Some implications of Jewish marriage philosophy for marital breakdown

A clarification of some of the roots of marital breakdown is sought through examining the love relationship in Viktor Frankl's logotherapy and its theological counterparts in Judaism. Frankl's implicit ethic of self-transcendence coincides with Judaism's view of the married state as shared destiny. Together these call into question the ethic of self-fulfillment which appears to underlie much marital distress.Dr. Bulka is Rabbi of Congregation Machzikei Hadas in Ottawa, Ontario, and Editor of theJournal of Psychology and Judaism. His address is: 1747 Featherston Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1H 6P4.     

His and her marriage: A multivariate study of gender and marital satisfaction

This study examined gender differences in marital satisfaction using the multidimensional marital inventory ENRICH. Contrary to previous research, the results indicated that men are somewhat more satisfied with their marriages than women. The findings also suggest that religion is a more important part of the marriage for men, whereas women esposed egalitarian roles to a greater extent. A significant interaction was found between marital distress and gender on the Sexual Relationship, Communication, Parenting and Children, and Equalitarian Roles scales, indicating that these areas may be particularly important in distressed couples. The differences in husbands' and wives' marital satisfaction found in this study are consistent with research suggesting that men obtain greater mental health benefits from marriage than do women. The explanation of the obtained gender differences are discussed with regard to measurement issues, sampling procedures, and power and task inequities. Sampling and differences in marital tasks and power are cited as the best explanations of the findings.     

Understanding marital conflict 7 years later from prenatal representations of marriage

We examine how representations of marriage, assessed prenatally, predict different types of marital conflict (cooperation, avoidance/capitulation, stonewalling, and child involvement in parental conflict) at 7 years postpartum (N=132 individuals). We assessed representations of marriage prenatally by interviewing spouses about their own parents' marriage, and then rated the content and insightfulness of their memories. Results show that marital representations characterized by higher insight predict higher cooperation and lower child involvement in parental conflict, whereas content of marital representations was not a significant predictor of marital conflict. Further, individuals who remember negative memories from their parents' marriage with high insight were lowest on child involvement in parental conflict, whereas those who remember negative memories with low insight were highest on child involvement in parental conflict. Finally, women who remember negative content with high insight report the highest cooperation, whereas women who remember negative content with low insight report the lowest cooperation. For men, however, marital representations were less effective in predicting later cooperation. We conclude that marital representations, even when assessed prenatally, influence certain types of marital conflict 7 years later. Using such findings, therapists could help spouses gain insight into how the memories of their parents' marriage relate to the use of specific conflict strategies in their marriage.     

Social consequences of personality disorders: probability and timing of marriage and probability of marital disruption

The associations between DSM-IV personality disorders and probability of marriage, early marriage, and marital disruption were evaluated among people that participated in the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, which is a nationally representative face-to-face survey of 43,093 respondents, 18 years and older. Participants completed a structured interview for the diagnosis of seven personality disorders, and provided information about the occurrence and timing of marriage and marital disruption. Results suggest that personality disorders were associated with decreased probability of marriage, increased probability of early marriage, and increased probability of marital disruption. These findings suggest that personality disorders have substantial consequences for the probability and timing of marriage and probability of marital disruption.     

The reentry female student in marriage and family training

The challenges of feminist family therapists of gender bias in family therapy training and practice models need to be considered in relation to the predominance of reentry women in masters degree programs in marriage and family therapy. This article describes a developmental training model that incorporates feminist-informed values into curriculum, program policies, instructional strategies, and program structure. The model builds on the assumption that gender-associated behaviors of both sexes have contextually determined value. Training for the appropriate application of gender-associated behaviors rather than for their inclusion or exclusion can increase female reentry student flexibility and self-confidence.     

Depressive symptoms in early marriage: predictions from relationship confidence and negative marital interaction.

The authors proposed a model of depressive symptoms in early marriage in which relationship confidence, defined as perceived couple-level efficacy to manage conflicts and maintain a healthy relationship, mediates the effect of negative marital interactions on depressive symptoms. The model was tested in a sample of 139 couples assessed prior to marriage and 1 year later. As predicted, relationship confidence demonstrated simple negative associations with negative marital interaction and depressive symptoms for all participants. Longitudinal path analyses supported the mediational model for women only. In women but not men, negative marital interaction indirectly had an impact on depressive symptoms through the mediator of relationship confidence. Findings suggest that relationship confidence may be important to understanding links between marital distress and depressive symptoms, especially in women.     

