One cause of marriage difficulty is the unconsciously motivated selection of an incompatible mate through the process of a counterphobic mechanism. Definition of counterphobia is given, along with brief examples and comments. (EK)

Describes the use of a penny game as a counseling technique to interrupt an unwanted cycle of behavior between spouses. The game can be explained in terms of both paradox and power and is useful with several marriage counseling techniques which teach more appropriate verbal behavior. (JAC)

Systematic training in interpersonal communication skills was conducted with partners in deteriorated marriages who acknowledged a low level of communication as a major problem. The results indicated that trained couples improved significantly in their interpersonal skills and in their ability to elicit self-exploration from their spouse. The…

In response to need for framework within which to fit therapeutic interventions, introduces some theoretical considerations about relevancy of communications to disrupted marriages. Presents advisable cases for counselor intervention. (Author)

The spouses were counseled jointly with a cognitive approach and separately with behavior modification techniques for the husband's obesity and the wife's lack of affective verbalization. After eight weeks, the husband had lost thirty pounds and the wife's affective language had increased markedly. (Author)

Examined impacts of brief group psychotherapy on the marital and sex roles of five volunteer couples. Results show interactional correlates of traditional marital and sex role variations are attenuated, that communication between spouses is improved, and that the therapeutic quality of verbal behavior is enhanced over the course of therapy.…

This article describes the Minnesota Couples Communication Program which offers a structured educational experience directed toward equipping couples with skills for (1) heightening awareness of self and self's contributions to interaction, (2) effectively expressing self-awareness, (3) accurately understanding partner's communications, and (4)…

Couples (N=50) were interviewed conjointly, and spouses were rated separately on a 61-item checklist to demonstrate the actuarial validity of the marital satisfaction inventory. Findings supported the basic interpretive intent of individual scales and demonstrated convergent validity. (Author)

Explores how global and political issues affect microsystems like the marital unit. A variety of interactional patterns emerged in the observation of 30 couples marital interactions during a prolonged stressful situation. Couples reporting a deterioration of their relationship had more disagreements regarding the meaning of a peace process and its…

This article describes a method for creating highly contextual assessments of couples therapy interaction using concepts from Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). According to SFL, talk in interaction serves three primary functions: to mediate social relations, to negotiate representations of reality, and to organize and structure the event as…

Photographs and family albums are helpful in marriage and family psychotherapy to aid in the understanding of family processes, relationship patterns, goals, expectations, values, traditions, and ideals. Based on the assumption that a photograph is a form of communication, photography can be used to: (1) examine typical family picture-taking…

Describes the clinical use of the Marital Satisfaction Inventory (MSI), a multidimensional self-report measure of marital interaction. Two case studies of couples in marital therapy are presented. The MSI is presented as a cost-efficient procedure, permitting objective assessment across multiple areas of a couple's relationship. (Author/JAC)

Evaluated Holland's methods for characterizing person-environment interactions. Marital partners were assigned to one of four categories based on combinations of Holland variables. In general, men and women with high spouse congruence and high personality consistency obtained higher scores on general measures of marital and self-satisfaction.…

After describing a social learning formulation of the male alcoholic's marriage, this paper reviews the few studies of behavioral marital therapy (BMT) for alcoholics and their wives. Although none of these studies are as rigorous as one might wish and many of them are merely case studies, a review of the literature shows that behavioral marital…

Compared communicational interactions of maritally distressed and nondistressed couples engaged in conflict resolution tasks. Distressed couples made significantly more negative cognitive and problem-solving acts. Distressed couples evidenced more reciprocity of negative communication as compared with nondistressed couples. Relationships of these…