Terri Orbuch - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Terri Orbuch

Teaching Sociology, Oct 1, 1991

Initial book layout and the development of most of the first 15 chapters • Deborahcragun Deborah ... more Initial book layout and the development of most of the first 15 chapters • Deborahcragun Deborah Cragun, MS Human Genetics; employed as a genetic counselor at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center • Contribution: Developed the chapters on health care and medicine and race and ethnicity. Conflict theory was elaborated in the United Kingdom by Max Gluckman and John Rex, in the United States by Lewis A. Coser and Randall Collins, and in Germany by Ralf Dahrendorf, all of whom were influenced by Karl Marx, Ludwig Gumplovicz, Vilfredo Pareto, Georg Simmel, and other founding fathers of European sociology. Recent moral panics in the UK have included the ongoing tabloid newspaper campaign against pedophiles, which led to the assault and persecution of a pediatrician by an angry, if semiliterate, mob in August 2000, and that surrounding the murder of James Bulger in Liverpool, England in 1993. (See this page for examples of moral panic.

Journal of Family Issues, Sep 1, 1995

Research in Human Development, Oct 1, 2020

In-law relationships can act as sources of both support and stress for couples. Independent of th... more In-law relationships can act as sources of both support and stress for couples. Independent of the nature of the actual relationships with in-laws, it may be that couple similarity in perceptions of these ties determines if they undermine or facilitate marital stability. The current study sought to examine how spousal connections to in-laws and concordance about these relationships early in marriage predicted marital stability in a sample of 355 Black and White married couples followed over 16 years. Husbands and wives reported on time spent with families, whose family they turn to for support, and closeness with families during their first year of marriage. Analyses revealed that discordance on these issues early in marriage was common. We found that even after controlling for husband and wife reports of connections with in-laws, discordance on closeness with the wife’s family predicted divorce. Thus, when conceptualizing the costs and benefits of connections with in-laws, it is important to consider not only the nature of spouses’ ties to each other’s families, but the extent to which their views of these ties are concordant.

Personal Relationships, Sep 1, 2019

Guided by stress process perspectives, this study conceptualizes marital conflict as a multidimen... more Guided by stress process perspectives, this study conceptualizes marital conflict as a multidimensional stressor to assess how three aspects of conflict-frequency of disagreements, breadth of disagreements, and cumulative disagreements-impact subjective health. Longitudinal data of married couples spanning 16 years (n = 373 couples) were analyzed using multilevel modeling. For husbands, more frequent disagreements than usual within a given year were associated with poorer subjective health. For wives, the greater cumulative effects of disagreements over 16 years were harmful for subjective health. We discuss how gendered self-representations and relationship power issues help explain the findings. This research demonstrated the importance of examining multiple aspects of marital conflict to reveal that their subjective health consequences function differently for wives and husbands. K E Y W O R D S conflict, dyadic data analysis, gender differences, health, marriage 1 | INTRODUCTION The health-enhancing effects of marriage are well documented. Married individuals tend to fare better on subjective and objective indicators of health compared to nonmarried individuals, including

Family Relations, Apr 1, 2008

We examine the effects of subjective and organizational religious participation on marital stabil... more We examine the effects of subjective and organizational religious participation on marital stability over time for urban Black American couples and White American couples who participated in a longitudinal project. Our findings indicated that the role religiosity plays in the stability of marriage over time varied by gender and race. Black husbands and wives reported that religion was more important to them and that they attended religious services more frequently than White husbands and wives. Greater service attendance was predictive of decreased odds of divorce, only when reported by wives. Interaction effects revealed that the effect was more notable among White wives. Practitioners should consider the diversity between and within couples and the sociohistorical contexts in which marriages are embedded.

Journal of Marriage and Family, Sep 29, 2010

This study examined self-reported marital conflict behaviors and their implications for divorce. ... more This study examined self-reported marital conflict behaviors and their implications for divorce. Husbands and wives (N = 373 couples; 47% White American, 53% Black American) reported conflict behaviors in years 1, 3, 7, and 16 of their marriages. Individual behaviors (e.g., destructive behaviors) and patterns of behaviors between partners (e.g., withdrawal-constructive) in Year 1 predicted higher divorce rates. Wives' destructive and withdrawal behaviors decreased over time, whereas husbands' conflict behaviors remained stable. Husbands reported more constructive and less destructive behaviors than wives and Black American couples reported more withdrawal than White American couples. Findings support behavioral theories of marriage demonstrating that conflict behaviors predict divorce and accommodation theories indicating that conflict behaviors become less negative over time.

