Executive control of married and cohabiting couples

Attention mechanisms of 125 couples were assessed to determine whether married and cohabiting couples differ in their levels of executive control. Executive control is the attention network that is responsible for resolving cognitive conflicts among competing responses. Of the 125 couples, 85 were married (48 after premarital cohabitation) and 40 were in cohabiting unions. Executive control was assessed with a cognitive task, the Attentional Network Task. The participants’ task was to identify the direction of a central arrow that was surrounded by flanker arrows. As predicted, cohabiting couples exhibited stronger deficits in executive control than married ones, after controlling for demographic confounders. Moreover, similar differences in executive control were observed between the subsample of married couples who cohabited with their spouses prior to marriage and currently cohabiting couples. Taken together, our results reveal that cohabiting couples have more trouble responding to some stimuli while ignoring extraneous stimuli.     

Marital processes predictive of later dissolution: behavior, physiology, and health.

Seventy-three married couples were studied in 1983 and 1987. To identify marital processes associated with dissolution, a balance theory of marriage was used to generate 1 variable for dividing couples into regulated and nonregulated groups. For studying the precursors of divorce, a "cascade" model of marital dissolution, which forms a Guttman-like scale, received preliminary support. Compared with regulated couples, nonregulated couples had (a) marital problems rated as more severe (Time 1); (b) lower marital satisfaction (Time 1 and Time 2); (c) poorer health (Time 2); (d) smaller finger pulse amplitudes (wives); (e) more negative ratings for interactions; (f) more negative emotional expression; (g) less positive emotional expression; (h) more stubbornness and withdrawal from interaction; (i) greater defensiveness; and (j) greater risk for marital dissolution (lower marital satisfaction and higher incidence of consideration of dissolution and of actual separation).     

Forgiveness in relation to attachment style and consanguine marriage in Iranian married individuals

The aim of this study was to compare forgiveness in secure and insecure Iranian married couples. Whether marriage had occurred within the family (consanguine) or not (non-consanguine) was also considered. 400 married participants completed the Family Forgiveness Scale and the Adult Attachment Questionnaire. Analysis of reported forgiveness within the marital family showed that, although there was no significant difference between secure and insecure participants in overall forgiveness, secure participants rated "reparation" and "resolution" higher, whereas insecure participants rated "realization" and "recognition" higher. Comparing the experience of forgiveness in the family of origin, securely attached couples not only reported significantly more overall forgiveness but reported more "realization" and "resolution" while forgiving. Some interesting sex differences were also found, as individuals in consanguine vs non-consanguine couples differed in mean "recognition" in the forgiveness process.     

Effect of Gender and Life-Stage on Love Styles in the Indian Context

This study examined how love styles evolve over a period of time and if gender shapes the use of love styles. The sample comprised 120 people (60 males and 60 females): 20 couples in a dating relationship, 20 couples married for less than 2 years (childless) and 20 couples married for more than 15 years (with children). The sample consisted of Indian population and only those married couples were selected who had married out of ‘love’. Results indicated significant differences across life stages for Eros, decreasing progressively with life stages. No other love style differed significantly across life styles. Gender differences were found on Pragma and Mania, with females using both Pragma and Mania more than males, in line with the evolutionary perspective.     

Three-year follow-up of same-sex couples who had civil unions in Vermont, same-sex couples not in civil unions, and heterosexual married couples

This study was a 3-year follow-up of 65 male and 138 female same-sex couples who had civil unions in Vermont during the 1st year of that legislation. These couples were compared with 23 male and 61 female same-sex couples in their friendship circles who did not have civil unions and with 55 heterosexual married couples (1 member of each was a sibling to a member of a civil union couple). Despite the legalized nature of their relationships, civil union couples did not differ on any measure from same-sex couples who were not in civil unions. However, same-sex couples not in civil unions were more likely to have ended their relationships than same-sex civil union or heterosexual married couples. Compared with heterosexual married participants, both types of same-sex couples reported greater relationship quality, compatibility, and intimacy and lower levels of conflict. Longitudinal predictors of relationship quality at Time 2 included less conflict, greater level of outness, and a shorter relationship length for men in same-sex relationships and included less conflict and more frequent sex for women in same-sex relationships at Time 1.     

