Psychology and the Study of Marital Processes
By John M. Gottman
The divorce rate in the United States is extremely high, at least 50%. There are strong negative consequences to separation and divorce on the mental and physical health of both spouses, including increased risk for psychopathology, increased rates of automobile accidents, and increased incidence of physical illness, suicide, violence, homicide, significant immunosupression, and mortality from diseases. In children, marital distress, conflict, and disruption are associated with depression, withdrawal, poor social competence, health problems, poor academic performance, and a variety of conduct-related difficulties. Though intervention techniques might be expected to reduce these grim statistics, our best scholars have concluded that marital therapy is at a practical and theoretical impasse. This article discusses the progress of research on the study of marriage. 169-197.
Annual Review of Psychology, 1998. By John Gottman
Children's Physiological Responses While Producing Facial Expressions of Emotions
By Joann Wu Shortt, Lauren K Bush, Joan L. Roth McCabe, John M. Gottman, and Lynn Fainsilber Katz
Two studies were conducted: (a) children's ability to produce cross-culturally universal facial expressions of emotion, and (b) the degree of physiological patterning in distinguishing among emotions. Preschool children participated in a Making Faces Game that directed them to make the facial muscle movements necessary for facial expressions of happiness, anger, disgust, fear, and sadness. Physiological measures of heart rate and skin conductance level were collected when children displayed specific facial configurations. Face expressions of fear and sadness were more difficult for the children to produce than happiness, anger, and disgust. Girls showed more production ability than boys, and boys with unhappily married parents produced the least amount of faces. Consistent with previous findings with adults, children's heart rate increased more with anger than with disgust. Interestingly, children with unhappily married parents showed greater heart rate reactivity while producing facial expressions of emotions than did children with happily married parents.
Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, January 1994, Vol. 40, No. 1, pp.40-59. By Joann Wu Shortt, Lauren K Bush, Joan L. Roth McCabe, John M. Gottman, and Lynn Fainsilber Katz
Buffering Children from Marital Conflict and Dissolution
By Lynn Fainsilber Katz and John M. Gottman
Examined several protective mechanisms that may reduce deleterious correlates of marital conflict and dissolution in young children. Fifty-six families with a preschool child were studied at two time points: when the children were 5 years old (Time one) and again when the children were 8 years old (Time two). At time one, naturalistic observations of marital and parent-child interaction were conducted and assessment of child regulatory physiology was obtained through measures of basal vagal tone and suppression of vagal tone. Parents were also interviewed individually about their feelings about their own and their children's emotions (meta-emotion philosophy) and children's intelligence was assessed. At Time two assessment of child outcomes were obtained, including observations of peer interaction, mother ratings of behavior problems and mother and teacher ratings of peer aggression, mother ratings of child physical illness, and measures of achievement. Results indicated that all Time one buffering factors protected children in face of marital conflict and dissolution.
Journal of Clinical Child Psychology 1996 Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 157-171. By Lynn Fainsilber Katz and John M. Gottman
Meta-Emotion Philosophy and Family Functioning: Reply to Cowan (1996) and Eisenberg (1996)
By Lynn Fainsilber Katz, John M. Gottman, Carole Hooven.
P.A. Cowan's (1996) and N. Eisenberg's (1996) comments (a) raise important questions about the conceptualization and measurement of parental meta-emotion philosophy and child affect regulation, (b) highlight individual characteristics of the child that may affect parental meta-emotion philosophy, and (c) suggest directions for future research. This reply uses qualitative descriptions from meta-emotion transcripts and additional quantitative analyses to address major issues raised by these comments.
Journal of Family Psychology 1996 Vol. 10, No. 3. By Lynn Fainsilber Katz, John M. Gottman, Carole Hooven
Marital Discord and Child Outcomes: A Social Psychophysiological Approach
By Lynn Fainsilber Katz and John M. Gottman
It has long been recognized that marital and family relationships affect the adjustment of developing children. Observations of the suffering and confusion of children whose parents continually disagree have been corroborated generally by research findings of powerful familial correlates of young children's adjustment. Indeed, the best familial predictor of childhood behavior problems has been found to be marital discord. Less clearly understood are the processes by which the marital relationship affects the children. This chapter reviews research this topic, and present Gottman's research.
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