The role of cognitions in marital relationships has received increasing attention. Specific beliefs about marital relationships have shown consistent correlations with overall marital satisfaction. As a measure of dysfunctional beliefs about intimate relationships, the Relationship Belief Inventory provides five dysfunctional beliefs scores. This…

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)

Married college students (N=312) living in a university housing complex anonymously returned two completed questionnaires. Most respondents felt their marriages were relatively happy, but more than 10 percent were considering divorce. Husbands and wives agreed that sex and communication, as well as time, were the greatest problems in their…

The proposition that age at first marriage is inversely related to the risk of divorce was examined by means of detailed age-duration-specific divorce rates for California 1969. A strong inverse relationship was found for male ages at marriage 18 through 25 and female ages at marriage 16 through 24. (Author)

The author focuses on the needs that married couples try to satisfy at the level of nonconsciousness and which, as a rule, produce problems at the cognitive and behavioral levels. Suggestions for the marital therapist are included. (Author)

The authors propose the utilization of IDENTICOM as a mechanism for alleviating marital difficulties within the family unit. IDENTICOM is based on a combination of a behavioral and phenomenological model, using video tapes. (Author)

The Conflict Tactics Scale questionnaire on marital violence was administered to 29 alcoholics and their wives at entry to, and 1 year after, completing a behavioral marital therapy (BMT) treatment program. In the year prior to BMT, prevalence rates of any violent act, of minor to moderate violent acts, and of severe violent acts were five to six…

The Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey (GZTS) has been described as one of the most widely used tests in marriage counseling. The GZTS was administered to 61 couples when they entered marriage counseling between 1980 and 1985. When counseling ended, couples were divided into three groups--married and together after counseling (MT); married but…

Projections, based on current rates, are that 40% of recent marriages will end in divorce. To investigate the factors associated with long term marriage stability and satisfaction among elderly persons, 60 California older adults (30 married, 30 divorced) were interviewed about their perceptions of the role of companionship, alternatives to…

The primary purpose of this investigation was to determine whether family history of parental marital discord has a separate and independent relevance for marital complaints by psychiatric outpatients that cannot be accounted for by differences in a variety of intervening factors. (Author)

New findings from research, leading to new insights, have in the past ten years revealed that effective couple communication is a vital key to effective marital interaction. Some of these insights are listed and described, and the new concepts which have emerged are discussed. (Author)

The attributes of couples planning to marry can affect their future relationship satisfaction. To study this phenomenon, a social exchange model was applied to a sample of couples planning to marry to assess the predictive validity of a measure of positive exchange. The longitudinal design of the two-and-a-half year investigation provided direct…

The effects of individual values upon the development of conflicts and the resolution of marital problems through counseling are explored, using the Interpersonal Growth Scale (IGS). This instrument is described as it evaluates the processes of growing apart and growing together, and notes operating values, determining their functions and…

Included are two comprehensive bibliographies for the marriage and divorce counselor. The one on more recent books on the subject of divorce has been annotated by the author, while the list on assorted materials contains only citations. (HMV)

This article discusses the common difficulties in involving male clients in the marital therapy process. The modeling of feeling expression, however, is effective in encouraging self-disclosure. It is also suggested that the therapist bring up the feelings of a power struggle if existant. Co-therapists may also be effective. (LPG)