which make for adaptive marital relations. The differentiation of marital roles on the instru mental and expressive aspects was similar to the differen tiation found on the Dorn and Lov dimensions for ideal mar ital roles, giving rise to the interpretation that the husband and wife roles for the American middle-class are differentiated in spite of their great similarities, as are marital roles in other societies. The findings are of importance in that they validate structure-function theory of the family as a small group, with leadership in the family system divided into instrumental and expressive roles for the husband and wife, respectively. Also vali dated is structure-function theory of the specialization of the American nuclear family in terms of its "expres sive" tension-management function as a system "goal." CHAPTER IX COMPANIONSHIP AND 'TRADITIONAL ROLE ATTITUDES Family sociologists aver that the American family is still in the transitional state, i.e., from the patri archal family system to one in which a more democratic, equalitarian arrangement is found.^ In the present stage marital roles are no longer highly institutionalized and role concepts vary along a continuum from "traditional" to equalitarian definitions. However, sociologists generally agree that American marriages have shifted toward greater 2 husband-wife equality. Research findings have not completely clarified the issue; Lu found that marital role definitions have become quite ambiguous— that various patterns of dominance, equality, and submissiveness occur among marital part e s ners. However, Jacobson reported a significant relation- ■^William G-. Dyer and Dick Urban, "The Institution alization of Equalitarian Family Norms," Marriage and Fam ily Living, 20:53-58, 1958. ^Robert 0. Blood and Robert L. Hamblin, "The Effects of the Wife's Employment on the Family Power Structure," A Modern Introduction to The Family, ed. Norman W. Bell and Ezra F. Vogel (Glencoe: 111. : The Free Press, 1980), pp. 157-138. x Yi-Chuang Lu, "A Study of Dominant, Equalitarian and Submissive Roles in Marriage" (unpublished Ph.D. 193 194 ship between disagreement of spouses on equalitarian-tra- ditional role definition and marital maladjustment, with divorced males having the most traditional definitions and their divorced wives the most extreme equalitarian /L role definitions. Equalitarian or companionship role attitudes refer to the conceptualization of marital roles in terms of greater equality between husband and wife rather than in terms of a superordinate status for the male. The tra ditional definition gives a sharper differentiation between the two roles, with the husband's major task being that of the breadwinner and the wife's that of housekeeper and definitely in a subordinate status to that of her hus band. This chapter deals with the marital role defini tions of the sample on the equalitarian-traditional con tinuum and the relationship between placement on this continuum and marital adjustment category. The difference between groups on the various attitude survey questions as well as the significance of the findings on traditional- equalitarian role definitions to the data discovered through responses to the ICL on ideal marital roles is dissertation, University of Chicago, 1950), p« 50. 4 . Alver H. Jacobson, "Conflicts of Attitudes Toward the Roles of Husband and Wife in Marriage," American Sociological Review, 17:146-150, 1952. 195 discussed. I. SCORING THE ATTITUDE SURVEY The 30 statements dealing with companionship and traditional role attitudes were answered by the subjects in terms of "strongly agree," "agree," "neutral or ?," "disagree," or "strongly disagree."-^ If the individual strongly agreed with a traditional attitude, he was given a score of "5" on that statement. If he strongly agreed with a companionship or equalitarian attitude, he received a score of "1," and if he strongly disagreed with an equalitarian attitude he was given a score of"5«" The same method of scoring was followed for the responses "agree" and "disagree" with the scores of "4"or"2"being received according to which role definition the question applied; if the respondent checked the neutral category, he received a score of "3." The possible scores were 30 for a very modern or equalitarian role definition to 150 for a very traditional definition. II. THE FINDINGS In 8 out of the 30 statements the spouses of all groups checked the most extreme equalitarian response. These statements involved the decision-making, equality of 5 ^See Appendix for the list of statements contained in the Role Attitude Survey. 196 education, and performance of household tasks areas. The areas of widest disagreement among the spouses, of those tested, were in the financial responsibility and sexual areas. This finding is in agreement with those of other research studies, which report that norms for the various areas of role interaction among married persons are not equalized along the equalitarian-traditional continuum, some areas falling within the equalitarian and some within the traditional definition for one and the same individ- uals. There was a significant difference between adjusted and unadjusted spouses in terms of disagreement on role attitudes., The adjusted spouses disagreed (sig nificantly) on only three out of the thirty role attitude statements, whereas the unadjusted spouses disagreed in terms of equalitarian versus traditional role definitions 7 on lj of the statements. As was reported for the Jacobson study, the unad justed husbands in this study were also the most tradi tional in their role definitions and the unadjusted wives Q were the most equalitarian. An analysis was made of the ^William Dyer and Dick Urban, loc. cit..: Bell and Vogel, op. cit.» 137-14-2; and Everett Dixon Dyer, "A Study of Role and Authority Patterns and Expectations in a Group of Urban Middle-Class Two-Income Families," Dissertation Abstracts. 16:176, 1955* 7 The CR of 2.2 was significant beyond the .05 level. "Me an score for the unadjusted husbands was 84.78, for the unadjusted wives, 75*78. 197 mean traditional-equalitarian scores for the adjusted and unadjusted spouses to determine whether differences on this continuum would distinguish between the groups. No significant difference was found between the mean role attitude scores of the adjusted and unadjusted husbands. However, Table 24 indicates that the unadjusted husbands were more traditionally-oriented than was true for the q adjusted husbands.' The means for the adjusted and unadjusted wives did not differentiate between these two groups on this vari able. ^ However, the mean score of the unadjusted wives was significantly lower (more equalitarian) than that of their husbands',"^ whereas there was no significant dif ference between the mean role attitude scores of the 12 adjusted and unadJusted spouses. For the husbands of both groups a high role atti tude score (traditional-orientation) was significantly correlated with a low marital adjustment score; the corre lation was -.22 and significant beyond the .05 level. For wives the correlation between role attitude and marital adjustment score was only .08. The total difference in ^The t was 1.65 and not significant. ^The t was only 1.00; see Table 24. ■^The t ratio was 4.07 and significant beyond the .01 level. ■^The t ratio was only 1.78. 198 TABLE 24 MEAN HOLS ATTITUDE SCORES OF ADJUSTED AND UNADJUSTED SPOUSES, WITH SIGNIFICANT t RATIOS AND CHI SQUARE VALUES Adjusted Category Group Both Groups Unadjusted Group t Chi Square Comparison of groups Husbands 80.58 84.78 Wives 76.32 73.78 Comparison of spouses Husbands 84.78 Wives 73.78 Difference between means 4.07a Comparison of spouses Husbands 82.68 Wives Difference between means 75.05 2.94b 6.49° aQnly significant t ratios are given; the dif ference between the adjusted spouses was not significant. bThe difference between the husbands and wives of the sample was significant beyond the .01 level. °0nly significant chi square values are given; the association between role attitude score and sex category was significant beyond the .02 level. 199 traditional versus equalitarian role orientation between the spouses bore a significant relationship to the quality of the marital adjustment which is indicated by the sta tistics given above as well as the fact that the wife's marital adjustment score was negatively correlated with the difference between husband and wife role attitude 15 scores. ^ There was only a negligible correlation between the role attitude scores of the unadjusted spouses (.09)* whereas the correlation of .38 between the adjusted spouses in terms of role attitude orientation was signif icant beyond the .01 level. This is in agreement with the 14 findings of the Jacobson study. The indications from both this and the Jacobson studies are that disagreement of spouses on equalitarian-traditional role definitions bears a significant relationship to marital maladjustment. Table 24 shows that the mean score of the adjusted husbands was lower (more equalitarian) than the mean score of the unadjusted husbands. However, the husbands of both groups had more traditional role attitudes than was true for the wives of either group.^ The chi square of the 13 The correlation was -.32 and significant beyond the .01 level. 14 Jacobson, loc. cit.; see pages 195-195 of this report. ^The t ratio of the differences between the means of husbands and wives was 2.94- and very significant. 200 association between role attitude score and sex category was 6.49 and significant beyond the .02 level. Although the unadjusted husbands had the most tra ditional role orientation, the mean of 84.78 out of a pos sible score of 150 (extreme traditional role attitude) indicated that even the most extreme score among the groups was on the equalitarian side of the equalitarian- traditional continuum; a neutral mean score would be 90.0. This is corroborated by the findings on the ICL of the mean for the sample on the Dom dimension of ideal wife conceptualizations of 61.6. The Dom score deals with the dominance-power dimension which is involved in eaualitar- ian-traditional role definitions; a score below 50 on the Dom dimension would represent an expectation of submissive role attitudes for the ideal wife. A relationship between the findings on the two instruments, the ICL and the Role Attitude Survey, is further corroborated by the signifi cant correlation found between disparity of role attitudes of spouses on the Role Attitude Survey and total discrep- 16 ancy rating between spouses on the ICL. The ideal wife roles on the ICL for the total sample were in the affec- tionate-dominance quadrant as were the ideal husband roles indicating, as do the scores on the Role Attitude Survey, that there is an increasing breakdown of traditional sex- 16 The correlation of .196 was significant at the .05 level. 201 17 role definitions in the American social structure. III. SUMMARY This chapter dealt with the relationship between traditional and equalitarian role attitudes and marital adjustment. The agreement or disagreement between the spouses on the individual questions in the Role Attitude Survey differentiated between groups, the unadjusted spouses disagreeing on a significantly greater number; the areas of widest disagreement were those of financial responsibility and sexual mores. An analysis of scores in terms of the traditional- equalitarian continuum revealed no significant difference between the means of adjusted and unadjusted husbands nor between adjusted and unadjusted wives. However, there was a significant difference between the mean scores of the unadjusted husbands and wives, the unadjusted husbands being the most traditional in role orientation of any group, the unadjusted wives the most equalitarian. No difference was found in role orientation between the spouses in the adjusted group. The husbands of both groups had the more tradi tional orientation than the wives of either group, but a 1 7 'Daniel J. Levinson and Phyllis E. Huffman, "Tra ditional Family Ideology and Its Relation to Personality," Journal of Personality. 23:251-275, 1955. 202 high role attitude score (more traditional) was signifi cantly correlated for husbands with a low marital adjust ment score. Also the wife's marital adjustment score was negatively correlated with the difference score between husband and wife role attitude scores. Although the unadjusted husbands had the most tra ditional score in all the groups, it was on the equalitar ian side of the equalitarian-traditional continuum. This finding was in agreement with data on the ICL which indi cated equalitarian definitions of ideal husband and ideal wife roleso The implications are that role definitions for middle-class married persons have shifted toward greater husband-wife equality. CHAPTER X AREAS OF MARITAL INTERACTION Most of the studies dealing with the measurement of marital success have included in their adjustment scales a method of measuring the agreement or disagree ment between the spouses on the various areas of marital interaction. A valuable addition to the field of marital relations would be the knowledge of what each area specif ically contributes to the marital happiness of couples. I. CONTRIBUTIONS OF VARIOUS AREAS To date researchers have come to different conclu sions regarding the importance of specific areas to mari tal adjustment. The indications are that differences in the importance of the various aspects of the marital rela tionship varies according to the social characteristics of the sample being tested.1 Bowerman, in his study of the relationship between specific areas and marital adjustment, compared his sample in terms of number of ^Victor A. Christopherson and James Walters, "Responses of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews Concerning Marriage and Family Life," Sociology and Social Research. 43:16-22, September-October, 1^58. • 203 204 years married, age difference between husband and wife, 2 amount of education, and income. He found differences in the contribution of specific areas to the happiness of the couple in terms of length of time married only; for example, in all areas except in-law relationships, couples in the first 5 years reported better adjustments than those in the 6 to 10, or 11 to 20 year periods. This is in agreement with the findings of the present study which indicated that for both husbands and wives the number of years married was negatively correlated with marital X adjustment. This finding will be discussed, more fully later in the chapter when we deal with the correlations between length of time married and areas of marital adjustment which have caused serious difficulties for the present sample. Bowerman tested his sample of 102 couples on areas similar to the ones included m the present research. He found that the average of the combined husband and wife marital adjustment score and the areas of marital inter action correlated, in the following order of importance, from greatest to least: family expenditures, philosophy o '""Charles E. Bowerman, "Adjustment in Marriage: Over-all and in Specific Areas," Sociology and Social Research. 