Social Forces, Sep 1, 1997

Research consistently documents that women do most of the housework and childcare within thefamil... more Research consistently documents that women do most of the housework and childcare within thefamily, but the explanation for gender inequity within the home is not well understood. One explanation focuses on the distribution of structural resources by gender, which in turn influences the division of household labor. Another concentrates on cultural expectations aboutgendered responsibilities in the home. We argue that an adequate explanation must integrate both structural and culturalfactors. We also assess the effect of husbands'participation in home labor on marital well-beingfor black andfor white wives. The sample is representative offirst marrages of blacks and whites in an urban county. Findings show thatpart of the effect of relative resources on the allocation of home labor is due to their mutual association with couple norms. Further, husbands' participation in home labor is related positively to marital well-being but onlyfor black wives. In the past decade, much research has focused on gender inequity in the home. Recent findings show that women perform two to three times as much housework as their husbands or cohabiting partners (Demo & Acock 1993), but the explanation for this gender inequity in the home is not well understood. In contributing to

Psychological Science, May 1, 2009

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Apr 1, 2002

The present study examines the early development of marriage for a representative sample of urban... more The present study examines the early development of marriage for a representative sample of urban white couples and black couples. We are interested in predicting the stability of these marriages over the first 14 years of marriage. First, we assess whether objective social and economic conditions account for divorce over time. These factors focus on oppressive social conditions, lower status positions in society, and challenges of parenthood and family responsibilities. Next, we concentrate on perceived interactive processes between spouses that are critical for maintaining a relationship over time. We postulate that race, gender, and time act as contexts in which to understand the quality and impact of structure and the perceptions of interaction in predicting divorce. Results indicate that both race and education are critical to the risk of divorce over 14 years. Perceived interactional processes are also important to divorce, but often depend on the contexts of race and gender.

Marriage and Family Review, Jun 5, 2000

This paper examines data from a panel study on the long-term effects of parental marital quality ... more This paper examines data from a panel study on the long-term effects of parental marital quality and divorce on relationships between parents and adult children. Attention is focused on whether these effects vary by age and gender of child as well as the theoretical explanations linking mother-father and parent-child relations. The relational quality between adult children (18-31 years old) and

Journal of Loss & Trauma, Mar 10, 2020

This study examines the links between domestic violence, coping strategies, perceived social supp... more This study examines the links between domestic violence, coping strategies, perceived social support, and mental health outcomes among a cross-section of 131 South Asian women in Hong Kong. Our findings show that domestic violence, maladaptive coping, and perceived lack of social support were significantly linked to greater depressive symptomatology, accounting for 35% of the total variance in depressive symptomatology. Results also indicate that for domestic violence survivors, frequent use of maladaptive coping was related to the presence of more depressive symptomatology. Strategies to reduce the burden of women's mental health distress should include early determination and prevention of domestic abuse and stressors, increased social support, and efforts to promote alternative behaviors and skills in coping with stressful life situations.

Developmental Psychology, Oct 1, 2017

Married couples may experience tension over the course of marriage. By assessing 355 newlywed cou... more Married couples may experience tension over the course of marriage. By assessing 355 newlywed couples over 16 years, the study examined the change of marital tension over time and the relationship between marital tension and divorce. Results revealed that the feeling of marital tension was related to the possibility of divorce especially for wives more than husbands.

Journal of Sex Research, Aug 1, 1991

... 28, No. 3, pp. 387-408 August, 1991 The Effect of Current Sexual Behavior on Friendship, Dati... more ... 28, No. 3, pp. 387-408 August, 1991 The Effect of Current Sexual Behavior on Friendship, Dating, and Marriage Desirability SUSAN SPRECHER, Ph.D., and KATHLEEN McKINNEY, Ph.D. Illinois State University TERRI L. ORBUCH, Ph.D. University of Michigan ...

Springer eBooks, Nov 27, 2006

... In addition, the science of interper-sonal relationships has advanced the field of social psy... more ... In addition, the science of interper-sonal relationships has advanced the field of social psychology (Felmlee & Sprecher, 2000; Orbuch & Veroff, in 2002). ... According to Felmlee's (1995,1998) research, 30-45% of relationships Page 8. 346 Terri L. Orbuch and Susan Sprecher ...

Oxford University Press eBooks, Jun 24, 2010

... Social Networks and Marital Stability Among Black American and White American Couples Edna Br... more ... Social Networks and Marital Stability Among Black American and White American Couples Edna Brown, Terri L. Orbuch, and Artie Maharaj Numerous ... These family ties also lay the foundation for whether support experienced during difficult periods the couple may face will have ...

