ABSTRACT
One of the unique cornerstones of family research has been the study of interadult and multiperson relationship systems, and within this domain our field has seen exciting and important progress in recent years. Important insights into the study of marital and family processes are provided by Flanagan and her colleagues (chap. 4, this volume) and by McHale and colleagues (chap. 5, this volume), and important directions for new work on marital and family dynamics are outlined by both sets of authors. In reviewing the progress over the past 30 years of marital research, Flanagan et al. document seminal work in this area, including (a) the identification of negative affect and negative reciprocity as hallmark indicators of marital distress in couple relationships; (b) a progression in the field from a focus on couple behavior to an appreciation for the significance of individual differences in cognition, affect, physiology, and psychopathology; and (c) the emergence of BMT, an empirically supported treatment that has proven helpful in the amelioration of marital distress.