41:257-263, March-April"J 1957- x "see pages 67-68 of the present report. a For areas used in present study see Table 25. 205 of life, recreational preferences, homemaking duties and responsibilities, bringing up children, sexual relations, relations with friends, relations with in-laws, and reli gious beliefs and practices. This chapter deals with the areas of marital inter action which the couples in the present study reported had caused serious difficulties in their marriage. A compari son was made between the adjusted and ; nadjusted husbands and between the wives of both groups in terms of the num ber of individuals who had considered that disagreements between himself and his marital partner on various areas had caused considerable conflict in the marriage. The data were analyzed to determine whether there were signif icant differences between groups and which areas had caused the most difficulties and which the least. II. THE FINDINGS The assumption was made that if even one spouse considered that serious difficulties had occurred in any area or areas, that it was an important factor in the total marital relationship. Therefore, the complaints are considered in terms of couples, rather than as to whether husband and wife had both so responded in their question naires. The area considered by the adjusted group of spouses to have caused the most marital difficulty was 206 that of "interference of in-laws." However, only 18 per cent of the adjusted group had checked this area, whereas 48 per cent of the unadjusted had considered that inter ference of in-laws had caused serious difficulties in the marriage.^ Burgess and Cottrell found agreement on rela tions with in-laws the area second in importance to the marital adjustment. However, a study by Landis and Landis on 5^-4- couples married a short length of time indi cated that in-law problems placed first in their list of 7 conflictive situations. The findings from research stud ies denote that after couples have been married a longer Q period of time, this problem is resolved somewhat. The implications of the findings from the present study are that almost half of the couples in the unadjusted group had not solved their dependence-independence conflict, and are not sufficiently independent of their parents. Table 25 gives the percentages of adjusted and unadjusted spouses who reported difficulties in the vari ous areas of marital interaction. For the unadjusted 5 ^The CR of 5.2 was significant beyond the .05 level. £1 Ernest V. Burgess and Leonard S. Cottrell, Pre dicting Success or Failure in Marriage (New York: Prentice-Hall Company, 193^5» 7 rJudson T. Landis and Mary Landis, Building a Successful Marriage (New York: Prentice-Hall Company, iwtTpTW: — q Bowerman, loc. cit. 207 TABLE 25 PER CENT OF ADJUSTED AND UNADJUSTED COUPLES WHO REPORTED SERIOUS DIFFICULTIES IN SPECIFIC AREAS OF MARITAL INTER ACTION, WITH CRITICAL RATIOS OF THE DIFFERENCE Area of Marital Inter action Adjusted Couples N-50 Unadjusted Couples N-50 CR Differences con cerning homemaking duties and respon sibilities 16.0 58.0 4.4a Family finances 10.0 56.0 4.9 Unsatisfying sexual relations 2.0 54.0 5.8 Interference of in-laws 18.0 48.0 5.2 Aims, goals, and things believed important in life 6.0 58.0 3.9 Conflict over friends 2.0 36.0 4.3 Different recre ational preferences 2.0 36.0 4.3 Lack of mutual friends 32.0 4.4 Rearing of children » 22.0 3.6 Religious beliefs 2.0 16.0 2.5 Desire for children 4.0 14.0 1.8 Number of children 6.0 1.8 aA critical ratio of 2.0 is significant at ths .05 level. 208 group the areas of marital interaction most significant for marital maladjustment were, in order of importance: differences concerning homemaking duties and responsibil ities, family finances or expenditures, unsatisfying sex ual relations, interference of in-laws, philosophy of life, conflict over friends, different recreational pref erences, lack of mutual friends, rearing of children, religious beliefs or nractices, desire for children, and of least importance, conflict over number of children. The ad.iusted and unadjusted couples differed sig nificantly in responses to all, but two, areas of marital interaction; these were "desire for" and "number of child ren." For the adjusted couples only three areas were checked by 10 per cent or more of the group. These areas were: interference of in-laws, differences concerning homemaking duties and responsibiliti.es, and conflict over family finances or expenditures. No couples in the adjusted group checked, the following areas: lack of mutual friends, conflict over rearing of children, and conflict over number of children. Table 26 indicates the differences between adjusted and unadjusted, husbands on the areas of marital inter action; there were significant differences in all areas excent the following: number of children, desire for children, and religious beliefs and practices. Table 27 209 TABLE 26 NUMBERS OF ADJUSTED AND UNADJUSTED HUSBANDS WHO REPORTED DIFFICULTIES IN VARIOUS AREAS, WITH SIGNIFICANT CHI SQUARES Area of Marital interaction Adjusted Husbands N-50 Unadjusted Husbands N-50 Chi Square Approxi mation Family finances or expenditures 5 23 12.96a Different recre ational preferences 15 8.99 Interference of in-laws 9 21 5.76 Homemaking duties 8 29 17.64 Unsatisfying sexual relations 1 20 14.44 Lack of mutual friends 8 2.56b Conflict over friends 17 11^56 Rearing of children m m 7 1.96° Philosophy of life 3 19 10.24 ^Phe Kolmogorox-Smirnov Two-sample statistical test performed by the IBM 709 gave chi square approxi mation values; a chi square of approximately J.84 is significant at the .05 level. bThe chi square was not significant, but the critical ratio was 2.9* which is significant at the .05 level. cThe critical ratio was 2.7 and is significant. 210 TABLE 27 NUMBER OF ADJUSTED AND UNADJUSTED WIVES WHO REPORTED DIFFICULTIES IN VARIOUS AREAS, WITH SIGNIFICANT CHI SQUARE VALUES Area of Marital Adjusted Unadjusted Chi Interaction Wives Wives Square N-50 N-50 Approxi mation Family finances or expenditures 4 28 23.04a Different recre ational preferences 1 18 11.56 Interference of in-laws 9 24 8.99 Homemaking duties and responsibilities 4 24 15.99 Unsatisfying sexual relations 1 27 27.04 Lack of mutual friends . . 16 10.24 Conflict over friends 1 18 11.56 Rearing of children 11 4.84 Philosophy of life 1 17 10.24 ^Ehe Kolmogorov-Smirnov Two-sample statistical test performed by the IBM 709 gave chi square approxi mation values; a chi square of approximately 5*34 is significant at the *05 level. 211 gives the differences between the adjusted and unadjusted wives; significant differences are found between the wives of both groups for all areas found significant in compar ing adjusted and unadjusted husbands. The same areas, i.e., number of children, desire for children, and reli gious beliefs and practices, did not distinguish between adjusted and unadjusted wives. The finding that the religious area of interaction caused relatively few difficulties in the marital adjust ment of this sample concurs with that of certain other studies. Landis found that making an adjustment in the religious life of a couple required, less time than in most q other areas. In the Landis study the areas which required the longest time before adjustments were achieved, if ever, were first, sexual relations, and sec ondly, spending family income. These two areas were also found to be very important to the marital happiness of the present sample. In the comparison between adjusted and unadjusted wives unsatisfying sexual relations was the area which discriminated most highly between the two groups, with difficulties in family finances and homemaking duties fol lowing next, in that order. For the husbands, the area q "dudson T. Landis, "Time Required to Achieve Marriage Adjustment." American Sociological Review, 11:666-677, 1946. 212 which distinguished most highly between groups was that concerning homemaking duties and responsibilities. How ever, the area next in importance was sexual relations. In the present study 54- per cent of the unadjusted wives, and 40 per cent of the unadjusted husbands were unsatis fied with the sexual relations in their marriage. The implications are that dissatisfaction with this particular area is likely to result in marital unhappiness. The fol lowing areas were also of importance in terms of the mar ital happiness of the couples: in-law relationships, fam ily finances or expenditures, and aims, goals, and things believed important in life (philosophy of life). The responses to the separate areas of marital interaction were correlated with number of years married, number of children, income, and education for the sample of the present study. Table 28 indicates the significant correlations of the husbands and of the wives between areas of interaction and length of time married, number of children, and income of the spouses. Table 29 gives the significant correlations of the adjusted and unadjusted groups between areas and number of years married, number of children, and income of the groups. Table 30 indicates the significant correlations for the total sample between areas of marital interaction and number of years married, number of children, income and education. 213 TABLE 28 SIGNIFICANT CORRELATIONS 0? HUSBANDS AND WIVES BETWEEN AREAS OF MARITAL INTER ACTION AND VARIOUS CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SAMPLE Area of Marital Interaction Husbands N-100 Wives N-100 Differences concerning homemaking duties and responsibilities Length of marriage .27* Length of marriage .22 Lack of mutual friends .37 .20 Rearing of children .28 .33 Conflict over frietnus .36 Family finances or expenditures Income .26 Income Lack of mutual friends .21 Family finances -.14b -.17 Different recreational preferences Number of children .22 Number of children .27 Lack of mutual friends .33 Desire for children -.28 -.21 Family finances .31 Conflict over friends .33 Rearing of children .26 Conflict over philosophy of life .26 aA correlation of .193 is significant at the .03 level, and a correlation of .254* at the .01 level. bNot significant, hut it is interesting to note the negative correlations. 214 TABLE 29 SIGNIFICANT CORRELATIONS OF ADJUSTED AND UNADJUSTED GROUPS BETWEEN ABTEAH OF MARITAL INTERACTION AND VARIOUS CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SAMPLE Area of Marital Interaction Adjusted Group N-100 Unadjusted Group N-100 Differences concerning homemaking duties and r espons iti 1 it i es Lack of mutual friends Conflict over friends Desire for children Rearing of children Family finances or expenditures Interference of in-laws Family finances or expenditures Different recreational preferences Interference of in-laws Lack of mutual friends Conflict over desire for children Rearing of children Length of marriage Income -.23 -.21 Number of children Length of marriage .23 .22 .22 -.20 .29 Income Number of children .21 .21 -.20 .22 -.34 .23 215 TABLE 30 SIGNIFICANT CORRELATIONS FOR THE TOTAL SAMPLE BETWEEN AHTSAg OF mapttat. INTERACTION AND NUMBER OF TEARS MARRIED, NUMBER OF CHILDREN, INCOME, AND EDUCATION Area of Marital Interaction Length of marriage Number of children Income Education Family finances or expenditures • 20a .24 -.16 0 CM • 1 Differences con cerning home- making duties .25 Lack of mutual friends .26 .23 -.19 Conflict over friends .28 .22 IN CM e 1 Conflict over rearing of children .51 .23 Different recre ational prefer ences .25 -.21 Conflict over desire for children -.24 Conflict over philosophies of life .19 Interference of in-laws -.17 Number of children -.16 Religious beliefs H e « Nfith an N of 200 a correlation of .138 la significant at the .05 level, and a correlation of .181 at the .01 level. 216 It appears that income is not an important factor in terms of the areas of interaction tested in this research study. It is negatively correlated with only two areas: family finances or expenditures and interfer ence of in-laws, denoting- that where income is higher there is relatively less conflict between spouses in the financial area and that there is also preponderantly less interference from in-laws. Education was a more important factor than income to six of the areas of marital inter action; it was negatively correlated with serious diffi culties in the following areas: finances, recreation, religion, lack of mutual friends, conflict over friends, and number of children. This is to cay that a higher edu cational quotient was associated with less difficulties in the above areas and conversely, a lesser degree of educa tional attainment was associated with more conflict in these areas. The number of children a couple had was signifi cantly associated with difficulties in the following areas: finances, recreation, lack of mutual friends, con flict over friends, desire for children (negatively corre lated), rearing of children, and philosophy of life. These significant correlations epnear to be contributed largely by the unadjusted group, as no significant corre lations were found between number of children and areas of 217 interaction for the adjusted group; see Table 29. The "number of children" statistics were found to be negatively correlated (to a significant degree) with the marital adjustment scores for the sample.^® The indi cations are that contrariwise to American values and beliefs children do not, in the main, contribute posi tively to marital adjustment. Perhaps the reason for this lies in the fact that children, in the middle-class, are not enjoyed in their own right as people, but become involved in the parents' struggles and tensions which are an integral part of social mobility.'*'^ The length of time married for the couple was sig nificantly correlated with difficulties in the following areas: finances, differences concerning homemaking duties and responsibilities, lack of mutual friends, conflict over friends, and conflict over the rearing of children. However, in the main, these correlations were again con tributed by the unadjusted group; see Table 29. As would be expected, the number of years married was significantly correlated with "number of children," (.62). Undoubtedly this affected the conflicts in the financial area, homemaking duties, friendships, and of ^See page 69 of this report. ■^Arnold W. Green, "The Middle-Class Male Child and Neurosis," American Sociological Review, 11:51-4-1, February, 194-6. ?18 course, conflicts over the upbringing of the children. The implications are that as a couple is further removed from the courtship and honeymoon periods and becomes more involved with the problems of getting alone- financially and performing the everyday household tasks, the relation ship becomes less euphoric with the passage of time, and that the romantic idealizations built up concerning mar riage and parenthood are dashed against the rocks of real ity. I I I . S T mwkTf The area considered by the adjusted arouses to have caused the most serious marital difficulties was "inter ference of in-laws." However, the adjusted and unadjusted groups differed significantly in this area as well as in the followi ng nine areas : differences concerning homemaking duties and responsibilities, family finances or expendi tures, unsatisfying sexual relations, rhilosophy of life, conflict over friends, different recreational preferences, lack of mutual friends, conflict over rearing of children, and conflict over religious beliefs and practices. For both groups the areas of most significance to the disturb ance of adaptive marital relations were the following: interference of in-laws, differences concerning homemaking duties and responsibilities, and conflict over family 219 finances or expenditures. In addition the unadjusted group indicated that unsatisfying sexual relations, con flicting philosophies of life, conflicts over friends, and different recreational preferences had caused serious difficulties in their marital relationships. The areas of least importance to the marital adjustment of the sample were: conflict over desire for children, conflict over number of children desired, and conflicts over religious beliefs and practices. Signifi cant correlations were found between difficulties in areas of marital interaction and length of time married, number of children, amount of income, and degree of education. CHAPTER XI COMPARISON OE PILOT AND PRESENT STUDIES Research has indicated that marital role conceptua lizations are affected by religious group affiliations or origins.