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The spouse subsystem in the family context: couple interaction categories
Author(s) -
Akister Jane,
Meekings Emma,
StevensonHinde Joan
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
journal of family therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.52
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1467-6427
pISSN - 0163-4445
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6427.1993.00737.x
Subject(s) - spouse , psychology , context (archaeology) , social psychology , gaze , style (visual arts) , developmental psychology , paleontology , history , archaeology , sociology , anthropology , psychoanalysis , biology
Within a semi‐structured family interview (the McMaster Stuctured Interview of Family Functioning), several questions focus on intimate areas of the marital relationship. How couples answer these questions provides a window into their style of communication around potentially stressful issues. Viewing their videotaped interactions while noting their gaze patterns, dialogue, tension, and attitude, produced the following categories: Adaptive, Stable, Co‐operative, Disengaged/anxious, Parallel, or Failing. Inter‐observer relability was high, and the categories were related in meaningful ways to a self‐report questionnaire, the McMaster Family Assessment Device, completed independently by each parent.