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Goals and Marital Satisfaction: Perceived Support for Personal Goals and Collective Efficacy for Collective Goals

DOI:10.1521/jscp.21.2.157.22513
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Marc Kaplan
Marc Kaplan
Marc Kaplan
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James E. Maddux at George Mason University
James E. Maddux
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Abstract

This study examined the role of personal and shared goals in marital satisfaction. Two constructs were investigated. Perceived support for personal goals was defined as the degree to which a spouse views the marital relationship as facilitating or hindering achievement of his or her personal goals. Collective efficacy for collective goals was defined as the degree to which a spouse believes that the couple is capable of accomplishing its shared goals. It was hypothesized that each variable would make a unique contribution to the prediction of marital satisfaction. Results of a survey of 117 married couples supported this hypothesis.
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Goals and marital satisfaction: Perceived support for personal goals ...
Kaplan, Marc;Maddux, James E
Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology; Apr 2002; 21, 2; ProQuest
pg. 157
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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
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discusses concepts and measurement of social support and raises issues such as whether social support should be considered a unitary concept or several related concepts, or how differences in conceptualization are reflected in the ways social support has been measured / relates the functions of social support to the general functions groups serve for the individual / these group functions are discussed from the perspectives of major small group theories: attachment theory, social comparison theory, social influence theory, and exchange or interdependence theory / considers why group members support each other and interprets their motives in initiating and maintaining supportive interactions in terms of interdependence and attribution theory [review] the health outcomes of social support . . . and [present] a selective overview of studies that relate social support to mental and physical health as well as mortality / focuses on the functional relationship of social support to health in terms of main effect and buffering models / suggest different mechanisms to account for the 2 types of relationships (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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The most instructive aspect of the article by D. M. Paskevich, L. R. Brawley, K. D. Dorsch, and W. N. Widmeyer (1999) (see record 1999-03790-005) is not what it tells us about collective efficacy but what it tells us about the process by which psychological concepts are socially constructed. Collective efficacy is not an entity whose true nature remains undiscovered. It is an abstraction whose definition remains socially unconstructed. Recognition of this fact is the first step toward understanding collective efficacy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Personal Goals and Social Support in Close Relationships: Effects on Relationship Mood and Marital Satisfaction
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Personal Strivings. An Approach to Personality and Subjective Well-Being
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  • Nov 1986
Examined relations between characteristics of personal goal strivings (e.g., importance, past attainment, effort) and components of subjective well-being (positive and negative affect and life satisfaction). 40 undergraduates generated lists of their personal strivings and rated each striving on a series of dimensions. Ss also recorded their moods and thoughts by use of an experience-sampling method on 84 occasions over a 3-wk period. Positive affect was found to be most strongly related to striving value and past fulfillment, whereas negative affect was associated with low probability of future success, striving ambivalence, and between-striving conflict. Striving importance and instrumentality (low conflict) were the strongest predictors of life satisfaction. Possible explanations for the connections between striving fulfillment and positive affect and between striving conflict and negative affect are discussed. It is concluded that the concept of personal striving is a useful heuristic device for understanding individual differences in subjective well-being. The concept is proposed as an alternative to the traditional trait approach to personality. (71 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Personal Goals and Subjective Well-Being: A Longitudinal Study
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  • Nov 1993
This study examined the extent to which 3 dimensions of personal goals (commitment, attainability, and progress) were predictive of students' subjective well-being over 1 semester. At the beginning of a new term, 88 Ss provided a list of their personal goals. Goal attributes and subjective well-being were measured at 4 testing periods. Goal commitment was found to moderate the extent to which differences in goal attainability accounted for changes in subjective well-being. Progress in goal achievement mediated the effect of the goal commitment × goal attainability on subjective well-being interaction. Results are discussed in terms of a need for addition and refinement of assumptions linking personal goals to subjective well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A Generic Measure of Relationship Satisfaction
Article
  • Feb 1988
The variety of interpersonal relationships in contemporary society necessitates the development of brief, reliable measures of satisfaction that are applicable to many types of close relationships. This article describes the development of such a measure. In Study I, the 7-item Relationship Assessment Scale (RAS) was administered to 125 subjects who reported themselves to be "in love." Analyses revealed a unifactorial scale structure, substantial factor loadings, and moderate intercorrelations among the items. The scale correlated significantly with measures of love, sexual attitudes, self-disclosure, commitment, and investment in a relationship. In Study II, the scale was administered to 57 couples in ongoing relationships. Analyses supported a single factor, alpha reliability of .86, and correlations with relevant relationship measures. The scale correlated .80 with a longer criterion measure, the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (Spanier, 1976), and both scales were effective (with a subsample) in discriminating couples who stayed together from couples who broke up. The RAS is a brief, psychometrically sound, generic measure of relationship satisfaction.