^ For example, Levinson and Huffman found that of the three groups tested, Catholics had the most tradi tional family ideology, Protestants next, and the Jewish sample the most equalitarian definitions with resnect to 2 9 family ideology. Since the nilot study," completed in 1959, was composed of an all-Jewish and the present study deals with a predominantly Protestant sample, it can be determined whether there were significant differences between the two groups with respect to marital role defin itions. This chanter comnares the findings of the present Victor A. Christopherson and James Walter, "Res ponses of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews Concerning Mar riage and Family Life," Sociology and Social Research 43:16-22, 1956; and Anne G. Steinmann, "The Concept of the Feminine Role in the American Family," Dissertation Abstracts, 19:899, 1957* ^Daniel J. Levinson and Phyllis E. Huffman, "Tra ditional Family Ideology and Its Relation to Personality," Journal of Personality, 23:291-273, 1999- ^Sally L. Kotlar, "Attitude Differentials and Their Relationship to Marital Adjustment" (unpublished Master's thesis, University of Southern California, 1999). 220 2.21 and pilot studies with respect to traditional and equali- tarian role orientations of the two samples; discusses the significant findings of these two research projects in terms of the variables studies; and discusses the signifi cant differences found between the two samples. I. SAMPLE CHARACTERISTICS The analysis in the pilot study was made on SO out of the 87 couples tested: The selection of the so couples was made solely in terms of those scoring highest and those scoring lowest on the marital adjustment test; this test, with minor differences, was the same as the one used in the present study. The complete questionnaire was almost identical to the one used in this study, with the exception of the substitution of certain statements on the Role Attitude Survey in the present study in favor of statements which were more discriminating. The main dif ference in the design between the two studies was the fact that an outside criterion, i.e., the selection of the unadjusted group from among those counles whose marriages were in difficulty, was used in the later research. The couples in the pilot study were married an average of 7 years, the couples in the present study, an average of 6. The average age of the husbands in the pilot study was 53*0, in the present study, 30.7. The 222 average age of the wives in the pilot study was 29.6, in the present study, 28.5. Both samples were essentially middle class; the average income for the families in the pilot study was $8,300, and for the families in the present study, it was $7,500. The average number of years of schooling for the husbands in the pilot study was 14-.3, for the husbands in the present study, 15.1. For the wives, the comparable figures were 13.5 and 13.7. In both studies a wide difference between husband and wife marital adjustment scores was significantly cor related with marital maladjustment. In the pilot study 20 to 79 points divergence was found for 4-0 per cent of the unadjusted group, but for none of the adjusted group; in the present study 30 to 89 points difference was found for 4- per cent of the adjusted and 4-2 per cent of the 5 unadjusted group. II. SELF AND MATE PERCEPTIONS In the pilot study the husbands of the adjusted group perceived themselves significantly higher on the Dominance (Dom) dimension than did the husbands in the unadjusted group. No significant difference was found ^The critical ratio (OR) was 3.5 and significant beyond the .05 level. ' ’The critical ratio was 4-.5 and significant. 223 between the husbands in the present research on this var iable® There was no significant difference between the husbands in the pilot study on the Lov (affection-hostil- ity) dimension, but a significant difference was found in this study, with the adjusted husbands perceiving them selves as more affectionate (higher on the Lov dimension). Table 31 indicates that there is a significant difference between the self-perceptions of the unadjusted husbands of the earlier and the present research studies® In the pilot study the wives of the adjusted group perceived themselves as significantly higher on the Dom dimension (more dominant) than did the wives in the unad justed group. This was also true for the adjusted wives in the present study. There was no significant difference between the wives in the earlier study on the Lov dimen sion. However, the adjusted wives in the present study perceived themselves as significantly more affectionate than did the unadjusted wives. Table 31 shows that out side of the difference found between the unadjusted hus bands, no significant differences obtained between the self-perceptions of the various groups in the comparisons of the pilot and the present studies® The adjusted wives perceived their husbands as sig nificantly higher on the Dom and on the Lov dimensions than did the unadjusted wives in the pilot study. The 224 TABLE 31 COMPARISON 0? SELF AND MATE PERCEPTIONS BETWEEN PILOT AND PRESENT STUDIES ON DOM AND LOV DIMENSIONS Category Dom Pilot Present t N-25 N-50 Lov Pilot Present t N-25 N-50 Self Perception Adjusted Husbands 59.6 58.6 49.4 51.9 Wives 56.2 56.0 55.4 57.2 Unadjusted Husbands 51.2 58.8 2.64 48.4 47.6 Wives Mate Perception 52.3 50.0 53.3 52.9 Adjusted Husbands 64.6 64.3 52,6 53.8 Wives 59.9 57-5 54.0 58.0 2.17 Unadjusted Husbands 56.6 59.4 47.8 41.8 2.15 Wives 53.2 53.2 51.6 49.1 aQnly significant t ratios are given. same finding was evinced in this research. In the pilot study the husbands of the adjusted croup perceived their wives as significantly higher on the Dom dimension than did the husbands of the unadjusted wives. No significant difference was found for the husbands' perceptions of their wives on the Lov dimension in the pilot study; how ever, there was a significant difference in the present study, with the adjusted husbands perceiving their wives as more affectionate than the unadjusted husbands per ceived their wives. Table 31 indicates that there were significant differences between the two studies in the mate perceptions of unadjusted husbands on the Lov dimen sion and in the mate perceptions of adjusted wives on the Lov dimensions. However, in the sixteen comparisons between the two studies on self and mate perceptions, there were only three significant differences. The interpersonal mechanisms found for the adjusted group of spoiises and the unadjusted wives in the pilot study in terms of self and mate perceptions were in the affectionate-dominance quadrant of the I.CL; for the unad justed husbands the loci of the interpersonal mechanisms were in the hostile-dominance quadrant. In the present study for the adjusted group of spouses they were in the affectionate-dominance quadrant. 'For the unadjusted hus bands the interpersonal mechanisms were located in the 226 hostile-dominance quadrant,, However, the unadjusted wives in the present study perceived themselves in the affec- tionate-dependence quadrant, hut were seen by their hus bands as being in the hostile-dominance quadrant. The hypothesis of a relationship between marital adjustment and low disparity between self-perception and the spouse's perception of the individual was rejected in the pilot study; the rank order correlation (Rho) was -.258 and not quite significant at the .05 level, but it was in the right direction. In the present study there was a significant correlation, -.30, between the two var iables indicating that the integrative quality of the mar ital relationship is reflected in the degree of congruence between the way a spouse perceives his marital role and the way he is viewed by his marital partner. The cultural norms of self perceptions on the ICL 0 are in the affectionate-dominance quadrant. In both the earlier and the present studies significant differences were found between the adjusted and the unadjusted spouses in terms of the percentages who perceived themselves and their spouses in this quadrant; the percentages for the unadjusted group were significantly smaller. 0 Timothy Leary, The Interpersonal Diagnosis of Personality (New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1957), pp. 205-206. 22? III. MARITAL ROLE IDEALS In the pilot study the adjusted and unadjusted wives had similar expectations for the ideal husband on the Dom dimension. However, in the later study the unad justed wives conceptualized the ideal husband as being significantly higher on the Dom dimension. In the earlier study as well as in the present study no significant dif ferences were found between the adjusted and unadjusted wives in their conceptualizations of the ideal husband role on the Lov dimension. In both the pilot and the present studies no sig nificant differences were found between the adjusted and unadjusted husbands in their conceptualizations of the ideal husband role on either the Dom or the Lov dimen sions. Table 52 indicates that the only difference between the two studies that reached significance for the ideal husband role was the adjusted husbands' conceptua lization on the Lov dimension; the present sample con ceived the role as requiring more affectional warmth. In both the pilot and present studies no signifi cant differences were found between the adjusted and unad justed husbands in their conceotualizations of the ideal wife role on either the Dom or the Lov dimensions. This was also true for the adjusted and unadjusted wives con ceptualizations of the ideal wife role. Table 52 indi- 228 TABLE 32 COMPARISON OF IDEAL MARITAL ROLE CONCEPTUALIZATIONS BETWEEN PILOT AND PRESENT STUDIES ON DOM AND LOV DIMENSIONS Category Dom Pilot Present N-25 N-50 Lov t Pilot Present t N-25 N-50 Ideal Husband Adjusted Husbands 66.6 65.6 52.4 56.5 4.10 Wives 66.3 66.3 54.9 57.5 Unadjusted Husbands 65.0 67.1 55.1 55.4 Wives Ideal Wife 65.1 67.8 55.1 56.3 Adjusted Husbands 63.4 63.5 55.7 59.3 5.09 Wives 64.5 63.5 57.2 60.3 2.84 Unadjusted Husbands 61.6 63.7 55.8 58.5 Wives 62.8 63.6 58.2 60.4 Only significant t ratios are siren; a t of 2.01 is significant at the .03 level; a t of 2.68 is signifi cant at the .01 level. 229 cates that the adjusted husbands and wives in the present study conceptualized the ideal wife role as being signif icantly more affectionate (higher on the Lov dimension) than the adjusted husbands and wives of the pilot study. In the sixteen comparisons between the two studies on ideal marital role conceptualizations, only three signifi cant differences were found. In the oilot study the idea] husband and ideal wife roles for all groups were in the AP octant. In the pres ent study the ideal husband role for all groups was in the AT octant. Tho idea], wife role for all groups, except the unadjusted husbands, was in the NO octant; for the latter, the idea] wife role was conceptualized in the AP octant. This finding, of a differentiation in the conceptualiza tions of the ideal wife role between the two studies, con curs with the findings from other studies of a difference in marital role concents accordin'-: to religious affilia- 7 tions. One of the findings that warrants further atten tion is the fact that in the present study the unadjusted wives conceived the ideal husband role as more dominant and the unadjusted husbands conceptualized the ideal wife as being more managerial-autocratic than did any other 7 'Levinson and Huffman, loc. cit. ; Christonherson and Walters, loc. cit.; Anne G. Steinmann, loc. clt.; and Alexandra B. Pand, "Sex Role and Self Conceit," Disserta tion Abstracts, 15:1135-11S6, 199S. 230 group. At the same time both of the above groups per ceived their mates as being significantly less dominant and less affectionate than the adjusted spouses perceived their mates. In both studies lower disparity scores between per ceptions of spouse and expectations of the ideal spouse were associated with higher marital adjustment scores. The statistics were significant beyond the .01 level; for the pilot study the correlation was -.64 and for the pres ent study, -.77o According to the findings of both stud ies, the smaller the degree of divergence between role expectations and role fulfillment, the greater will be the marital happiness for the couple. In the pilot study 96 per cent of the adjusted and 80 per cent of the unadjusted husbands placed their ideal husband role in the AP octant; in the present study 68 per cent of the adjusted husbands placed the .ideal husband role in the AP octant, whereas 76 per cent of the unad- g Justed husbands placed the ideal husband in that octant. In the pilot study 68 per cent of the adjusted wives and 88 per cent of the unadjusted wives placed the ideal hus band role in the AP octant. In the later study 70 per cent of the adjusted and 76 per cent of the unadjusted Q Table 33 gives the significant critical ratios of the ideal marital role differences between the two studies s wives placed the ideal husband role in the AP octant. The only significant difference between the two studies in ideal husband role definitions, as indicated by Table 33, was for the adjusted husbands. In the earlier study 68 per cent of both groups of wives placed the ideal wife role in the AP octant. In the present study 4-0 per cent of the adjusted and 44 per cent of the unadjusted wives placed the ideal wife role in that octant. In the pilot study 80 per cent of the adjusted and 52 per cent of the unadjusted husbands placed the ideal wife role in the AP octant. In the present study 44 per cent of the adjusted and 50 per cent of the unadjusted husbands placed the ideal wife role in that octant. There were significant differences between the two studies in terms of the adjusted husbands' and the q adjusted wives' definitions of the ideal wife role. For both studies the hypothesis of a significant relationship between marital adjustment and low disparity between marital role definitions of the spouses was rejected inasmuch as role definitions were fairly similar for all groups. In both st\idies the ideal husband and ideal wife role definitions were in the affectionate-dom- inance quadrant. Deviance from these norms'*'® distin- q "See Table 33 for the significant critical ratios. ■^These norms were found for the Kaiser Clinic sam ple— see Leary, loc. cit. ; Also these norms were found for 232 TABLE 33 COMPARISON OF PERCENTAGES IN PILOT AND PRESENT STUDIES OF SPOUSES WHO CONCEPTUALIZED IDEAL MARITAL ROLES IN AP OCTANT Category of marital role Pilot Study N-25 Present Study N-50 Critical Ratio Ideal Husband Adjusted husbands 96.0 68.0 2.7a Unadjusted husbands 80.0 78.0 Adjusted wives 68.0 70.0 Unadjusted wives -88.0 76.0 Ideal Wife Adjusted husbands 80.0 44.0 3.6 Unadjusted husbands 52.0 50.0 Adjusted wives 68.0 40.0 2.3 Unadjusted wives 68.0 44.0 aOnly significant critical ratios are given p?5 fished "between adjusted and unadjusted spouses in both studies in terms of both self'perceptions and mate percep tions. A greater proportion of unadjusted individuals perceived themselves and/or their ra^tes in the "hostile weak" sector of the circular continuum. In the present study the wife role was expected to be more affectj onate Phan was “Toasted for the i deal wife in the earlier sample. Ther° was also more differentia tion between t^e ideal husband and 1 deal wife roles in the rifoc'•eh than in the ^i i ot studv. 'i'h^ ■ « ? . f 1 ndi ne^ of 1 o?r enu oii ty in husband-wife role definitions in the Protes tant samnle is i.n agreement wi th on other «?tud wb i cb irdi — cated that the -Jewish sorrirsJo had c more ennali p r ’ nn fam ily ideolopy than any other reli - ’ •ions Troup.^ However, in. both studies the idea1 wife was expected to be less dominant -and more affectionate than the husband was expected to be. Nevertheless, in both studies the ideal marital roles were rot defined as b»in^ meetly disparate. Phe wife role, while l“ss dominant, was not defined as callin- for a a-mst preponderance of submissive role qualities. In hoth studies marital roles rare defined in terms of the more modern or equalitarian orientation in which extreme differentiation between the sex roles are rarti ally obliterated. Tpo marital roles the samples of both studi.es and are postulated as beinv the norms for the American middle class. ^ evi.nson and Huffman, loc. cit0 234 for both sexes are defined in terms of the cultural ideal which emphasizes conventionality, responsibility, self- confident independence, and competent strength. Disparity between Self and Ideal In the pilot study the hypothesis of a relationship between marital adjustment and discrepancy between self perception and ideal marital role definition was accented as the correlation of -.39 was significant beyond the .01 levelv In the present study the correlation of -.51 was also significant beyond the .01 level. The imnl i cation** are that the individual's inability to make his self-image congruent with bis ideal marital role concent contributes to maladaptive marital relations. Since the perceptions an individual holds of himself are the bases of his inter actions with others, an individual whose self-image is congruent with his concept of his role status might be expected to brine’ to marriage a set of attitudes which would make for more satisfactory interpersonal relations. Total Disparity Ratings In the pilot study the correlation between total disparity rating and marital adjustment scores for the couples was -.59 and significant beyond the »01 level. In the present study the total disparity rating and adaptive marital relations were also negatively correlated (-.70); this was significant beyond the .01 level. The implica tions are that frustration of role expectations, whether with reference to the spouse or to oneself, contributes greatly to maladaptive marital relations. TV. C0!'‘ r ' D AMI0NFS HIP AND TRADITIONAL ATTITUDES In the pilot study a significant difference was found between the mean role attitude scores for the adjusted and unadjusted husbands on the Role Attitude Sur vey. In the present study no significant difference was found. In both studies no significant d!fferences were found, between the mean role attitude scores between wives of the adjusted and unadjusted groups. In both pilot and present studies the mean scores of the unadjusted wives were significantly lower (more enual.itari.an) than those o their husbands. No significant differences were found between the role attitude scores of the adjusted spouses in either study. In both the pilot and present studies the mean rol atti tude scores of the unadjusted husbands were hi gher (more traditional) than those of any other group. Also the husbands of both studies had more traditionally orien ted scores than the wives. However, even though in both studies the most extreme scores among all groups were found for the unadjusted husbands, the means of these 236 scores were still on the ecualitarian side of the equali- tarian-traditional continuum. This finding- was similar to IP that in the Levinson and Huffman study in which the means of both the Protestant and Jewish scores were on the eaualitarian side of the continuum, whereas the mean of the Catholic scores was on the traditional side of the continuum. These findings from the data of the Role Atti tude Survey corroborate those on the ICL of greater hus- band-wife equality in role definitions and point to the breakdown of traditional sex-role differentiation in the American social structure. V. AREAS OF MARITAL INTERACTION In the pilot study 38 per cent of the total samnle stated that interference of in-laws had caused serious difficulties in the marriage. For the adjusted group of the present sample this area had oresented problems of a more serious nature for the greatest number of couples (18 ner cent) than any other area of marital interaction. However, interference of in-1aws was not as serious a rroblem for couples in the rresent sample as it had been to the couples in the earlier study. In the Christopher- 13 son and Walters study the indications were that Jewish 12Ibid. 13 Christopherson and Walters, loc. cit. 237 subjects were more willing than the other two groups (Protestant and Catholic) to receive financial aid from parents after marriage and were more prone to confide in their in-laws concerning marital problems. This may account for the differences between the findings of the pilot and present studies in the area of interference of in-laws« , In the pilot study the areas of marital interaction which had significantly differentiated between the adjusted and unadjusted groups of spouses were: philoso phy of life, unsatisfying sexual relations, family finan ces, children, and different recreational preferences. In the present study these areas also distinguished between the adjusted and unadjusted groups as well as: differ ences concerning homemaking duties and responsibilities, conflict over friends, lack of mutual friends, interfer ence of in-laws, and religious beliefs and practices. However, in both studies the religious area had caused relatively fewer difficulties in the marital adjustment of the couples of both samples. VI. SUMMARY In terms of social class status, age, and number of years married the couples in the pilot study were very similar to the couples in the present study. However, the 238 couples in the earlier study were of the Jewish faith, whereas the couples in the present sample were predomin antly Protestants. A . wide divergence between husband and wife marital adjustment scores was indicative of marital maladjustment in both studies. Outside of the difference fo-nnd hptwe®n unadjusted husbands of the earlier and the present studies, no sig nificant differences obtained between the self percepti ons of the various groups in the comrari.sons between the pi.lot and. the present studies. There were significant differ ences between the pilot and present studies i n the mate perceptions of unadjlisted husbands and the mate nercep- ti ons of adjusted wives on the Lov dinensi o^s. However, of the sixteen comparisons between th° two studies on self and mate perceptions , th°r° wer» on 1 v thfoo <-i o>ni f i o.®nh ii ffpT’onf’e? found. Th® interpersonal mechanis^s for the adjusted soouses of both studies ’-rere located in the affectionate — dominance ouadrant of the ICL. The unadjusted husbands of both studies perceived themselves and were perceived by their mates as hostile-dominant individuals. In the pilot study the assumption of a significant relationship between marital adjustment and low disparity between self perception and the spouse's perception of the individual was rejected. However, in th® ^resent study the assume- 239 tion of a significant relationship was accented. The only significant difference between the two studies in the concentnalinations of ideal husband role was for adjusted husbands on the Lov dimension. The adjusted husbands and adjusted wives in the present study conceptualized the ideal wife role as signif*cantly more affectionate then bod the adjusted husbands ana. wives in the nilot study. However, of the compari sons between the two studi ec on ideal marital roles, only three significant differences were found. In the nilot stud'i r the ides 1 husband, and ide-1! w’fe roles for all groups were located in the AP octant. In the present study the idea] husband role .for ail groups was located in the AP octant; however, the ideal wife role for all rrrourg, except the unadjusted husbands, was in the NO octant. In both studies lower disparity scores between per ceptions of spouse and expectations of the idea], spouse were associated ’ with higher marital adjustment scores. In the pilot as well as in the present studies the assumption of a significant relationship between marital maladjust ment and disparity in marital role definitions between spouses was rejected as role definitions were fairly simi lar for all groups. In both the earlier and the present studies the ideal husband and ideal wife role definitions were located in the affeetionate-dominance puadrant. 240 Deviance from these norms distinguished between adjusted and unadjusted spouses. In the present study the wife role was expected to have more affectionate qualities than was expected for the ideal wife of the earlier sample. There was also more differentiation between the husband and wife roles in the present than in the pilot study; the Jewish samnle had the more equalitarian role conceptualizations. However, in both studies the ideal husband and ideal wife roles were not defined as being greatly disparate. In the pilot and present studies marital roles were defined in modern or eaua.litari.an terms in which extreme differentiation between the sex roles are partly obliterated. The assumntion of a significant relationship between great disparity between self perception and ideal marital role conceptualization to marital maladjustment was accepted in both studies. The total disparity ratings for the couples in both studies were negatively correlated (to a significant degree) with marital adjustment. The implications are that frustration of role expectations contributes significantly to maladaptive marital relations. In both pilot and present studies the mean scores of the unadjusted wives on the Role Attitude Survey were significantly lower than those of their husbands. Mo sig nificant differences were found between the mean role 241 attitude scores of adjusted spouses in either study. The mean role attitude scores of the husbands in both studies were more traditional than the mean role attitude scores of the wives. However, in both studies the means for ell groups were on the equalitarian side of the equal!tarian- traditional role attitude continuum. There were some differences between the couples in the pilot and present studies in terms of areas of marital interaction which had caused serious difficulties in the relationship. However, the religious area had caused re] atively few problems .in the adjustment of the couples of both studies. In the comparisons between the pilot and present studies there were great similarities and some differences between the findings. The indications from the findings of these and other research studies are that some differ entiations are found in marital role definitions according to religious group affiliations or origins. This variable is in need of further study. The implication is fairly clear that the middle class is not an homogeneous group. The pilot and present studies lead to the inference that the marital role conceptualizations of the middle class are partially determined by ethnic or religious group membership. CHAPTER. XII SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS I. SUMMARY The purpose of this study was to compare a grour of "adjusted" and "unadjusted" middle-class couples to examine whether there is a relationship between frustra tion of role expectations and marital adjustment; to learn the relationship of role perception to marital happiness; to determine whether a cultural norm exists for middle- class marital roles; and to compare husband and wife roles with respect to instrumental and expressive components. The major hypotheses of the study were formulated within structural-functional and interactional theoretical frameworks; the literature of these areas important to this study was discussed as well as literature on marital adjustment research and on marital role research. Methodology The instruments used to assess marital roles were the Interpersonal Check List and the Role Attitude Survey; the one used to determine degree of marital adjustment was the Wallace Adjustment Scale. The sample consisted of 5C adjusted couples secured through Protestant churches in 242 243 middle-class neighborhoods, and 50 unadjusted couples who were clients of marriage counselors in the Los Ange3.es area. The hypotheses tested were as follows: 1. The greater the degree of similarity between the mate's self rercentions and the spouse's perception of that self, the greater will be the degree of marital adjustment. 2. The greater the degree of divergence between role expectation and role fulfillment, the ‘Teater will b^ the degree of marital mal- ad justment. 3. The greater the degree of the soouses' con currence on role definition, the greater will be the degree of marital adjustment. 4. The greater the degree of similarity between the individual's self nercention and the definition of his ideal marital role, the greater will be the degree of marital adjustment. 3. There is a cultural definition of the ideal marital role for the hushand. and for the wife, and the greater the similarity between the spouses' perceptions of their self, mate and ideal marital roles, and the cultural ideal 244 marital roles, the greater will he the decree of marital adjustment. 6. The ideal marital role of the husband con tains more instrumental role attitudes than does the ideal marital role for the wife. 7. The ideal marital role for the wife contains more exnressive role attitudes than does the ideal marital role for the husband. 