Decade review: Observing marital interaction

This article reviews the advances made in the decade of the 1990s in observ ing marital interaction. Many technological advances in data collection, in cluding synchronization of physiology, behavior, and cognition, and advance s in data analysis such as sequential analysis, have yielded new understand ing and advances in prediction of marital outcomes. The advances have also included the study of developmental processes, including the transition to parenthood and the study of mid-life and older marriages, Central advances have been made in the study of affect and the study of power and in their i ntegration. This advance has included the mathematical modeling of interact ion using nonlinear difference equations and the development of typologies. There has been an added focus on health outcomes and the bidirectional eff ects of marriages on children. There has been an expansion of the study of marital interaction to common comorbid psychopathologies. Most important ha s been emergent theorizing based on the interaction of behavior, perception , and physiology, as well as their predictive power.