Concepts without intuition lose the game: commentary on Montero and Evans (2011)

In several papers, Hubert Dreyfus has used chess as a paradigmatic example of how experts act intuitively, rarely using deliberation when selecting actions, while individuals that are only competent rely on analytic and deliberative thought. By contrast, Montero and Evans (Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 10:175?C194, 2011) argue that intuitive aspects of chess are actually rational, in the sense that actions can be justified. In this paper, I show that both Dreyfus??s and Montero and Evans??s views are too extreme, and that expertise in chess, and presumably in other domains, depends on a combination of intuitive thinking and deliberative search, both mediated by perceptual processes. There is more to expertise than just rational thought. I further contend that both sides ignore emotions, which are important in acquiring and maintaining expertise. Finally, I argue that experimental data and first-person data, which are sometimes presented as irreconcilable in the phenomenology literature, actually lead to similar conclusions.     

Discrimination of methadone and cocaine by pigeons without explicit discrimination training.

Pigeons were trained to peck a key on a variable-interval 2-min schedule of food reinforcement. Prior to each session, either 2.0 mg/kg methadone (n = 3), 3.0 mg/kg cocaine (n = 4), or 5.6 mg/kg cocaine (n = 2) was administered. When each pigeon's rate of pecking was stable, a range of doses of the training drug and saline were administered prior to 20-min extinction sessions separated by at least four training sessions. Rate of pecking during these extinction tests was generally an increasing function of dose, with the lowest rates obtained following saline and low doses and the highest rates obtained following doses near the training doses. Dose functions from pigeons trained with 5.6 mg/kg cocaine were steeper than those from pigeons trained with 3.0 mg/kg cocaine. Pigeons trained with methadone or 3.0 mg/kg cocaine were then given discrimination training, in which food reinforcement followed drug administration and 20-min extinction sessions followed saline administration. Rates of pecking under these conditions quickly diverged until near-zero rates were obtained following saline and high rates were obtained following drug. Discrimination training steepened dose functions for the training drugs, and the effects of several other substituted drugs depended on the pharmacology of the training drug. The pigeons trained with 5.6 mg/kg cocaine were tested with d-amphetamine, methadone, and morphine prior to discrimination training. d-Amphetamine increased rates dose dependently, and methadone and morphine did not. The results suggest that discriminative control by methadone and cocaine was established without explicit discrimination training.     

The nature and predictors of the trajectory of change in marital quality for husbands and wives over the first 10 years of marriage.

Four parameters of the trajectory of change in marital quality (initial status as well as linear, quadratic, and cubic patterns of change) were estimated for husbands and wives over the first 10 years of marriage (n = 522 couples at Year 1 and 93 couples at Year 10). Both husbands and wives started their trajectories of change at fairly high levels of marital quality and showed a cubic pattern of change such that marital quality declined fairly rapidly in the early years of marriage, stabilized, and then declined again. Whereas individual-differences variables predicted the initial status of the trajectory, husbands and wives living with only their biological children showed a steeper decline in marital quality than husbands and wives living without children or stepchildren.     

Adlerian marital therapy with the passive-aggressive partner

Abstract

This paper describes the passive-aggressive personality and provides an Adlerian formulation of the PAP in couples functioning. It points out the similarities of this formulation to DSM-III-R, cognitive therapy, and transactional analysis. A specific treatment plan incorporating several types of intervention for helping such couples lead more effective marital lives is presented.     

A rational-emotive theory of marital dysfunction and marital therapy

This article first discusses some rational-emotive perspectives on marital and couples therapy, including what constitutes a good relationship, some important differences between rational-emotive and other couples therapy approaches, and an RET classification of relationship problems. Second, this article also sketches out ways in which social exchange principles can be integrated into rational-emotive couples therapy.This is a revised version of a paper that originally appeared in A. Ellis and M. Bernard's (Eds.) 1985 text,Applications of Rational Emotive Therapy, Plenum Publishing Co., New York.     

Matters of the variable heart: respiratory sinus arrhythmia response to marital interaction and associations with marital quality

Maintenance of relationship quality requires self-regulation of emotion and social behavior, and women often display greater effort in this regard than do men. Furthermore, such efforts can deplete the limited capacity for self-regulation. In recent models of self-regulation, resting level of respiratory sinus arrhythmia, quantified as high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV), is an indicator of self-regulatory capacity, whereas transient increases in HF-HRV reflect self-regulatory effort. To test these hypotheses in marriage, 114 young couples completed measures of marital quality and a positive, neutral, or negative initial marital task, preceded and followed by resting baseline assessments of HF-HRV. Couples then discussed a current marital disagreement. Resting HF-HRV was correlated with marital quality, suggesting that capacity for self-regulation is associated with adaptive functioning in close relationships. For women but not men, the negative initial task produced a decrease in resting HF-HRV. This effect was mediated by the husbands' negative affect response to the task and their ratings of wives as controlling and directive. When the subsequent disagreement discussion followed the negative initial task, women displayed increased HF-HRV during the discussion but a decrease when it followed the neutral or positive task. The valence of the initial task had no effect on men's HF-HRV during disagreement. Negative marital interactions can reduce women's resting HF-HRV, with potentially adverse health consequences. Women's reduced health benefit from marriage might reflect the depleting effects on self-regulatory capacity of their greater efforts to manage relationship quality.