0 8. V/hers there'is a reversal of role in terms of instrumental versus exnressive role attitudes for the hushand and wife, whether tip s is with resoeet to role expectations nr role nercention, it is and i cati v® ox marital rnalad justrrent. The instruments used to test the hypotheses met the test of beiny valid and reliable instruments; all of them had been used previous! v in one form or another in m m y research projects on mari to] ad iustment or research on interpersonal relations. Ther had also been used in t1" 1 e ril.ot study on marital roles and their r»i atinnshj r to marital adjustment. mhp major limitation of the study was the fact that the ad justed sample consi sterj onl v of couples present when the questionnaires were distributed, and it is not known whether the couples of the church p t o u p not present at P45 that time would have differed, in some way significant for the findings of the study. However, the findings from this study closely parallel those found, for the pilot study. Hence, probability statements can be made concern ing the norms for American middle-class marital roles and about the relationship between role expectations and role fulfillments to adaptive marital relations. Findings on Marital Adjustment Length of marriare and number of children were both n era hi vely correlated with marital ad .iustment scores » A wide discrerancv between husband and wife marital adjust ment scores was correlated with marital malad iustment. wowever, the correlation between the marital adjustment scores of the husbands and their resnective wives was .77 ind ic at i nr a closer agreement between the scores of ad.insted snouses and a wider divergence in assessment of marital heroiness between unadjusted spouses. Findings on Self and l vTnte Percent ions The adjusted, wi vn<- oercei v°d themselves si rni f i — cantly hirher on the dominance—submission (Dorn) dimension than d id. the wives in the unadjusted nroun. The mates of the husbands and wives in the adjusted cproup also per ceived them as beinr sirnificantly hirher on the Dorn dimension than did th° mate? of t.ho unad justed arouse-?. There were significant differences between ^ronne on the hostility-affeetion (I.ov) dimension both as to self per cent ions and mate perceptions; the Lov scores for the ad.lusted groups were (on the average) much higher than those of the unadjusted srouses. The hypothesis of a relationship between good mari tal adjustment and similarity between self perception and srouse perception of the individual was accented„ The i nteyrative quality of the relationship arrears to be reflected in the degree of congruence between the way an individual perceives his role qualities and the way he is perceived by his marital partner. There was a significant difference between adjusted and unadjusted srouses with reference to deviance from the cultural norm, affectionate-dominant role attitudes. Adjusted mates ne.rcei.ved the predominant role attitudes of themselves and their mates in this ouadrant in a signifi cantly greater proportion than did the unadjusted spouses. The hypothesis of a significant relationship to marital adjustment between role perceptions and cultural ideal marital role definitions was accepted. Ideal Marital Roles Both adjusted and unadjusted couples had very simi lar conceptualisations of ideal marital roles. All of the ideal marital role expectations of the sairrip were placed 747 in the AP and NO octants (the affectionate-dominance quad rant) 0 The expectations were that the husbands have the more dominant role and that the wives have the more affec tionate role for the ideal marital relationship. The hypothesis of a significant difference between adjusted and unadjusted couples regardin'*- disparity between role expectations and role .fulfillment was accented. The adjusted husbands and wives perceived thei r mates ar approaching their expectations to a significantly higher degree than did the unadjusted snouses. Cultural Norms An indication of marital role norms is the similar ity between adjusted and unadjusted snouses in the defini tions of ideal marital roles. Also the disoarity between husbands and wives in terms of ideal role definitions did not differentiate between croups'.’’ That the cultural mari tal role has a more equalitarian orientation is revealed in the similarity of definition between t^e ideal husband and ideal wife role. Both marital roles are defined in terms of conventionality, self-confident independence, competent strength, and drive for status. The hypothesis of a significant relationship to marital adjustment of sim ilarity between marital role definitions of snouses was rejected in favor of the hypothesis dealing with deviance from the cultural norm. The significant relationship to 24-f l mQritel 9-?.iustment was conformance with the cul tuT,°l idea] of affecti ons.te-domiranco. Self Perception end Conflict There was 0 significant r°lationrbio between the i I'i’ ’ vi iufl1 ? s°] f—oerce^t i on , hie none e-etual i eM"i on of hi s i a o a i mc„T»i tel nolo, end his mari t nl h oroineer’ „ ^he h^mot^esis of the relation n^ir- to ^ooh marital qd ■uistmert of small disparity between self nerccoti r>• and sane—sey roi.p '’oncentnali7stion war: accented . Since the ideal roles encroached the culture] norm, the ^ mr'l- 5 -at j.one nr« thnt i n--ii viduaIp who ^ercei ve themselvep more i n °ocord with the basic cultural valuer «re more offnn found in t;he ad lusted ciq ri.t °1 nTOHr' than '’■no thn.se who ”PfC e-j yo themselves' as oosse.ec.i no* the more d evi ant rol e attitudes. The comnutatj on of ° total. s i s r p® ^ r> < ■ > -w score for each couple indicated there was a sio-ni fi cant difference between ad .dusted and nnad justed couples i n t erms of total disparity between role nerceutions end no]e expectat i ons. f Php unad lusted r”oe?p” on^'oop tn pr'pr’ ’ one0 muo^ rnnT’n frnetret.i on between no .1 e expect atj. one end role ful f i. 11 — m^nt . Instrument rl and bxoressivn f?o] er The hypotheses of the dif f or-ont’ pf i on of marital ■coles in terms of instrumental role leadershi.r for the 249 husband and. expressive leadership for the wife were accepted as both adjusted and unadjusted husbands and wives conceptualized the husband and wife role as signifi cantly different on these variables. There were no sig nificant differences between adjusted and unadjusted srouses on instrumental role attitudes, but there were in terms of expressive role qualities. The impli cat i.ons were that the ad lusted individuals rerceived -i-hemselves and their snouses as emotionally warm, succoring and support ive, whereas the unadjusted individuals perceived them selves as well as their mates as 1 acking in the degree of expressive nual.iti.es which make for adaptive marital rela tions. Traditional and Equalita.ri.an Attitudes mho agreement or disagreement between the snouses on the individual questions in the dole Attitude Survey differentiated, between rTr o m s , the unad justed snouses dis agreeing on a significantly greater number. The analysis of scores in terms of the traditional-eoualitarian contin uum revealed no significant difference between the means of adjusted and xinadjusted husbands nor between adjusted and unadjusted wives. There was a significant difference between the mean scores of the unadjusted husbands and wives, the unad justed husbands being the most traditional in role orien- 250 tat ion of any groun, the unad .justed wives the most equali- tarian. No difference was found in role orientation between the spouses in the adjusted groun. The husbands of both groups had the more traditional orientati.ons than the wives of either group. A1 though the unadjusted husbands had the most tra ditional score of all the groups, it was on the enusl.i Par ian side of the equali tarian-traditional continuum. Thic findinr i.s in agreement. with the data on the Interpersonal Check List which indicated enualitarian definitions for fte ideal husband and i d e a l wife roles. Areas of Marital Interaction The area consi dered by the ad justed srouses to have caused the most serious marital dif f i.cul ti es w^o interfer ence of in-1aws. how°verJ the adjusted and unadjusted rrours differed significantly in t^is are? Qs weld, as in nine other areas of marital interaction. For both prours the areas of most signi fi cance to the di sturbance of rood marital relations were interference of in-laws, differ ences concerning home-making duties and responsibilities, and conflict over family finances and expenditures. In addition the unadjusted group indicated that unsatisfying sexual relations, conflicting nhilosophi.es of life, con flict over friends, and different recreational preferences had caused serious difficulties in their marital relation 25 ships. Significant correlations were foiind between diffi culties in the various areas of marital interaction and lenpth of time married, number of children, amount of income, and decree of education. Comparisons of Pilot and. Present Studies The findings of the pilot study which used an all- Jewish samrl° were com raped to the f i nd i nrs of tv'r> ent study on a predominant-!y Protestant sample. No sig nificant differences obtained between self perceptions of the various groups in the oomrari sons of the two studies. There were si ^ni f i cant differences between th° ’"•Hot °nd present studies i.n the mate perceptions of unadjusted bus bands and mate perceptions of adjusted wives on the Lov dimension. However, of the sixteen comparisons between the two studies on self and mate perceptions, only three siynificant differences were found. T'-'e i ntemersona! mechanisms for the adjusted spouses of both studies were located i.n the affectionate- dominance Quadrant °f The ICL. The unadjusted husbands o both studies perceived themselves and were perceived by thei r mates as hostile-dominant individuals. The only si.rni.ficant difference between the two studies in the conceptualisations of ideal husband role was for adjusted husbands on the Lov dimension. The adjusted husbands and wives in the present study concertu 252 alized the ideal wife role as significantly more affec tionate than had the adjusted husbands and wives in the pilot study. However, of the sixteen comparisons between the two studies on ideal marital roles, only three sig nificant differences were found. In the pilot study the ideal husband and ideal wife roles for all groups were located in the AP octant. In the nresent study the ideal husband role for all groups was in the AP octant; however, the ideal wife role for all groups, excent the unadjusted husbands, was in the NO octant. In both the earlier and present studi es the ideal marital role definitions were in the affectionete-domin- ance quadrant. Deviance from these norms distinguished between adjusted and unadjusted spouses. There was more differentiation between the husband and wife roles in the present than in the pilot study. The findings indicate that the Jewish sample had the more malitarian role orientations. However, in both studies the ideal husband and ’ ideal wife roles were not defined as being greatly disparate. In the pilot and present studies marital roles were defined in more modern or equalitarian terms in which extreme differentiation between the sex roles are partly obliterated. With one exception, the hypothesis concerning dis parity between self perception and spouse's perception of 233 the individual, the same conclusions obtained with respect to the acceptance or rejection of the hypotheses. In the total comnarisons between the pilot and aresent studies there were great similarities between the findings and some differences, as indicated above. The implications of the comparisons of pilot and present research findings are that some differentiation exists i.n marital role defini tions between the various religious groups. II. CONCLUSIONS There is a cultural norm for the role of the hus band and for the role of the wife and this is defined in terms of equal.it ari an or comnanionship attitudes rather than in terms of the traditional role orientation. How ever, there is still, a differentiation between masculine and feminine marital roles in the American middle-class culture. Unadjusted spouses can be distinguished from adjusted spouses in terms of deviation from these cultural norms with respect to both self and spouse perceptions. Negative self and spouse images, indicative of frustra tion of role expectations, were highly associated with maladaptive marital relations. The information gleaned by means of responses on the ICL distinguished between adjusted and unadjusted couples on three important aspects of the marital rela- tionship: decree of disparity between role expectations and role fulfillment, discrepancy between self perception and spouse's perception of the individual, and disparity between self perception and ideal marital role conceptua lization. The findings of this study are of importance for marital counselors and to researchers in the sociology of the family in that similar conclusions have been reached in both present and pilot studies. This study has given evidence that the TCI: i.s a useful tool for the determination of actual or potential interpersonal and intra-personal role conflict. Because the TCL has less visibility, is subject to less examinee manipulation and antagonism, it can be used as an indirect method of assessing marital adjustment in terms of role perception and role expectation factors. Implications for Sociology Much of the research in the area of marriage and the family has been carried on without benefit of any particular theoretical formulation, and therefore, its value to sociological knowledge has been extremely lim ited. Merton indicated that what is needed at the partic ular stage in which sociology finds itself is more research in terms of "theories of the middle range." The present study was designed, in terms of interactional and structural-functional conceptual frameworks. Within the interactional framework, the finding- of role expectations for self and for spouse in terms of the cultural norm with its emphasis upon conventionality, self-confident independence, competent strength, and drive for status is an important addition to sociological knowl edge, 'The emnhasis upon these Qualities, especially con ventional! ty, has been noted by writers such as David Riesman, Vance Packard, and William H, Whyte, Jr. How ever, sociologists are loath to accent wide generaliza tions (and rightly so) without research to back them up. Because these labels of conformity and neurotic drive for status have been pinned specifinal.ly on the middle-clasps American, the findings of this research are especially applicable as they apply to the middle-class samples tested. The findings on instrumental and expressive roles as well as on role norms lend weight to the theoretical formulations of the structural-functional conceptual approach. The importance of* these **i nd ’ r •~s are in terms of the structural and functional reouisites of the small group, the family, ?or the maintenance of the system, these two types of leadershi r roles aonarently neces sary es postulated by small ptouti theorists. However, the norms and values of the subsystem, the family, are deter mined by the larger social svstem, the ^articular soci ety to which the family members belone*. 