The widely accepted but little scrutinized explanatory framework for documented effects of unemployment, the deprivation hypothesis, is based on the claim that unemployment deprives one of, and employment imposes on one, experience within five crucial categories, quite apart from financial impoverishment. In this study we describe a qualitative empirical examination of 11 unemployed people who are experiencing material but not psychological deprivation and who have adopted a very proactive stance towards unemployment. Proactivity is characterized by a person choosing to initiate, intervene in or reperceive situations in a way which allows the person (agent) to act in valued directions rather than respond passively to imposed change. The deprivation framework is discussed in the light of this study, and an alternative framework based on the assumption of personal agency as characterizing both employed and unemployed people is commended. Implications for research on unemployment and leisure are drawn.

SummaryThis paper presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of the nature of trust at work. Use is made of the facet approach to generate a de®nitional framework of trust, and this is proposed as a theoretical basis for the analysis of the structural characteristics of trust. Hypotheses regarding the relations between the de®nitional framework and empirical observations were tested by applying Smallest Space Analysis to analyse data collected from a sample of 398 colliery workmen, using questionnaires developed on the basis of the faceted de®nition. The results demonstrate strong support for the de®nitional framework suggested for the concept of trust and its construct validity. The results also suggest a possible distinction workers make between trust and mistrust and, between the speci®cs of activities to do with the job itself versus managers in general.

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Certain problems associated with the use of deficiency scores in job attitude research are presented. A logical and a psychological constraint are identified and their operation is demonstrated with empirical and simulated studies. Part correlation and partial correlation techniques are recommended as ways of interpreting relationships between deficiency scores and other variables.