Gender differences in power and self-disclosure in dating and married couples

The relationship between power and self-disclosure was studied for 20 dating and 20 married couples. Power and self-disclosure scales (of feelings and of accomplishments) were constructed and administered individually. We hypothesized that: (1) Women disclose more about feelings than men. (2) Men disclose more about accomplishments than women. (3) Power is positively correlated with disclosure of accomplishments. (4) Power is negatively correlated with disclosure of feelings and weaknesses. (5) Dating men are more powerful than dating women, but there are no gender differences in power in marriage. Hypotheses 1,3, and 5 were supported. Hypotheses 2 and 4 were rejected. Our findings revealed that there were no differences in power or disclosure of accomplishments between men and women for the total group. However, a significant interaction was found between gender and marital status for power. Dating men had more power than dating women, but married women had more power than married men. Last, women disclosed more feelings than men across both groups.     

Attitudinal ambivalence, rumination, and forgiveness of partner transgressions in marriage

Although positive and negative attitudes toward a transgressor are related to increased and decreased forgiveness, respectively, prior research has failed to investigate forgiveness among those who feel both positively and negatively toward a transgressor. Therefore, the authors examined such ambivalence and its relationship to forgiveness. It was hypothesized that spouses with ambivalent attitudes toward their partner will be less forgiving of a partner transgression because such an event is likely to prime the negative component of their ambivalence. Because ruminating about a transgression also has the potential to prime the negative component of one's ambivalence, an interaction between rumination and ambivalence was predicted. Data from 87 married couples showed that greater attitudinal ambivalence toward the partner was associated with decreased forgiveness only when husbands and wives thought about the transgression frequently; ambivalence was not related to forgiveness in the absence of rumination. The implications of these findings for understanding forgiveness in marriage and for increasing forgiveness among married couples are discussed.     

More than One Way to be Happy: A Typology of Marital Happiness

This study utilized observational and self‐report data from 57 happily married couples to explore assumptions regarding marital happiness. Suggesting that happily married couples are not a homogeneous group, cluster analyses revealed the existence of three types of couples based on their observed behaviors in a problem‐solving task: (1) mutually engaged couples (characterized by both spouses' higher negative and positive problem‐solving); (2) mutually supportive couples (characterized by both spouses' higher positivity and support); and (3) wife compensation couples (characterized by high wife positivity). Although couples in all three clusters were equally happy with and committed to their marriages, these clusters were differentially associated with spouses' evaluations of their marriage. Spouses in the mutually supportive cluster reported greater intimacy and maintenance and less conflict and ambivalence, although this was more consistently the case in comparison to the wife compensation cluster, as opposed to the mutually engaged cluster. The implications of these typologies are discussed as they pertain to efforts on the part of both practitioners to promote marital happiness and repair marital relations when couples are faced with difficulties.     

Spouse similarities in personality traits for intra- and interethnic marriages in Israel

An abbreviated version of the Comrey Personality Scales (CPS) was administered to 220 Israeli couples, divided ethnically into endogamous Western, endogamous Eastern, and cross-ethnic Eastern x Western background. Two hypotheses were examined: (1) that cross-ethnic couples would show greater similarity in some personality traits than intra-ethnic marriages, and (2) that females and males married cross-ethnically would differ from same-sex, same-ethnicity individuals married within their own ethnic group in certain background and personality characteristics. It was found that cross-ethnic couples had, indeed, higher intra-couple correlations for Empathy than endogamous couples. Western women and Eastern men in interethnic marriages had higher mean scores for Activity and lower means for Conformity than those of same sex and ethnicity in endogamous marriages. Intermarrying Western wives were more extraverted while intermarrying Eastern men were more introverted. On the whole, interethnic marriages were found to be similar to Western marriages in educational level and several attributes of Western lifestyle.     

Differentiating Between Attachment Styles and Behaviors and their Association with Marital Quality

The purpose of this study was to distinguish between the influence of attachment styles and behaviors on marital quality for couples. Data were gathered from 680 couples in a married relationship. Results showed attachment style and behaviors predicted marital quality for both men and women, with higher levels of attachment related to greater quality. Attachment behaviors predicted more of the variance in quality than did styles. Specific implications regarding how therapists may wish to foster behaviors that promote attachment security in marriages are discussed.     