2^6 The integration of the two conceptual frameworks in the research was with respect to socio-cultural norms. Self perceptions and role perceotions were found to he determined by these norms for the middle-class. Implicit in these attitudes and behaviors, guided by socio-cultural norms, are the cultural values and goals under the press of which the norms originate. wowever, the cultural values and goals merely reflect the structural and func tional requisites of the social system. Thus the importance of the study for sociology is seen in the fact that it h^s dealt with the family in terms of the interactional framework wh 1 gh studies the process of family relations, focus in--r or.’ the interactions of family members, and has integrated this with, the struc tural-functional annroach. Within th° 1abter conceptual framework the family was studied as r j small o'roun, subject to the structural-functi oral reoui sites of th° pubsyrtem and subject to the culture 1 i.mper*at i v°s of the larger social system. These imnerati ves function by way of the internalisation by indivi duals of cnltural values whi ch then are reflected i.n their own mot i v° patterns. Implications for Carriage Counseling The ICL gives the counselor important c1 lies regard— i no> the effect of the client's sel f—i m-age and mate percep tions upon his raaladaptj ve marital rel ations. It i s important for the focus of the tneatment to determine whether the difficulty stems primarily from - a negative self-image or whether conf1^cting interpersonal relations are due to frustration of role expectations of the ideal marital partner. Another imnortant aspect which can he determined hy use of the T,1T is whether the expectations the individual has of merita] roles are in conformance with cultural norms.' If they ere not, the client's paren tal images on the TCL will enable the counselor to deter mine the focus of the client's sex-role identification, .aberrant identifications have been shown to have a bearing on idiosyncratic role expectations. Conflicting role exnectations can be determined by use of item analysis of the client's responses on the ICL. For example, a wife may expect her husband to be a highly competitive, shrewd and calculating, and cold and unfeel ing individual in his relations with others in the busin ess world, but exrects him to be kind and reassuring, ten der and loving, and a considerate individual at home. Since these two sets of attitudes stem from d i ffere^t value systems and it is not always possible for the indi vidual to be so highly compartmentalized, it is important to bring to the client's awareness these contradictory expectations and their implications for adaptive marital relations. 25 8 In view of the findings on different marital role definitions and orientations in terms of religions group affiliation or origin, where difficulties between partners stem from an inter-faith marriage it should not always be assumed that religious differences ner se form the focus of conflict. It may be that cultural norms and standards are the focal noint of the manital conflicts. When these are explored, it may be possible to minimize the religious conflicts which may have been only symntomatio of the undefined underlying and basic attitudes. Since the number of years married has been shown to be an imnortant factor in marital adjustment, more atten tion should be given in marriage counseling to the family life cycle. There has been some soeculstion on this in sociology, but if has been explored but little in the therapeutic fields. There may be differentia] counseling techniques which should be applied with resrect to both the individuals and to the marriage in terms of the stage of the family life cycle of the clients; there certainly are different needs at the various stages of the life cycle of the family. A procedure for the measurement of the effective ness of therapy would be the administration of the TCL to clients at the beginning of the counseling nrocess in terms of self perceotion, perception of the spouse at the' time of referral, ideal mate conceptualizations, and the picture of the spouse at the time of the marriage. When the counseling process was being terminated, the self and spouse perceptions should again be determined; assessment could then be made of the changes both as to self-images and as to whether pictures of spouses were closer or more removed from conceptualizations of the ideal mate, and from the perceptions of the spouse at time of marriage. Since the findings of the study have ,viven a picture of the cultural norms for marital roles, the effectiveness of therapy can be assessed in terms of these norms as well as in terms of the particular needs of the clients. When the changes in client perceptions on the JCL are matched with the clinicians judgment as to the effectiveness of ther apy , a clearer picture may emerge in terms of what actu ally happens in the counseling process. Pre-marital Counseling It is important for the counselor and the clients to exolore the role expectations of the intend°d mates in order to determine whether there is potential conflict because of impossibility of fulfillment of expectations. The Interpersonal Check List, beinrn a system for the interpersonal diagnosis of personality, is also an excel lent instrument to assess the mesh of personalities of the intended mates. The future interactional pattern Oftf) t h e tw o c m ho d . e t e T m i n ° d t s we 1.1 e o f h tnpn f-jT -n . ^ont of each 1 rd i vidua!1 o .r°lf, in.tend°d. 00011.?° , end i d ° e 1 rnn-^g ^ercerti opr . ^ecouse of the itr^Ttn’ic0 of the self— imam to ^di^ti vn rean 11 a 1 re 1 at i ons , a n v c°-^eti ve crn0ct~ in the sel f—concept direovered. f h-pouo-h epe-pooeen on th° TriteT'o°'Teo'or,1 Ch^chilef co'il.i ^ ° 'li y p o 7?d p o f O n o t no i n e t ho- * ” nj>’ r-i p- and ^hni v off o''i-f u n o n the cli — nnt * o j nt°■"^PT’^dT' el up 1 at i.on ^ . a 1 h P (>1 -j o r i t 1 " ”0 O T » f* o r> t i O O P o f h i ~ ’■ ' . • ■ T > o n + <- r> C M j 1 r\ -f* 1] - r > _ n i s h clner i n f onm? ^ ^nni' on with on^1 bost i 1 > tv e p, Vii t; rnroritjc w r i p b fF ° "V rrpoiH’f off oof V' i r~ ^ol of^ j nn r- ^ i +- Vo h i f nhlir ri m o P p # f'or1 o v o t i o I n ^ p i.r o ™ p rr| o y i 01.T O p - p p p ] f p ^ p r j q n - p p O - f - y O n a t ^ —d e p e n d e n t * ; i U d ’ V i d W a 1 a n d o o n p o i i r o h o f h d o r ' ■f'qtjhpn and hen fi pfc® o hosti 1 e doroi n^ot A rdi vidnai a. Wh°n it i° - d i scovered that hh «t*° he? heen much ^orf"! ’ ef n ty *.r n op f o ^ ' o . o T 1 q * n d 'i o i i r ' h t f ' f ^ I f 1 ^ i q '-'n ^f-on f f n i ^ f A0 T^or ■fh a mot’ vat’ nny f i - ito fho t r>f end ad end t o d °t e^m ’ n° hOV7 T*P ^ ] i ^ t: i h q r o ty d o I.rpyor) ' o T ' o f o o r f ; ! p r r ’ o f d n -p f ’ y i p o p / end of ^pfQ.o] f c fev-iro imnortent enaction fo q^v hoy>p won Id he in terror of wb°hbpn thi ^ roe m i a a-a v/onl d ro<?°h th° n°°d a of hh ° i nd i iri dil 0 " I C otbnr +;Vort<~^> qr»e 'opvohpl Ari ool 1 n V|oq"i+:hT7 no.sfl p on neu^nti c needs. T t m- ’ e'ht n^t h • > ■ - < - > "<>i hi a fO ‘ r>noqrent ° ]ooiiynf-i 0 ^] "j-r •oq^'i irohp'l rn,-,.pyTjn,T.p^ y . - j - y ^ ^ p l i e n t o ? o n l d h e n f s ^ o r a i f o p e e If jr|qT>T*i n ' r o C'’ U n o • ■ ■ ] ’ D w h e n h h o fjoni Tr>o'’e o \ f u l l ° n u n d e n s f e n d i n e ' of 1 t h ° d vr qmi o a ? ••> o 961 ■ o r o'W’ i d ° d d'r r t h n i n o o "om ■ ’tiori rained t h ■oon c " ^1 t ' a o 'ino o c t v > r > Tnt^r^ersonal Check List wou Id nn°^l ° ^ho r>n'in''oi or to hp moT’o of*f op-five i f] 1-ho omin s 01 ^ nr 1 * nr>nppsq at that - ( 3 i t t i< = » # A d i sonss■ > on wi th the cl.- ’ ante of t’ aei r» rolp py-oc- tations and a . c''mn,T’ison b°t''’ppri tbpqo phH the on] turn! role “y eolations could nrov° to be an pff»cbiv® method for tb° o-qi rin1 7 - of f n s ■ > h t into hnrt c ntt • ? tud pp , ^hppp may r°o]l rr much p\rlor°ti i.n p'pipr to nrpypnt theio b°i.nr r the cause of i rre-nsrahle conflict in the r 'ror>osed union. Fduc at ton Ton Marriage The results of thi r end other researches has indi cated tne importance to marital, adjustment of fulfillment of role expectations. rpb» assessment of the role exrecta— ti ons of students in Education for M^rry^p eourcec should make for more understanding of their evrectations in terms nf l . r h n+| tbPV a r * o wi 1 1 inn* to o*i \rr- to th° WTT'T’i q r-n and vt qt tb°v are able to siv° to tto -pel ati on shin. The 1 qttmr mav to qq i i to he even more vital to the v.i.abi 1 i t, r of the mar- i t ql re 1 at ion sh i^ toon what ih°v orr,«(;t of an ^ n t end °d mate s a 1 thou o-h this is certain"'''7 - ■ " . m ’ -'OPt ant. T.f each stud ent were re on i red to fill out Tnterr,er— sonal Check Lists on self i‘erceT tions and on exeeotatj on° of d ° a 1 rp a r i t a1 roles, o o i n n ^ a r o " o n e hatv/ppfl r r - - o a o n o o t - — t u a 1 i 7 a tions and. 11 o cultural mari tal role concents could ?f)° ^rovide much fm.ii tful class discussion with r°r:r'oct to t hi C p O T - . i p o , p i rn p (~) 0*0 TP t f Ot* p h ° phnb-j " j i f,T of t ^ p A_tn ^ Cnn fan i]‘ ,r. oin?'1 tha ,ay"^ctnti on.f! for v/i t>a1 ore not bv any meppr st at i c cor'aert° , di scission of the o.ixl tni,o 1 nor’ "? as <*'oi i - i nd i y* dual Pv,'ectc!t? ops merit oxt'1 ornH ort in vievr of th.~ fact t Kat one f i nd s much cri t- i ox pm of the rel at i on.eh i o botwean moo nod wo in op in oixp cnl tn-op . dno'^potionp fon Future :)o,'°ppch A.1 fhom ; ' " h tb° r '.nop.°pt c-p. jd■ " ■ " • ^' • ^p^t rt"'i’. rj thus °’i vi.no* moon o.onfidce i n thn f a n d i n 'ye , a t v . ronl.d to i nyrovi dent to ooopiier tb° re.pid to nr iefinitive. .At ton qtarro i n which t he social sei cap no f-i nd thorns® l imp - j t i p dust af i moortart fon a ptniv to sti mul ate further research as it is for it to odd to tnp atone of knowl-p; if is hoped toot this ^tndv wi. 1l do both, For exari'le, wo find p d i f f ononoo in tho mari t al no] o d ef i ni td ons between the Protestant nod Jewd oh s nmoles. How would rnn'"i to! role i of ] nit ion 3 o.f Cnthol ics differ, end woul d they di f f en? Where do the differences oririnnte? ' I ’ he nresent study i~ one of thp few repeat studies in the anea o.f manriare end the family, and it is honed that it will encourage others. Reoeat ftud to? gdd more to the knowledge in ® field as one of the most difficult problems in social science research involves that of cam— r>linrr. It is beyond the scone of this renort to go into the many reasons for this. However, it can be stated that the researcher can never be sure whether some of the vari ables, other than the ones beinv tested, make his sample unrepresentative in terms of the variables and findings thereon. Thus, studies using the same research design and other middle-class samples, would indead make the findings mor° definitive. Both the ’ -»il<->t and present studies used middle- class samnles. It would be i nteresti n " to study the mar ital roles of the l ower class to determi ne wnether the mi d " * ] e—cl ° ss sets the p < ■ > 11 o r»n for ■oo]e oyipctflti ons , as some r o c 1o 1 n e ist s assert, or whether the role definitions of the lower class are at variance -with those of the middle-class. The Interpersonal Check lost is used pri mari 1y to assess the interpersonal i.n personal ity dynamics. It would be i nterest j n<~ to test a ssmrl° of m^rri^d cour les usinu- this instrument plus a battery of tests, i.noludi ng nrojective tests to deterrrdn*3 how i.ntrapersonal personal ity dynamics affect both self and arouse perceptions. Tt should prove valuable to know not only how, but what per sonality dynamics make individuals 1es° capable of ful fil 1inw their marital roles. Clinicians have some pretty good hypotheses in thd s direction, but it is important ?6d ■that: we s'et the answer's throuGrh rocsp^rch well as through siini cel experience. In view of the Important findin - of the signi fic^nt negative correlation between number of years married and marital ad,iustment scores, research should he undertaken to determine whet factors make for less euphoria as length of time married increases. I’M 3 would call for a . longi tudinal study; couples could he tested shortly after mar riage, and periodically, say after the first child, when children reached school age, when children became teen agers, etc. These periods would, o.f course, he concomi tant with various strains in the occupational life of the husband and various strains in the homemaking reoui rements on the part of the wife. It is important to determine which external and internal pressures are most extreme n their effects iron the marital relationship. 'Research on rol *»r " of i m"or, t ance because "role" is the concent which links the individual a^ a behaving entity to the social structure. '""he family is composed of individuals who are best studied through their status- roles, and who ar» significant for their functions in t^o maintenance of the family system, and ultimately, of the social system. The role r e ou i . r °m e n t s of the system become internal!red, and thus a unit of the social system becomes a uni.t of the self. The individual, as a personality par- h - c . ticinatas in. the process of social interact!on through his various roles, and the social system, accord ins* to Parsons, consists of roles, not of individuals. Since the role reouj.rernents -of the social system become internal ised, an important avenue of research would be to deter mine what aspects of chany® in the social system brin.‘ - r about concomitant chanyes in the fami 3 v system, and spe cifically, in marital, rolp d<=>f ini ti nn.s. Since the family is an abortive institution, not an instrumental one ?s ore the economic and technological ■institutions, a poreqrch of r^neat rm-’n ' tn'ip Mould be a neni od ic stud.v of s amrl.es of married coup! op over several ^ o>o nd os to assess change s i n marit nl role i o f ; n i t i on s as these are affected bv chanr*es ■ in other institutions in the society. Por example, what changes will the atomic, a and automation of our industrial comrl oxpr bri n in terms of fami.lv roles., i/e know r.hat workers wi 1 1 hnv» to be nnT’o h- 5 ,rhl v trained ; hhqt t here wi. ii be a shorter work week; and that there wid 1 be more 1»isurp time. These wi 1. 1. °ur°l.v bri n^ about cha-nrrps in the fair’I ' " ' structure; for one thiny less reorle will be reouir^d to do more h hiybly skilled tasks. Tt would add much needed informa tion to the areas of the sooioloy • of tri° family, social chancre, marriave and t'op family, and social rs'm nol. omy if various institutional changes, material and adaptive, P66 could “ be correlated not merely by armchair erecnlation, but by means of scientific T»esearch. APPENDIX No* ---------- Marital Survey This survey is strictly confidential and the following information is essential to the usefulness of this questionnaire. There will be no personal identification. Please answer all of the questions and give only one answer to each. Scoring 1. Male _ Female __ 2. Age _ _ 3. Number of years married 4 . . Number of children ___ 5. Highest grade in school completed: 8 9 10 11 12 Yrs. of college:! 