The marital and relationship expert, John gottman, is known for his 5-1 ratio of positive to negative statements between partners as a necessity in marital or relationship harmony. This ratio can predict the success or failure of a relationship.
Gottman arrives at his conclusions from a longitudinal study that uses videotapes of real couple interactions and psychophysiological measures and extensive interviewing of the subjects. Gottman found that not all negativity is “equally corrosive.” “Certain negative acts” were more predictive of dissolution of the relationship,” Gottman states in his seminal paper, “A Theory of Marital Dissolution and Stability,” published in 1993 in the Journal of Family Psychology.
Suprisingly anger was not one of the predictive factors. What was predictive of divorce was the husband’s defensiveness, contempt and stonewalling and the wife’s criticism, defensiveness and contempt.
