Relationship Happiness Research Articles

The Politics of Literary Reputation: The Making and Claiming of "St. George" Orwell (review)

Reviews167 shared purpose—what might be called mutual creative articulation or constructiveness . Happiness in relationships, rather than a mere sensation, is bound up with a lived understanding of oneself and the other and the relationship achieved. While the thought in the introductory chapters is sophisticated and subde, I found the style there uninvitingly dense. By contrast, the later discussion of the literary examples is absorbing, especially in its consideration of Pride and Prejudice. Some contemporary versions of virtue ethics, however, with their emphasis both on the character ofthe agent and on the context ofaction, might be thought to provide a congenial philosophical framework for Eldridge's analysis . It is therefore disappointing that he chooses not to discuss them. University of AucklandStephen Davies The Politics ofLiterary Reputation: The Making and Claiming of"St. George" Orwell, byJohn Rodden; xiii & 478 pp. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989, $27.50. "The words of a dead man," Auden reminds us in his elegy, "In Memory of W. B. Yeats," "Are modified in the guts of the living." This sea change, the process through which the work of a real author is transformed into the rich and strange alimentary substances that satisfy a bewildering variety of hungers, is the subject ofJohn Rodden's ground-breaking study of literary reputations. His double task is suggested by the book's title and subtide: to provide a general theory of how cultural politics shape a writer's public image; to offer a case study of this process in the extraordinary reception of Orwell's work. A sophisticated theory of how literary reputations are established is long overdue. Despite the wide interest in reader-response theory and Rezeptions- ästhetik, these critical modes tend to fabricate an ideal reader rather than investigate real responses of particular readers. Rodden's method shifts the focus from what he calls the "single, unified, and abstract" reading public to "the actual historical receiver" (p. 70). Or rather, receivers: he demonstrates that a writer's work is read in contradictory ways, and that its reception is determined as much by the reader's idiosyncratic needs as by the work's intrinsic features. Reception, in this view, is contingent and beyond authorial control. It is shaped by various extra-textual forces—the hunger for gurus, coterie politics, institutional needs, historical accidents. The second and much longer part of Rodden's book analyzes exactly how 168Philosophy and Literature Orwell's work was appropriated by a wide range of individuals, groups, and institutions that found it useful—mandarins and populists, ideologues of left, right, and center, feminists, millennialists,journalists, advertisers. In each case, Rodden shows, the particular "receiver" reduces Orwell's multifaceted identity to a single "face" that suits the interpreter's needs. The varied career is first transformed into the unitary, static figure "Orwell" and then further reduced to match one of his predictable images: "rebel," "common man," "prophet," "saint." Rodden demonstrates that readers and movements produce a simplified or distorted "Orwell" that functions as positive or negative proof for their own ideological imperatives. In short, "we construct the Orwells we need" (p. 355). Rodden's detailed evidence is so conclusive that it tempts one to see reading as a Rorschach test and books as inkblots. He sees Orwell as "a human kaleidoscope whose variegated imagery has represented nearly all things to all people" (p. 400). His sense of the likelihood of objective reading is radically skeptical, despite his attempt to distinguish "portraits" from "caricatures" and his own awareness of the irreducible variety and complexity of Orwell's work. Rodden believes too strongly in authorial intention to ally himself with deconstruction , yet the evidence he accumulates confirms, perhaps unintentionally and certainly not in a celebratory fashion, the vision of the mythical author, the imperial reader, and the infinitely malleable text that that critical movement has popularized. Such conclusions will not hold for all reception histories. Here we are up against the inherent difficulty of using a particular case to construct a general theory. Orwell's career was in many ways unrepresentative. Its atypical elements gready destabilized his reception. He shunned literary movements; he wrote in a variety of genres and for disparate audiences; he was taken up by...