2 3 4 Graduete"T7orIc: 1 2 6. Occupation: 7. Family's approximate income per year: Under $4,000__;#4,000-5»999j___ ; $6,000-7,999_ $8,000-91999__i 10,000-12,000___; Over U2,000_ 8. Your father's occupation: 9. Religious preference: Protestant___ Catholic ___ Jewish Other None . ____ 10. How would you rate your marriage? Check the dot on the scale- line below which best describes the degree of"happiness. ~ “ Very Unhappy* Happy Perfectly happy 11. When disagreements arise, they usually result in: husband giving in . wife giving in . agreement by mutual'give and take . 12. Do you and your mate engage in outside interests together? All of them , Some of them , Very few of them . None of them . 13. In leisure time"do you generally prefer to be: "on the go" , to"fF61y at home? Does your mate generally prefer: to Ee"*"on the go" to stay at home ? 14. Do you ever wish you had not married? Frequently Occasionally , Rarely __, Never ____. 15. If you had your life to live over, do you think you would: Marry the same person , Marry a different person . Hot marry at all . 16. Do you confide in your mate: Almost never . Rarely « In most things ___, In Everything . State approximate extent of agreement or disagreement between you and your mate on the following items. Please place a check opposite every item. Check one column AL- ALMOST OCCAS- FRE- ALMOST ALWAYS for each item WAYS ALWAYS IGNALLY QUENTLY ALWAYS DIS- below: AGREE AGREE DISAGREE DISAGREE DISAGREE AGREE 17* Handling fam ily finances 18. Matters of recreation 19* Demonstration of affection 20. Friends 21. Sexual relations 22. Convention ality, right, good, & pro per behavior 23* Philosophy of life 24. Ways of dealing with in-laws I _ ‘ 25. Check any of the following items which have caused serious dif f ibiilties in your marriage: Family finances or expenditures _ _ _ Different recreational preferences _____ Religious beliefs or practices _____ Interference of in-laws _ _ Differences concerning homemaking duties & responsibilities Unsatisfying sexual relations _____ Lack of mutual friends ; Conflict over friends . Children: Desire for : Rearing ; Number of . Aims, goals, & things believed important in life _ _ _ • Check each of the following statements in the column which most accurately reflects your feeling. The symbols SA stands for "Strongly agree", A for "Agree", ? for "Neutral", D for "Disagree", SD for "Strongly disagree". Flease mark each item. SA A ? D SD 26. The husband should help with the housework onlr in emergencies. 27. The husband should have the major voice in financial matters. 28. Only in emergencies should the wife contribute to the financial support of the family. 29. It goes against nature to place women in positions of authority over men. 30. The most important value for both husband and wife in marriage should be personality growth and happiness. 31. Women should not enter and compete in the traditionally male professions such as law and medicine. 32. Men should not help with the housework, 33. A married woman does not have much use for a college education. 34. Women have as much right as men to sow wild oats. 35. Husband and wife should have an equal voice in family decisions. 36. Unless the husband is unable to work, the wife should not v^ork outside the home. 37. Men should not be expected to help care for the children. 38. A young man should not get married until he can support a wife. 39. It is wrong for the wife to be the aggressor in initiating sexual relations. 40. A wife should obey her husband. 4-1. Almost any woman is better off in her own home than in a job or profession. 42. Women should enter the legal and engineering professions along with men, 43* The husband ought to have the main say-so in family matters. 44. The husband should take a share in the household tasks if his wife works or has the constant care of small children. 45. The most important task of a wife is the physical care of the children. 46. It is all right if the wife earns as much money as does her husband and contributes equally. 47. The wife should take part in com munity affairs only after she has finished her household responsib ilities. 48. It is more serious if thejwife becomes involved with another man than if the husband becomes involved with another woman, 49. Family disagreements should be solved by mutual give-and-take rather than by the husband alone. 50. Both husband and wife should have an equal say-so as to how the family income is to be spent. 51. The husband should decide whether or not the wife may work outside the home, 52. A woman's place is in the home. 53• It is all right for both husband and wife to contribute to the financial support of the family regularly. 54. Both men and married women have equal rights to do the kind of work they prefer even if it means the wife's working outside the home. 55* In an argument the wife should always "give in". No. NAME Please check (X) on the left hand side those items which apply, and circle (0) those items which do not apply. Characterization of: S B J i F By: WIFE (HUSBAND) T ype:_ Able to criticize self Able to doubt others Able to give orders jAble to take care of self ^Accepts advice readily “Acts important “Admires and imitates others “Affectionate and understanding “Agrees with everyone Always ashamed of self Always giving advice Always pleasant and agreeable Apologetic Appreciative ig-hearted and unselfish itter B oastful Bossy B usinesslike Can be frank and honest Can be indifferent to others Can be obedient Can complain if necessary ; Can be strict if necessary f C linging vine | Cold and unfeeling | Complaining j C onsiderate Cooperative j C ritical of others Cruel and unkind I D ependent i D ictatorial D istrusts everybody D ominating Eager to get along with others E asily embarrassed E asily fooled ’ E asily led | E gotistical and conceited j E ncouraging others Enjoys taking care of others Expects everyone to admire him “ Firm but just F ond of everyone F orceful F orgives anything F requently angry ~l F requently disappointed F riendly F riendly all the time Generous to a fault 'Gives freely of self Good leader 'Grateful Hardboiled when necessary Hard-hearted ard to impress Hardly ever talks back H elpful mpatient with others' mistakes i independent Irritable j_ Jealous Kind and reassuring 'Lacks self-confidence Lets others make decisions ikes everybody ikes responsibility ikes to be taken care of Pikes to compete with others Poves everybody M akw i i good impression Mant. d others Meek ’ Modest jObeys too willingly “Often admired “Often gloomy “Often helped by others “Often unfriendly “Outspoken “Overprotective of others “Oversym pathetic Passive and unagressive P roud and self-satisfied R ebels against everything Resentful “Resents being bossed Respected by others 'Sarcastic Selfish Self-confident Self-punishing 'Self-reliant and assertive Self-respecting Self-seeking 'Shrewd and calculating Shy Skeptical Slow to forgive a wrong Sociable and neighborly Somewhat snobbish Spineless Spoils people with kindness Stern but fair Straightforward and direct Stubborn ender and soft-hearted Thinks only of himself Timid oo easily influenced by friends Too lenient with others Too willing to give to others ouchy and easily hurt ‘ Tries to be too successful to comfort everyone Trusting and eager to please Usually gives in anxious to be approved of ery respectful to authority i Vants everyone's love W ants everyone to like him W ants to be led Warm Well thought of Will believe anyone Will confide in anyone “ffP“ BC” DE* FG" ur~ JK~“ LlW NO" D : L: D: L: I: E : NAME Please check (X) on the left hand side those items which apply, and circle (0) those items which do not apply. Characterization of; YOITR HUSBAND (Wigs') B y: WIFE (HUSBAND) T ype: Able to criticize self Able to doubt others Able to give orders Able to take care of self Accepts advice readily Acts important Admires and imitates others Affectionate and understanding Agrees with everyone Always ashamed of self Always giving advice Always pleasant and agreeable Apologetic ‘ A ppreciative Big-hearted and unselfish Bitter B oastful B ossy usinesslike [Can be frank and honest [Can be indifferent to others [Can be obedient [Can complain if necessary j ‘ C an be strict if necessary \ C linging vine 1 C old and unfeeling j C omplai ning C onsiderate ■ C ooperative j C ritical of others | C ruel and unkind D ependent d ictatorial " D istrusts everybody ; D ominating lEager to get along with others [Easily embarrassed E asily fooled 'Eaaily led E gotistical and conceited I E ncouraging others Enjoys taking care of others Expects everyone to admire him E irm but just F ond of everyone orceful orgives anything F requently angry F requently disappointed F riendly F riendly all the time Generous to a fault Gives freely of self G ood leader G rateful H ardboiled when necessary H ard-hearted H ard to impress Hardly ever talks back Helpful impatient with others' mistakes Independent irritable j Jealous Kind and reassuring [l_acks self-confidence 'Lets others make decisions [Likes everybody Likes responsibility " ikes to be taken care of ikes to compete with others oves everybody M akes a good impression Manages others Meek [Modest [Obeys too willingly 'Often admired [Often gloomy 'Often helped by others [Often unfriendly [Outspoken [Overprotective of others [Oversym pathetic 'Passive and unagressive 'Proud and self-satisfied K ebels against everything esentful R esents being bossed R espected by others Sarcastic [Selfish 'Self-confident Self-punishing [Self-reflant and assertive 'Self-respecting [Self-seeking 'Shrewd and calculating [Shy [Skeptical [Slow to forgive a wrong [Sociable and neighborly [Somewhat snobbish [Spineless 'Spoils people with kindness [Stern but fair [Straightforward and direct 'Stubborn ender and soft-hearted hinks only of himself Timid oo easily influenced by friend: lenient with others [Too willing to give to others Touchy and easily hurt ries to be too successful ries to comfort everyone rusting and eager to please Usually gives in ery anxious to be approved of ery respectful to authority W ants everyone's love W ants everyone to like him ants to be led Warm 'Well thought of " ill believe anyone Will confide in anyone ncp- BCT DE~ FG" "Hr JK~ LJT NO" D: L: D: E: D/C No. NAME Please check (X) on the left hand side those items which apply, and circle (0) those items which do not apply. Characterization of: IDEAL WIPE By: Type: j B Able to criticize self Able to doubt others Able to give orders jAble to take care of self "Accepts advice readily "Acts important [Admires and imitates others [Affectionate and understanding "Agrees with everyone “A lways ashamed of self [Always giving advice "Always pleasant and agreeable Apologetic Appreciative Big-hearted and unselfish Bitter oastful ossy usinesslike 'Can be frank and honest ’ Can be indifferent to others [Can be obedient [Can complain if necessary [Can be strict if necessary [Clinging vine [Cold and unfeeling [Complaining [Considerate [Cooperative [Critical of others C ruel and unkind I D ependent D ictatorial D istrusts everybody ominating Eager to get along with others E asily embarrassed E asily fooled E asily led E gotistical and conceited j E ncouraging others E njoys taking care of others Expects everyone to admire him t'irin but just IFond of everyone ^Forceful ’ Forgives anything ’ Frequently angry ~ F requently disappointed F riendly F riendly all the time Generous to a fault [Gives freely of self [Good leader "Grateful H ardboiled when necessary Hard-hearted ard to impress Hardly ever talks back H elpful mpatient with others' mistakes ndependent rritable 'Jealous Kind and reassuring [Lacks self-confidence 'Lets others make decisions [Likes everybody [Likes responsibility [Likes to be taken care of [Likes to compete with others Loves everybody " akes a good impression Manages others Meek [Modest [Obeys too willingly [Often admired [Often gloomy [Often helped by others [Often unfriendly [Outspoken [Overprotective of others [Oversym pathetic Passive and unagressive ~Froud and self-satisfied Rebels against everything ’ Resentful R esents being bossed R espected by others Sarcastic [Selfish [Self-confident [Self-punishing [Self-reBant and assertive 'Self-respecting _Self-seeking "Shrewd and calculating "Shy "Skeptical "Slow to forgive a wrong "Sociable and neighborly "Somewhat snobbish "Spineless "Spoils people with kindness "Stern but fair ^Straightforward and direct "Stubborn Tender and soft-hearted Thinks only of himself Timid oo easily influenced by friends oo lenient with others oo willing to give to others 'Touchy and easily hurt Tries to be too successful to comfort everyone Trusting and eager to please U sually gives in anxious to be approved of V ery respectful to authority W ants everyone's love 'Wants everyone to like him ants to be led Warm W ell thought of ill believe anyone Will confide in anyone srp- BC" DE~ FG" "HT JKT" L NT NO' D: L: D: L: I : No NAME Please check (X) on the left hand side those items which apply, and circle (0) those items which do not apply. Characterization of: tthcat. h u s b a n d By: Type: _Able to criticize self "Able to doubt others "Able to give orders "Able to take care of self "Accepts advice readily "Acts important "Admires and imitates others Affectionate and understanding Agrees with everyone Always ashamed of self Always giving advice Always pleasant and agreeable Apologetic A ppreciative Big-hearted and unselfish B itter Boastful ossy ' • * Businesslike "Can be frank and honest ’ Can be indifferent to others [Can be obedient [Can complain if necessary [Can be strict if necessary [Clinging vine T 1 Cold and unfeeling > C omplaining [ C onsiderate Cooperative I C ritical of others ■ C ruel and unkind ? D ependent ? D ictatorial Distrusts everybody D ominating Eager to get along with others ■Easily embarrassed E asily fooled "Easily led I E gotistical and conceited E ncouraging others E njoys taking care of others xpects everyone to admire him irm but just ond of everyone orceful or gives anything requently angry requently disappointed ; F riendly riendly all the time [Generous to_a fault [Gives freely of self Good leader Grateful ardboiled when necessary ard-hearted ard to impress i Hardly ever talks back H elpful Impatient with others’ mistakes I Independent Irritable ; Jealous _Kind and reassuring [[Lacks self-confidence [[Lets others make decisions [[Likes everybody "Likes responsibility "Likes to be taken care of "Likes to compete with others "Loves everybody "Makes a good impression [[Manages others "Meek [[Modest "Obeys too willingly "Often admired [[Often gloomy "Often helped by others [[Often unfriendly "Outspoken "Overprotective of others "Oversym pathetic "Passive and unagressive "Proud and self-satisfied [Rebels against everything [ “ esentful Resents being bossed ^Respected by others ^Sarcastic "Selfish "Self-confident "Self-punishing "Self-reBant and assertive [[Self-respecting "Self-seeking "Shrewd and calculating "Shy [[Skeptical "Slow to forgive a wrong "Sociable and neighborly "Somewhat snobbish "Spineless "Spoils people with kindness Stern but fair [Straightforward and direct Stubborn ender and soft-hearted hinks only of himself " “" “Timid Too easily influenced by friends [Too lenient with others [Too willing to give to others 'Touchy and easily hurt Tries to be too successful ries to comfort everyone Trusting and eager to please U sually gives in ery anxious to be approved of ery respectful to authority "Wants everyone's love W ants everyone to like him Wants to be led Warm W ell thought of W ill believe anyone t ' W ill confide in anyone "7TP" BC“ DE" FG" u r JK"“ L»T NO" D: L: D: L: I : 269 APPENDIX B INSTRUMENTAL Able to give orders Able to take care of self Acts important Always giving advice Bossy Businesslike Can be strict if necessary Critical of others Dictatorial Dominating Expects everyone to admire him Firm but just Forceful BOLE ATTITUDES Good leader Hardboiled when necessary Independent Likes responsibility Likes to compete with others Manages others Outspoken Resents being bossed Self-confident Self-reliant and assertive Stern but fair Straightforward and direct Tries to be too successful 270 APPENDIX C EXPRESSIVE ROLE ATTITUDES Affectionate and under standing Always pleasant and agreeable Appreciative Big-hearted and unselfish Can be obedient Considerate Cooperative Eager to get along with others Encouraging others Enjoys taking care of others Friendly Friendly all the time Gives freely of self Hardly ever talks back Helpful Kind and reassuring Lets others make decisions Likes everybody Likes to be taken care of Modest Overprotective of others Oversympathetic Sociable and neighborly Tender and soft-hearted Too lenient with others Tries to comfort everyone Very respectful to authority Warm BIBLIOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY Books Allport, Gordon. Personality: A Psychological Inter pretation. