BASIC RESEARCH ON CHANGING MARITAL RELATIONSHIPS

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DESCRIPTION (Adapted from applicant's abstract): A series of eight proximal marital intervention studies is proposed, based on an empirically grounded theory of marriage (balance theory) derived from the PI's prospective studies on divorce prediction. The studies are to be conducted in a marriage social psychophysiology laboratory in which synchronized, on-line emotional behavior, physiology and self-report of affect are obtained. The eight studies are interventions designed to create proximal changes in marriages, that is, to improve the second of two conflict-resolution marital discussions couples have in the laboratory. Improvement is defined in terms of research on divorce prediction and on the correlates of marital satisfaction. The eight studies are designed to represent the complete eight components of a marital assessment and intervention, and to empirically build theory.; Because only one thing at a time is changed, they can be described as experiments on the proximal effects of specific changes to the three domains of Gottman's core triad balance model (behavior, cognition, and physiology). Interventions are organized around three goals for intervention, which come from parameters of a parsimonious nonlinear dynamic mathematical model. The goals are decreased negative affect reciprocity, increasing the uninfluenced set point, and making the change between influenced and uninfluenced set point more positive. While stated behaviorally so that they can be derived from interaction, they are presented as indices of marital interaction quality in all domains of measurement. The divorce prediction studies also revealed that there are three types of stable couples (volatile, conflict avoiding), and the fourth experiment study is an aptitude-by-treatment interaction study, testing whether specific approaches for teaching empathy with the three types of marriages are more effective than a generic intervention.