The Link Between Attributions and Happiness in Close Relationships: The Roles of Depression and Explanatory Style

This study examines whether depression and attributional style mediate the link between causal attributions and relationship happiness in close relationships. Seventy-one subjects (35 men and 36 women) in long-term premarital relationships were asked to imagine 20 hypothetical interactive behaviors within relationships that varied in terms of valency and self- or partner initiation. Subjects then completed a spontaneous attribution probe by stating what they would think and feel in response to each behavior, and these verbal protocols were taped. Causal attributions that occurred in these protocols were later coded as relationship-positive attributions or relationship-negative attributions. Causal judgments were also later directly elicited for each behavior on eight causal dimensions. Replicating previous research, results from both the spontaneous attribution probe and the causal scales suggested that happy partners produce attributions that enhance relationship quality, whereas unhappy partners produce attributions that maintain their current levels of distress. Moreover, regression analyses revealed a unique relation between relationship happiness and attributions that was not mediated by depression or explanatory style, indicating that neither depression nor explanatory style account for the link between attributions and relationship happiness.

Toward a motivational model of couple happiness.

The present study had two major objectives. The first was to investigate the validity of a motivational model of couple happiness based on self-determination theory. The second objective was to test the postulated simplex structure and the generalizability of the 6 forms of motivation proposed by this theory. Both members of 63 couples individually completed the Couple Motivation Questionnaire as well as measures of perceived couples' adaptive behaviors and of dyadic happiness. Results revealed that the proposed model of couple happiness was supported through significant path analyses explaining 61% and 55% of the variance of men's and women's relationship happiness, respectively. Empirical support was also provided for the postulated simplex structure. Results highlight the importance ofautonomy-driven processes as opposed to controlling and amotivated processes in the development and maintenance of the quality of couples' relationships.

The role of attributions in the development of dating relationships.

In this study, we examine the role of attributions in the context of dating relationships. A large sample completed a questionnaire comprising structured ratings and a free-response relationship description. As expected, cognitive or attributional activity was more frequent within relationships when they were in the early stages, when important choice points or changes were occurring, and when the relationships were perceived as unstable. Also as predicted, subjects who reported higher relationship happiness, commitment, and love for their partners tended to describe the relationship in more interpersonal terms, to rate the causal inputs of the partners as equal, and to attribute lower external attributions for relationship maintenance. Finally, some evidence was obtained that attributions for relationship maintenance are causally related to relationship happiness over a 2-month period. The results are discussed in terms of the relationship between cognitive processing and the development of dating relationships.

The prevalence and perceived aetiology of male sexual problems in a non-clinical sample.

One hundred and nine men (38 per cent single, 48 per cent married) participated in a survey of the prevalence of erectile and ejaculatory difficulty in a non-clinical sample. Perceived aetiology of erectile difficulty was also investigated. Twenty-three per cent of the sample were currently experiencing sexual problems, with ejaculatory difficulty approximately three times as prevalent as erectile difficulty. Nearly one-quarter had experienced erection difficulties at some time and, of these, 68 per cent had remitted without formal treatment. Most frequently cited 'causes' of erectile difficulty were 'psychological' rather than 'physical', 'practical' or specifically 'sexual,' with relationship factors including communication between partners being perceived as particularly important. The presence of erectile and/or ejaculatory difficulty was related to sexual dissatisfaction but not to ratings of relationship happiness. Men having sexual relationships outside their permanent relationship found their partner less sexually attractive and rated themselves as less happy than those men not having affairs but the two groups did not differ in terms of presence of sexual difficulty or sexual dissatisfaction. The limitations of a sample biased towards younger, more educated men, are discussed.

A Simulation Game to Systematically Improve Relationship Communication*

The present study investigated a simulation game designed to improve relationship communication. Eight couples were treated for relationship difficulties by the use of the game. Before and after the game's use, the couples' communication behavior in the counseling sessions was sampled by audio recordings that were later rated by independent blind raters. The couples' out‐of‐session communication behavior was sampled by daily independent charting for a month before and after the game's use. A three‐month follow‐up of self‐reported general relationship happiness and relationship communication satisfaction was included. Results indicated that in the counseling session sample, from pre‐ to post‐game treatment, the couples' communication improved. The couples also recorded significant out‐of‐session communication improvements. Three‐month follow‐up indicated that the increases in general relationship happiness and relationship communication satisfaction were maintained.