Understanding Marriage: Developments in the Study of Couple Interaction

Understanding Marriage: Developments in the Study of Couple Interaction. Patricia Noller & Judith A. Feeney. (Eds.). Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. 2002. 572 pp. ISBN 0-521-80370-5. $70.00 (cloth). This collection represents an important contribution to our understanding of the range of interactional dynamics among married couples. Much of the work on the dynamics between spouses focuses on negative interactions, particularly issues of power, conflict, and abuse. This volume, however, includes a number of chapters that illuminate both how positive interactions are generated between partners and how these interactions contribute to overall satisfaction with the marriage. This breadth and balance makes Understanding Marriage a must-read for family scholars and practitioners. This volume is the newest edition to Cambridge's series entitled, "Advances in Personal Relationships," with volumes emphasizing multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research on intimate relationships. Understanding Families brings together research that breaks new ground in understanding marital dynamics, and uses a wide range of methodologies, including diaries, surveys, field experiments, physiological measures, and videotaped interactions. The collection's 18 chapters are organized into six sections that cover the following topics: the effect of cognition on interaction patterns; positive interactions; coping with disappointment and betrayal; dynamics associated with power, conflict, and violence; and interaction during transition periods in the relationship. The final section of this volume addresses the potential for intervening and improving the quality of marital interactions and long-term positive marital outcomes. The first section examines the effects of cognition on interaction patterns. The chapter by Alan Sillars, Kenneth Leonard, Linda Roberts, and Tim Dun on how alcohol affects subjective coding of interaction in aggressive and nonaggressive couples stands out for its methodological innovations. The authors combine direct observation of couples with video-assisted recall in order to gain a better understanding of interactional dynamics. By watching the videos and allowing spouses to comment on the thoughts and feelings they remembered having, the authors are better able to capture more complex cognitive processes and to analyze their roles in couple interactions. Other chapters in this section draw on attribution theory (Valerie Manusov), or self-enhancement and self-verification theory (Lisa Neff and Benjamin Karney), to assess how spouses perceive their partners and interpret their behavior, and how these interpretations influence overall assessment of their relationships. The second section highlights the importance of positive interaction in marriages. Linda Roberts and Danielle Greenberg use naturalistic observation methods to give us a "window" on intimacy and attachment behaviors between spouses. As spouses discussed personal problems or stress that they were experiencing, they elicited caregiving responses from their partners. As they discussed their positive feelings for each other, they typically received affectionate responses from their partners. These results demonstrate how positive dynamics are both initiated and nurtured in relationships. Other chapters in this section examine the conflict between communal norms and norms of self-interest in marriages (Margaret Clark, Steven Graham, and Nancy Grote), and the role of novel experiences in maintaining marital quality over time (Arthur Aron, Christine Norman, Elaine Aron, and Gary Lewandowski). The third section examines more subtle dynamics of the "dark side" of marriage: disappointment, criticism, and betrayal. The chapter by Anita Vangelisti and Alicia Alexander explores a wide range of responses to disappointment in a relationship, including anger, revenge, ignoring, self-blame, expressing feelings, and seeking outside help. …