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 195?» Baber, Hay E. Marriage and the Family. New York: MeGraw-Hi11 Book Co., 1953• Bell, Norman W., and Vogel, Ezra P. (eds.). A Modern Introduction to the Family. Glencoe, IllTl TEe” gree Press, I960.------- Blood, Hobert 0., and Hamblin, Robert L. "The Effect of the Wife's Employment on the Family Power Structure," in A Modern Introduction to the Family. Edited by Norman w. Beii and Ezra t. Vogel. Glencoe, 111.: The Free Press, I960. Bone, Harry. "Personality Theory," in American Handbook of Psychiatry. Edited by Silvano Arleti. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1959* Bonner, Hubert. Social Psychology: An Interdisciplinary Approach. New York: American Book Go., l9i>3» Borgatta, Edgar, and Meyer, Henry (eds.). Sociological Theory. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1956* Burgess, Ernest W., and Cottrell, Leonard S. Predicting Success or.Failure in Marriage. New York: Prentice- Hall Company, 1959. , and Locke, Harvey J. The Family: From Inatitu- tlon to Companionship. New York: American Book Co:; 1953. ------- , and Wallin. Paul. Engagement and Marriage. PETTadelphia: J. B. Lipplncofi Co':7 1^31---- Chance, Erika. Families in Treatment. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 19^9. 272 275 Dai, Bingham. "A Socio-Psychiatric Approach to Person ality Organization," in Headings in Marriage Counsel ing. Edited by Clark E. Vincent. Irew fork: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1957* Davis, Katharine B. Factors in the Sex Life of Twenty- two Hundred Women, frew frork: darner and Brothers. T?ZT. Davis, Kingsley. Human Society. New York: The Mac Millan Company, 194-9. Foote, Nelson N., and Cottrell, Leonard S. Identity and Interpersonal Competence. - Chicago: The University or Chicago Sress, 19^5* Grinkdr, Roy R. (ed.). Toward A Unified Theory of Human Behavior. New York: fiaslc Books, Inc., 1956. Guilford, J. P. Fundamental Statistics in Psychology and Education. New lork: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 19?0. Hamilton, G. 7. A Research in Marriage. New York: Albert and Charles boni, 1$29T Hill, Reuben. Families Under Stress. New York: Harper and Brothers, 19^-9. Hollingshead, August B., and Redlich, Frederich C. Social Class and Mental Illness. New York: John Wiley and sons, i95ti. Honigmann, John J. Culture and Personality. New York: Harper and Brothers, l95^-. Kluckhohn. Clyde, Murray, Henry A., and Schneider, David, (eds.). Personality in Nature. Society, and Culture. Hew Yorks Alfred ITTEnopf, W3.---- ----------- Kluckhohn, Florence. "Dominant and Variant Value Orien tations," in Personality in Nature. Society, and Culture. Edited by Clyde Kluckhohn, fienry i. liurray, and David Schneider. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1953. Landis, Judson T., and Landis, Mary. Building a Success ful Marriage. New York: Prentice-Hail Co.” 1946. Leary, Timothy. The Interpersonal Diagnosis of Person ality. New York: (frhe Aonaid PressCompany, 1957* Linton, Balph. The Cultural Background of Personality. New York: Appleton-6entury-Crofts, 1^45. Locke, Harvey J. Predicting Ad.lustmentln Marriage: A Comparlaon of a Divorced ana a Happily Aarried Group. NewYork: Henry Holt and Company, 1951. Mead, George H. Mind. Self and Society. Chicago: The University of Chicago Areas, 1934-. Merton, Bobert K. Social Theory and Social Structure. Glencoe, 111.: tf?he kree Press, 1957* Murphy, Gardner. Personality. New York: Harper and Brothers, 194-7. Newcomb, Theodore M. Social Psychology. New York: The Dryden Press, 1950. Parsons, Talcott. "Boundary Belations Between Socio cultural and Personality Systems," in Toward A Unified Theory of Human Behavior. Edited by Boy drinker. flew York: Basic Books, Inc., 1956. • Essays in Sociological Theory. Glencoe, 111.: TET^ree PrSss, 195*T. --------- "General Theory in Sociology," in Sociology (froday. Edited by Bobert K. Merton, Leonard Broom, and Leonard S. Cottrell. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1959. • The Social System. Glencoe. 111.: The ?ree Press, 1951.------- ---- . and Bales, Bobert P. Family.Socialization and 'Interaction Process. Glencoe, ill.: (rhe Pree Press,"195?.----------- , et al. Working Papers in the Theory of Action. SlencoeTTIl.: ""TheTree Press' , -------------- Peterson, James A. Education for Marriage. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, Biesman, David. The Lonely Crowd. New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1955• 275 Rogers, Carl R. Client-Centered Therapy. Boston: Houghton-Mifflih Company, I95l. Sartin, Theodore R. "Role Theory," in Handbook of Social Psychology. Edited by Gardner Lindzey. Cambridge, Mass•: Tddison-Wesley Oo., 195A. Schutz, William C. FIRO: A Three-Dimensional Theory of Interpersonal Behavior. New York: Rinehart and «o7; f'9537----------------- Terman, Lewis U., etal. Psychological Pactora in Mari- tal Happiness. Rew York: McGraw-Slll Book Company, 1 9 5 3 .------- and Oden, Melita H. The Gifted Child Grows Up: foenty-five_Years' Follow-up of a Superior Group. Stanford! Stanford University Press, 194-7 • Waller, Willard, and Hill, Reuben. The Family: A Dynamic Interpretation. New York: bryden !Press, Whyte, William H. The Organization Man. New York: Doubleday and Company7 tnc., l957« Young. Kimball. Personality and Problems of Adjustment. New York: Appleton^nWy^roRe" 195?: ------- Articles and Periodicals Baber, Ray. "A Study of 325 Mixed Marriages," American Sociological Review. 2 (1937), 705-716. Bowerman, Charles E. "Adjustment xn Marriage: Over-all and in Specific Areas," Sociology and Social Research. A1 (1957), 257-2&3» < Christopherson, Victor A., and Walters, James. "Respon ses of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews Concerning Marriage and Family Life," Sociology and Social Research, A3 (1958), 16-22. Cottrell, Leonard S. "Roles and Marital Adjustment," Publications of the American Sociological Society, 27 (1955); 167- 112. ------ -------------- ---------------- 276 Couch, Carl J. "The Use of the Concept, Bole, and Its Derivatives in a Study of Marriage," Marriage and Family Living, 20 (1958), 353-357. Devereux, George. "Anxiety Distortion," Saturday Beview, (May 31, 1958). Dyer, Everett Dixon. "A Study of Bole and Authority Patterns and Expectations in a Group of Urban Middle-Class Two-Income Families," Dissertation Abstracts, 16 (1955)» 176. Dyer, William G, and Urban, Dick. "The Institutional isation of Equalitarian Family Norms." Marriage and Family Living. 20 (1958), 53-58. Dymond, Bosalind. "The Belation of Accuracy of Percep tion of the Spouse and Marital Happiness," American Psychologist. 8 (1953)» 344. Fand, Alexandra B. "Sex Bole and Self Concept: A Study of the Feminine Sex Bole as Perceived by Eighty- five College Women," Dissertation Abstracts. 15 (1955), 1135-H36. Farber, Bernard, and Blackman, Leonard S. "Marital Bole Tensions and Number and Sex of Children," American Sociological Beview. 21 (1956), 596-601. Green, Arnold W. "The Middle-Class Male Child and Neurosis," American Sociological Beview. 11.(1946), 31-41. Grusky, Oscar. "A Case for the Theory of Familial Bole Differentiation in Small Groups," Social Forces, 35 (1956), 209-217. Hill, Beuben, and Hansen, Donald. "The Identification of Conceptual Frameworks Utilized in Family Study," Marriage and Family Living. 22 (I960), 299-311. Hobart, Charles W., and Elausner, William J. "Some Social Interactional Correlates of Marital Bole Disagreement, and Marital Adjustment," Marriage and Family Living, 21 (1959), 256-263. Hurvitz, Nathan. "The Significance of Discrepancies between the Scores of Spouses on a Marital Adjust ment Scale," Alpha Kappa Deltan, 29 (1959), 45-47. 277 Jacobson, Alver H. "Conflicts of Attitudes Toward the Boles of Husband and Wife in Marriage," American Sociological Beview, 17 (1952), 146-150. Kelly, E. Lowell. "Marital Compatibility as Belated to Personality Traits of Husbands and Wives as Bated by Self and Spouse," Journal of Social Psychology. 13 (1941), 193-198. ------------------------ King, Charles E. "The Burgess-Cottrell Method of Measur ing Marital Adjustment Applied to a Non-White Southern Urban Population," Marriage and Family Living. 14 (1952), 280-285. ----- ----------- Kirkpatrick, Clifford. "Inconsistency in Marriage Boles and Marriage Conflict," The International Journal of Ethics. 46 (1936), 44&-TP50.------------------ Kolb, William L. "Sociologically Established Family Norms and Democratic Values," Social Forces. 26 (1948), 451-456.------------- ------------ Komarovsky, Mirra. "Cultural Contradictions and Sex Boles," American Journal of Sociology. 52 (1946). 184-189.--------5 ----------------- LaForge, Bobert, and Suczek, Balph. "An Interpersonal Check List," Journal of Personality. 24 (1955). 94-112. Landis, Judson T. "Time Bequired to Achieve Marriage Adjustment." American Sociological Beview, 11 (1946), 666-677:--------- ---------- Leary, Timothy, and Coffey, Hubert S. "Interpersonal Diagnosis: Some Problems of Methodology and Validation." Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychol ogy, 50 (1955); 113=124:------~ -------------*---- Levinson, Daniel J., and Huffman, Phyllis E. "Tradi tional Family Ideology and Its Belation to Person ality," Journal of Personality. 23 (1955), 251-273. Locke, Harvey J., and Wallace, Karl M. "Short Marital- Adjustment and Prediction Tests: Their Beliability and Validity," Marriage and Family Living, 21 (1959)» 251-255"-------------------- 278 Lu, Ti-Chuang. "Marital Roles and Marital Adjustment," Sociology and Social Research. 36 (1952), 364-368. _______ . "Predicting Roles in Marriage," American Journal of Sociology, 58 (1952), 51-55• Luchey, Eleanore Braun. "Marital Satisfaction and Its Association with Congruence of Perception," Marriage and Family Living, 22 (I960), 49-54. . "Marital Satisfaction and Parent Concepts," Journal of Consulting Psycholo-qr. 24 (i960), 195-204. Mangus, A. R. "Family Impacts on Mental Health," Marriage and Family Living. 19 (1957), 257-262. "Role Theory and Marriage Counseling," Social Forces. 35 (1957), 100-209. Martindale, Don. "Talcott Parsons' Theoretical Meta morphosis from Social Behaviorism to Macrofunction alism," Alpha Kappa Deltan, 29 (1959), 38-46. Motz, Annabelle. "The Role Conception Inventory: A Tool for Research in Social Psychology," American Sociological Review. 17 (1952), 465-471. Neiman, Lionel J., and Hughes, James W. "The Problem of the Concept of Role— A Re-survey of the Literature," Social Forces, 30 (1951), 141-149. Ort, Robert S. "A Study of Role-Conflict as Related to Happiness in Marriage," The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 45 (195&), 691-699. Preston, Malcolm, Peltz, William, Mudd, Emily, and Froscher, Hazel. "Impressions of Personality as a Function of Conflict," The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 47 (1^52), 326-333. Rose, Arnold M. "Adequacy of Women's Expectations for Adult Roles," Social Forces, 30 (1951), 69-77• Seward, Georgene H. "Culture Conflict and the Feminine Role: An Experimental Study," Journal of Social Psychology, 22 (1945), 177-194. Sheerer, Elizabeth. "An Analysis of the Relationship between Acceptance of and Respect for Self and Acceptance of and Respect for Others," Journal of Consulting Psychology. 13 (1949), 169-1751 279 Steinmann, Anne 6. "The Concept of the Feminine Role in the American Family: A Study of the Concept of the Feminine Sole of Fifty-one Middle-Class American Families,” Dissertation Abstracts, 19 (1958) 899. _______ . "Lack of Communication Between Men and Women," Marriage and Family Living, 20 (1958), 350-552. Stock, Dorothy. 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"Personality Characteristics— Ideal and Perceived in Relation to Mate Selection." Unpub lished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Southern California, 1961. Kotlar, Sally L. "Attitude Differentials and Their Relationship to Marital Adjustment." Unpublished Master's thesis, University of Southern California, 1959. 280 Lu, Yi-Chuang. "A Study of Dominant, Equalitarian, and Submissive Roles in Marriage." Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1950. Rosenstein, Albert J. "A Comparative Study of the Role Conflict, Marital Adjustment, and Personality Configuration of Private Adoptive and Agency Adoptive Parents." Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Southern California, I960. Wallace, Earl Miles. "Construction and Validation of Marital Adjustment and Prediction Scales." Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Southern California, 194-7•

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Creator Kotlar, Sally Lee (author)

Core Title Middle-Class Marital Roles - Ideal And Perceived In Relation To Adjustment In Marriage

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Sociology

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag OAI-PMH Harvest,psychology, social

Language English

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Advisor Peterson, James A. (committee chair), Lefever, David Welty (committee member), McDonagh, Edward C. (committee member)

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