FACTORS CHARACTERIZING MARITAL CONFLICT STATES AND TRAITS - PHYSIOLOGICAL, AFFECTIVE, BEHAVIORAL AND NEUROTIC VARIABLE CONTRIBUTIONS TO MARITAL CONFLICT AND SATISFACTION
Dg. Thomsen et Dg. Gilbert, FACTORS CHARACTERIZING MARITAL CONFLICT STATES AND TRAITS - PHYSIOLOGICAL, AFFECTIVE, BEHAVIORAL AND NEUROTIC VARIABLE CONTRIBUTIONS TO MARITAL CONFLICT AND SATISFACTION, Personality and individual differences, 25(5), 1998, pp. 833-855
Thirty-two married couples participated in conjoint-conflict-solving i
nteractions while being videotaped and physiologically monitored. Inte
rcorrelations between 13 variables (3 self-report, 6 observational and
4 physiological) produced six factors: Dominance, Neuroticism/Negativ
e Affect, Affiliation/Positive Affect, Attentiveness, Physiological Ar
ousal and Physiological Influence. Neuroticism/Negative Affect was inv
ersely related to marital satisfaction. The Physiological Arousal fact
or was 'U'-shaped in its association with marital satisfaction (i.e. s
ubjects with higher marital satisfaction exhibited synchrony in the ac
tivation of electrodermal and heart rate systems, whereas asynchrony [
high activation in one system and low activation in the other] was mor
e common in dissatisfied couples). These findings demonstrate the util
ity of combining personality, behavioral and physiological measures in
characterizing and predicting marital satisfaction and conflict-relat
ed communication patterns. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights r
eserved.