Interaction of sex role self-concept with relationship quality and relationship beliefs in married, heterosexual cohabiting, gay, and lesbian couples

The relation between sex role self-concept (masculine, feminine, undifferentiated, and androgynous) and both relationship quality and dysfunctional relationship beliefs was examined in 370 monogamous partners who represented four types of couples (married, heterosexual cohabiting, gay, and lesbian). Analyses used both the individual partner and the couple as the unit of analysis. The individual partner analyses revealed that relationship quality and relationship beliefs differed by subjects' sex role self-concept. Androgynous and feminine subjects reported higher relationship quality than masculine and undifferentiated subjects; androgynous subjects had fewer "disagreement is destructive" beliefs than feminine subjects; and androgynous subjects had fewer "partner cannot change" beliefs than undifferentiated subjects. The couple analyses revealed a relation between partners' sex role self-concept only for the heterosexual cohabiting couples. For these couples, masculine men tended to pair with feminine or undifferentiated women, and androgynous partners tended to pair together. Relative to other couples, couples in which one or both partners were androgynous or feminine reported the highest relationship quality, whereas couples in which one or both partners were undifferentiated or masculine reported the lowest relationship quality. These effects did not vary by type of couple. The study concluded that sex role self-concept is a robust factor in appraisals of relationship quality. Relative to masculine and undifferentiated individuals, androgynous and feminine individuals report greater positive relationship functioning.     

Long term marriages in Sweden: And some comparisons with similar couples in the United States

This international, five-country long term marriages study of couples who have been married, or unmarried and cohabiting, for 20 years or longer is designed to study, among other things, marital satisfaction. This first report of the Swedish part of the study reports on a Swedish version of the self-rating Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) used to investigate self-rated marital satisfaction. The couples describe high marital satisfaction and a high sense of coherence (SOC) compared to other groups. Contrary to other studies, no differences were found between men and women regarding SOC. The differences between them, that describe high relative to low marital satisfaction, pertain to matters of recreation, sex, life philosophy, time spent together, and frequency of quarrels. The men reported greater marital satisfaction than the women.     

Marital interaction: physiological linkage and affective exchange

Thirty married couples were studied during naturalistic interactions to determine the extent to which variation in marital satisfaction could be accounted for by physiological and affective patterns between and within spouses. The authors hypothesized that (a) compared to nondistressed couples' interactions, distressed couples' interactions would show greater physiological interrelatedness or "linkage," more negative affect, and more reciprocity of negative affect and (b) these differences would be more pronounced when the interaction was high in conflict (discussing a marital problem) as opposed to low in conflict (discussing the events of the day). Heart rate, skin conductance, pulse transmission time, and somatic activity from both spouses were analyzed using bivariate time-series techniques to derive a measure of physiological linkage. Self-report affective data (obtained using a video-recall procedure) were analyzed using sequential analyses to derive a measure of affect reciprocity. The hypotheses were strongly supported; 60% of the variance in marital satisfaction was accounted for using measures of physiological linkage alone. Additional nonredundant variance was accounted for by the other physiological and affective measures.     

Surviving relationship threats: the role of emotional capital

In this article, a Theory of Emotional Capital is investigated, which stipulates that relationships are able to withstand threats when partners have built "emotional capital" within the relationship (by contributing to positive, shared experiences). Support for this idea was obtained in two studies using two samples (newlywed couples and more established married couples) and two methodologies (daily diary and observational methods). Both studies showed that individuals with high emotional capital were less reactive to relationship threats than those with low emotional capital. The importance of emotional capital for healthy and stable relationships is discussed.     

Assortative matching for sex-role and marriage adjustment

Eighty-two middle-class married couples were administered the Bem Sex-role Inventory, a newly derived Behavioral Inventory measuring sex-role by task performance and the Spanier Dyadic Adjustment Scale. It was hypothesized that individuals are assortatively matched by sex-role in marriage, that all-androgynous couples have greater marriage adjustment (MA) than stereotypic couples who are, in turn, higher than ‘other’ couples (undifferentiated or cross-type), and that there is an interaction effect with certain combinations more deleterious to MA than others. All hypotheses were supported and evidence presented that matching occured by selection rather than as a result of living together. In addition, subsequent analysis indicated that men's sex-roles are more associated with MA than women's sex-roles.     