Springer eBooks, 1992

Social psychologists in sociology are often concerned with the reciprocal impact of social struct... more Social psychologists in sociology are often concerned with the reciprocal impact of social structure and individual behavior (House, 1977; House & Mortimer, 1990; McCall & Simmons, 1978; Stryker & Statham, 1985).

Annual Review of Sociology, Aug 1, 1997

Humans are inexorably driven to search for order and meaning in their own and others' lives; ... more Humans are inexorably driven to search for order and meaning in their own and others' lives; accounts are a major avenue for sociologists to depict and understand the ways in which individuals experience and identify with that meaning and their social world. The accounts concept has a solid foundation and history in early sociological analysis and research. The current work on accounts focuses on “story-like” interpretations or explanations and their functions and consequences to a social actor's life. The concept is useful for gaining insight into the human experience and arriving at meanings or culturally embedded normative explanations. This concept deserves greater explicit attention in sociology and is in need of further theoretical development and stimulation. I argue that sociologists should embrace the concept of accounts; the foundation is set for a resurgence of work on accounts in sociology.

British Journal of Social Psychology, Sep 1, 1992

Recent years have seen a resurgence of theory and research on the topic ofaccounts and account ma... more Recent years have seen a resurgence of theory and research on the topic ofaccounts and account making. Social scientists from various disciplines have been increasingly concerned with the definition, structure, function and theory of accounts and account making. Some of these scholars have focused on accounts as naturalistic story-like constructions in a variety of social situations, containing plot, characters, attributions and affect; while others have concentrated on accounts as people's tendency to protect self, regain control, or justify/excuse their behaviour in a failure event or situations that are potentially blameworthy. The second auspicious focus is evident in the theoretical framework and findings presented in the book Account Episodes. Theoretically, Schiinbach pursues the concept of accounts in the traditional 'Goffmanian way' and defines an account 'as a special explanation: an account is an answer to an explicit or implicit question guided by a normative expectation' (p. 5). His approach extends and broadens past theoretical endeavours on accounts by depicting an episode as interactional in nature and assuming that participants in an account episode are vulnerable in their needs for control and self-protection or enhancement. Each account episode contains rninimally two agents, an actor and an opponent, through four phases: a failure event in which the actor is held at least partly responsible for the violation of a normative expectation; a reproach phase in which the opponent reacts to the failure event with a mild or severe reproach; an account phase in which the actor offers an excuse or justification; and an evaluation phase in which the opponent evaluates the account, the failure in light of the account, or the actor's personality in light of the failure and the account. These processes can occur at both socio-cultural and interpersonal levels. The book as a whole is well organized, tightly laid out in terms of its flow and style, and extremely thought provoking. The book begins by focusing on theoretical considerations and then moves to experimental investigation. One is struck by the breadth and depth of empirical research introduced in the book. Over 12 separate research studies are represented, all conducted by Schonbach and his colleagues. Schonbach reviews literature relevant to his accounts work; logically and coherently introduces his theoretical arguments; solidly links testable hypotheses to his theoretical assumptions; presents study designs, vignettes and coding strategies in detail; and discusses interpretations and future directions for research based on the results of the studies. Schonbach does an admirable job in recounting an integrated and extensive research programme. He should be praised for the meticulous and conscientious manner in which these interconnected studies were designed and conducted, and further, for the clarity by which they are explained and presented in the book. In addition, his passion for the work and theory are quite evident throughout the book. At the end of the book, Schonbach offers limitations and challenges others to pursue this extensive line of work. There are several core insights that a reader is likely to glean from this book. First, for the young scholar or student, develop an organized research programme early in one's career, so that a presentation as such is possible. Second, according to Schonbach. account making is an interactive process, whether or not opponendactor is directly engaged in the stages of reproach or evaluation. Third, this integrated research programme was designed to manipulate situational, procedural and dispositional variables at the reproach, account and evaluation phases of the account episode. Thus, rather than address the entire account episode in one general study, each experimental study paid careful attention to a specific phasehariable in the account episode. This approach was fruitful in the end. Lastly, Schonbach argues that persons have a desire for order and reliability in the world around them, and when that doesn't occur they restore order and justice by developing an account. Given this argument, what might scholars who focus on accounts as story-like constructions in a variety of social situations learn from Schonbach's theoretical approach on accounts? Can Schonbachb theoretical arguments and account episode phases be applied to differerit social situations, including situations that are not typically labelled as failure events and situations that are not confined to involving people's

The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology