Examines psychometric and normative questions related to the Areas of Change Questionnaire (AC) for 163 couples. Results offered support for the AC as a measure of overall marital adjustment, revealed differences according to sex and distress, and found that length of marriage influenced actual and perceived requests for change. (LLL)

Presents data on the incidence of violence in 103 couples based on wife's or husband's report only, or both spouses' reports. More reports were by one spouse rather than by both spouses. More wives reported severe husband-to-wife aggression, more husbands reported other forms of aggression. Discusses the limitations of frequency data alone in…

Despite general trends for violence in marriage to escalate in frequency and intensity, there are some couples who, through their own efforts, stop being violent. Describes three such couples, with particular attention given to spouses' reports on the cessation of their violence. Discusses implications of these couples' experiences for the…

Investigated the relative effectiveness of therapeutic components common to behavioral marital therapies: procedures designed to change behavior and attitudes, and nonspecific therapeutic effects. Ordering produced three treatment conditions--nonspecific, behavioral, and behavioral-attitudinal. The behavioral-attitudinal group showed significantly…

Describes a treatment program for couples who mishandle anger or are physically abusive. The treatment endorses the elimination of demonstrations of anger and elaborates upon ways to identify preliminary anger cues. Abusiveness is unacceptable. Methods to improve problem-solving skills and to enhance overall enjoyment of the relationship are also…

Compared the interactional patterns of distressed (N=22) and nondistressed (N=17) couples through base rate and sequential analyses of communication samples that were coded with the Marital Interactional Coding System. Nondistressed couples emitted higher rates of problem-solving, verbal and nonverbal positive, and neutral behaviors. (Author)

Examined relationships among methods for assessing marital adjustment: self-reports of marital satisfaction, spouse reports of pleasing and displeasing behaviors, and trained observers' coding of positive and negative communication. Frequency of pleasing behaviors was only measure correlating with global marital satisfaction. Inverse relationships…

Compared affective responses of physically aggressive (PA), verbally aggressive (VA), withdrawing (WI), and nondistressed/nonaggressive (ND) couples during problem-oriented discussions. PA husbands exhibited more overtly negative behaviors, reported a more negative emotional state, and showed greater physiological arousal. PA wives demonstrated…

Explores advantages and disadvantages of behavioral marital therapy. Features of behavioral marital therapy implicated as important in the consideration of sex role issues include underlying assumptions of egalitarianism, external causality, and orientation toward action as well as specific procedures such as goal setting, behavioral exchange and…