During the past decade, research on marital satisfaction has addressed the question of how communication differs in distressed and non-distressed marriages. An important finding is that distressed couples are prone to """"""""escalating negative affect cycles."""""""" While this finding points to the relation between the quality of affective communication and marital satisfaction, new questions have emerged. For instance, why are some couples able to express negative affect and disagreement without entering into """"""""escalating negative affect cycles""""""""? What are the positive dimensions of martial relationships that assist couples in dealing with conflict and stressful transitions? Are individuals' experiences in intimate relationships associated with their recall of their relationship history? The proposed project addresses these questions by viewing marital relationships from the perspective of attachment theory. First, the study involves developing and validating new methods to assess attachment quality in adult relationships using caregiving interaction tasks and Q-sort descriptions provided by spouses. The convergent and discriminant validity of these assessments will then by considered by comparing them with more established measures involving the quality of interactions during a marital problem-solving discussion. Finally, the influence of individual differences in attachment to parents on marital adjustment will be considered by comparing three types of adult attachment on the caregiving, problem-solving and Q-sort descriptions of affective communication. It is proposed that individuals who are secure or who have the ability to modulate negative affect in the context of an interview about their family of origin will demonstrate more optimal patterns of interaction in marital problem-solving and caregiving contexts. Different styles of affect regulation assessed in the interview should also be associated with differential Q-sort descriptions of affective communication provided by the marital partners.
| Kobak, R R; Hazan, C (1991) Attachment in marriage: effects of security and accuracy of working models. J Pers Soc Psychol 60:861-9 |
