Studied 73 couples twice 4 years apart. Proposed typology of five groups of couples (validators, volatiles, avoiders, hostile, and hostile/detached) based on observational data of Time 1 resolution of conflict, specific affects, and affect sequences. Over four years, groups differed significantly in serious consideration of divorce and in…

Reviews studies which indicated physiological arousal, particularly of husband, as well as husband's stonewalling and the wife's verbal expressions of contempt, predicted longitudinal deterioration of marital satisfaction. Presents stages of disengagement and emotional withdrawal. (ABL)

Examined self-reports of affect in 30 married couples who engaged in dyadic interactions and then viewed their interactions on videotape. Self-reports of affect discriminated high- from low-conflict situations, correlated significantly with marital satisfaction, were coherent between spouses, and were significantly related to observers' coding of…

Assesses the types of conversational patterns--from cross-complaining to contracting--that characterize satisfied couples; suggests theoretical models that account for their success. Proposes the hypothesis that the underlying mechanism that maintains closeness in marriages is symmetry in emotional responsiveness, which relates to whether spouses…

Couples (N=21) rated their marital satisfaction and then participated in a task designed to measure nonverbal communicative competence independent of verbal competence. Results indicated a positive relationship between marital satisfaction and nonverbal competence but only for husbands reading their wives' nonverbal cues. (Author/RC)

Negative affect and negative affect reciprocity appear to be robust properties of marital interaction, and they also have been found to discriminate satisfied from dissatisfied marriages. There is more evidence of consistency across tasks using sequential rather than nonsequential variables. (Author)