Factors characterizing marital conflict states and traits: physiological, affective, behavioral and neurotic variable contributions to marital conflict and satisfaction

Thirty-two married couples participated in conjoint-conflict-solving interactions while being videotaped and physiologically monitored. Intercorrelations between 13 variables (3 self-report, 6 observational and 4 physiological) produced six factors: Dominance, Neuroticism Negative Affect, Affiliation Positive Affect, Attentiveness, Physiological Arousal and Physiological Influence. Neuroticism Negative Affect was inversely related to marital satisfaction. The Physiological Arousal factor was ‘U’-shaped in its association with marital satisfaction (i.e. subjects with higher marital satisfaction exhibited synchrony in the activation of electrodermal and heart rate systems, whereas asynchrony [high activation in one system and low activation in the other] was more common in dissatisfied couples). These findings demonstrate the utility of combining personality, behavioral and physiological measures in characterizing and predicting marital satisfaction and conflict-related communication patterns