Physiological and affective predictors of change in relationship satisfaction

Bibliographic Data

ID6202785
AuthorsRobert W Levenson (0000-0002-2036-793X, Indiana University Bloomington), John M Gottman
Year1985
Volume49
Issue1
Pages85-94
Publication date1985-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Personality and Social Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-3514 • E-ISSN: 1939-1315
PublisherAmerican Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1037/0022-3514.49.1.85
PMID4020618
OpenAlexW2074209190
LanguageEN
Citations received120
References cited10

In 1980, 30 married couples had engaged in a low-conflict and a high-conflict conversational interaction while continuous physiological data were obtained. In a separate session each spouse had provided a continuous self-report of affect while viewing the videotape of the interaction. In 1983, 19 of these couples were re-located to determine the change in relationship satisfaction that had occurred over the preceding 3 years. A broadly based pattern of physiological arousal (across spouses, interaction segments, and physiological measures) in 1980 was found to predict decline in marital satisfaction; the more aroused the couple was during the 1980 interactions, the more their marital satisfaction declined over the ensuing 3 years. Several affective variables also predicted decline in marital satisfaction, including a pronounced sex difference in negative affect reciprocity: Marital satisfaction declined most when husbands did not reciprocate their wives' negative affect, and when wives did reciprocate their husbands' negative affect

Affect (linguistics) · Arousal · Developmental psychology · Reciprocity (cultural anthropology) · Social relation · Spouse · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Cognitive and psychological constructs research · Communication · Psychology · Social Psychology

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