Marital Interaction

Book excerpt: Marital Interaction: Experimental Investigations deals with experimental studies on marital interaction. Emphasis is on the importance of the role of description in the study of social interaction. Methods for the analysis of pattern and sequence, including cross-spectral time-series analysis, are also presented. Comprised of 15 chapters, this book begins with a historical review of several research traditions that have concerned themselves with families and marriages: the sociological tradition; the family therapy or systems tradition; the social learning tradition; and the developmental tradition. Research that points to the potential importance of the observation of consensual decision-making processes is also reviewed. A model of marital interaction called the Structural Model, which can be used to predict changes in marital satisfaction, is described. Subsequent chapters focus on the Couples Interaction Scoring System, an observational system for categorizing marital interaction; modern concepts of the assessment of reliability, particularly the stringent assessment that is necessary for sequential analysis; differences between well-functioning and poorly functioning marriages; couples' interactional styles in terms of communication skill deficits; and the concept of an individual's social competence. This monograph will be of interest to psychologists engaged in research on marriage, as well as sociologists and clinical researchers.