ABSTRACT
MARRIAGE is a pervasive aspect of adult life in American society. One recent survey showed that over 95 percent of the adult population were or had been married (Rawlings, 1978). The search for the causes of the success or failure of this major aspect of adult social life is pursued in a number of academic disciplines. Historians hypothesize that modern marriages fail because of the intense emphasis on the personal interaction between a husband and a wife. Such intensity cannot be sustained over a lifetime and places excessive strain on the partners to fulfill one another’s unrealistic expectations (Shorter, 1975). Sociologists have found that in addition to the usual roles that husbands and wives have been expected to fill in marriage, marital partners are now expected to be both therapists and companions to one another (Nye, 1976). Both of these two new roles require extensive communication skills for their successful enactment. Psychologists join the discussion of modern marriage by maintaining that the interaction between a husband and wife can explain most of the variance in marital success or failure (Burgess, 1981; Gottman, 1979).