Comparison of the function of exchange in couples of similar and differing physical attractiveness

Couples (22 young, married, 18 young unmarried) completed the Exchange Orientation Scale, which measures how much individuals believe equality of exchange should characterize their social relationships, as well as the Norman Personality Trait Scale, which gives measures for the self and ideal-self. Couples also rated their sexual satisfaction, their partners' physical attractiveness, their own attractiveness, and had their photographs evaluated for attractiveness by disinterested raters. Subgroups were formed of physically attractive couples, couples in which the members were of disparate attractiveness, and couples in which the individuals perceived themselves as equal to their partners in attractiveness or as inferior. In accordance with exchange theory, the hypotheses were (1) unmarried men would show higher exchange scores than married men, (2) attractive men in disparately attractive couples would show greater exchange scores than attractive men in both-attractive couples, (3) attractive members of disparately attractive couples would possess lower self-acceptance and (4) experience greater sexual satisfaction than attractive members of both-attractive couples. Results supported all hypotheses in varying extents.     

Personality and compatibility: a prospective analysis of marital stability and marital satisfaction

The antecedents of marital stability (divorce or remaining married) and marital satisfaction (within the group that remains married) were investigated with a panel of 300 couples who were followed from their engagements in the 1930s until 1980. Twenty-two of the couples broke their engagements; of the 278 couples who married, 50 got divorced at some time between 1935 and 1980. Personality characteristics (measured by acquaintance ratings made in the 1930s) were important predictors of both marital stability and marital satisfaction. The three aspects of personality most strongly related to marital outcome were the neuroticism of the husband, the neuroticism of the wife, and the impulse control of the husband. In combination, the 17 major antecedent variables were moderately predictive of a criterion variable composed of both marital stability and marital satisfaction (R = .49). The three major aspects of personality accounted for more than half of the predictable variance. The remaining variance was accounted for by attitudinal, social-environment, and sexual history variables.     

What Do We Know About Gay and Lesbian Couples?

Abstract— Research on gay and lesbian couples is highlighted with regard to household labor, conflict, satisfaction, perceived social support, stability, and the variables that predict relationship quality. Relative to partners from married heterosexual couples, partners from gay and lesbian couples tend to assign household labor more fairly, resolve conflict more constructively, experience similar levels of satisfaction, and perceive less support from family members but more support from friends. The limited data available indicate that gay and lesbian couples may be less stable than married heterosexual couples. The factors that predict relationship quality tend to be the same for gay, lesbian, and heterosexual married couples. Overall, research paints a positive picture of gay and lesbian couples and indicates that they tend to be more similar to than different from heterosexual couples.     

Compensating strategies in collaborative remembering in very old couples

This study investigates collaborative memory performance in very old married couples working in two types of participant constellations, and with two types of memory tasks, i.e. working as couples, or as individuals in episodic or semantic memory tasks. Sixty-two old married couples were a priori classified as high or low on two dimensions suggested to be important for successful collaboration, i.e. responsibility (how division of responsibility was organized) and agreement (how they mutually agreed on each other's view). The episodic memory task was immediate recall of short stories. The semantic memory tasks were to answer questions about names, places, and concepts. The results suggested that: (1) groups outperformed a single individual, but (2) groups in general suffered from collaboration relative to the predicted potential in episodic tasks only, thus replicating earlier results. Nevertheless, (3) the couples scoring high on division of responsibility achieved the same productivity as nominal pairs (i.e. the predicted potential); (4) the couples scoring high on the agreement dimension showed that they were not as affected by collaboration, but then performed less well in "absolute" performance. Finally, the results were discussed in terms of optimal compensation strategies, especially for elderly couples.     

Communication,conflict, and commitment: insights on the foundations of relationship success from a national survey

The key relationship dynamics of communication, conflict, and commitment were investigated using data from a randomly sampled, nationwide phone survey of adults in married, engaged, and cohabiting relationships. Findings on communication and conflict generally replicated those of studies using more indepth or objective measurement strategies. Negative interaction between partners was negatively associated with numerous measures of relationship quality and positively correlated with divorce potential (thinking or talking about divorce). Withdrawal during conflict by either or both partners, though quite common, was associated with more negativity and less positive connection in relationships. The most frequently reported issue that couples argue about in first marriages was money, and in re-marriages it was conflict about children. Overall, how couples argue was more related to divorce potential than was what they argue about, although couples who argue most about money tended to have higher levels of negative communication and conflict than other couples. Further, while the male divorce potential was more strongly linked to levels of negative interaction, the female was more strongly linked to lower positive connection in the relationship. Consistent with the commitment literature, higher reported commitment was associated with less alternative monitoring, less feeling trapped in the relationship, and greater relationship satisfaction.