We summarize our programmatic efforts to make use of several critical processes advanced by social psychological theorists that have direct relevance to the study of marriage. We show how these processes have been useful in our Early Years of Marriage Project, a longitudinal study of marital phenomena among black couples and white couples, and in other similar longitudinal marital studies. We also argue that, in such marital research, we can understand many aspects of social interaction not easily studied elsewhere in social psychology, and thus important new insights about the nature of social psychological processes in general emerge. We thus extend the richness of the general theoretical processes with which we started.
Adams, J. M. , & Jones, W. H. (1999). Handbook of interpersonal commitment and relationship stability. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Press.
2.
Alexander, C. N. , & Wiley, M. G. (1981). Situated activity and identity formation. In M. Rosenberg & R. H. Turner (Eds.), Social psychology: Sociological perspectives (pp. 269-289). New York: Basic Books.
3.
Allport, F. H. (1924). The group fallacy in relation to social science. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 19, 69-73.
4.
Amato, P. (1996). Explaining the intergenerational transmission of divorce. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 58, 628-640.
5.
Beach, S. R. H. , Tesser, A., Fincham, F. D., Jones, D. J., Johnson, D., & Whitaker, D. J. (1998). Pleasure and pain in doing well, together: An investigation of performance-related affect in close relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 923-938.
6.
Berger, P. L. , & Kellner, H. (1964). Marriage and the construction of social reality. Diogenes, 46, 1-23.
7.
Berscheid, E. (1998). A social psychological view of marital dysfunction and stability. In T. Bradbury (Ed.), The developmental course of marital dysfunction (pp 441-460). New York: Cambridge University Press.
8.
Bielby, W. T. , & Bielby, D. D. (1989). Family ties: Balancing commitment to work and family in dual career households. American Sociological Review, 54, 776-789.
9.
Bollen, K. A. , & Hoyle, R. H. (1990). Perceived cohesion: A conceptual and empirical examination. Social Forces, 69, 479-504.
10.
Bott, E. (1971). Family and social networks. London: Tavistock. (Original published 1957.)
11.
Bradbury, T. (Ed.). (1998). The developmental course of marital dysfunction. New York: Cambridge University Press.
12.
Bradbury, T. N. , Cohan, C. L., & Karney, B. R. (1998). Optimizing longitudinal research for understanding and preventing marital dysfunction. In T. Bradbury (Ed.), The developmental course of martial dysfunction (pp. 279-311). New York: Cambridge University Press.
13.
Bradbury, T. N. , & Fincham, F. D. (1990). Attributions in marriage: Review and critique. Psychological Bulletin, 103, 3-33.
14.
Brickman, P. (1987). Commitment, conflict, and caring. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
15.
Bruner, J. S. (1986). Actual minds, possible worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
16.
Bruner, J. S. (1990). Acts of meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
17.
Christensen, A. , & Pasch, L. (1993). The sequence of marital conflict: An analysis of seven phases of marital conflict in distressed and nondistressed couples. Clinical Psychology Review, 13, 3-14.
18.
Cohen, S. , & Wills, T. A. (1985). Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 98, 310-357.
19.
Cooley, C. H. (1902). Human nature and the social order. New York: Scribners.
20.
Crohan, S. E. (1992). Marital happiness and spousal consensus and beliefs about marital conflict: A longitudinal investigation. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 9, 89-102.
21.
Dawes, R. M. (1980). Social dilemmas. Annual Review of Psychology, 31, 169-193.
22.
Fincham, F. D. , & Beach, S. R. H. (1999). Conflict in marriage: Implications for working with couples. In Annual review of psychology (pp. 47-77). Palo Alto, CA: Annual Reviews.
23.
Fincham, F. D. , & Bradbury, T. N. (1987). The impact of attributions in marriage: A longitudinal analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 510-517.
24.
Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. New York: Doubleday.
25.
Gottman, J. M. (1994). What predicts divorce? The relationship between marital processes and marital outcomes. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
26.
Hetherington, E. M. (1999). Coping with divorce, single-parenting, and remarriage. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
27.
Holmes, J. G. , & Murray, S. L. (1996). Conflict in close relationships. In E. T. Higgins & A. Kuglanski (Eds.), Social psychology handbook of basic principles (pp. 622-654). New York: Guilford Press.
28.
Hunter, A. G. , & Davis, J. E. (1992). Constructing gender: An exploration of Afro-American men's conceptualization of manhood. Gender and Society, 6, 464-479.
29.
Huston, T. L. , & Houts, R. M. (1998). The psychological infrastructure of courtship and marriage: The role of personality and compatibility in romantic relationships. In T. Bradbury (Ed.), The developmental course of marital dysfunction (pp.114-151). New York: Cambridge University Press.
30.
Huston, T. L. , McHale, S. M., & Crouter, A. C. (1986). When the honeymoon's over: Change in the marriage relationship over the first year. In R. Gilmour & S. Duck (Eds.), The emerging field of personal relationships (pp. 109-132). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
31.
Karney, B. R. , & Bradbury, T. N. (1997). Neuroticism, marital interaction, and the trajectory of marital satisfaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 1075-1092.
32.
Katz, D. , & Kahn, R. (1978). The social psychology of organizations. New York: Wiley.
33.
Kelley, H. H. (1983). Love and commitment. In H. H. Kelley, E. Berscheid, A. Christensen, J. H. Harvey, T. L. Huston, G. Levinger, E. McClintock, L. A. Peplau, & D. Pernman (Eds.), Close relationships (pp. 265-314). New York: Freeman.
34.
Kelley, H. H. , Berscheid, E., Christensen, A., Harvey, J. H., Huston, T. L., Levinger, G., McClintock, E., Peplau, L. A., & Perlman, D. (1983). Close relationships. New York: Freeman.
35.
Kelley, H. , & Thibault, J. T. (1978). Interpersonal relations: A theory of interdependence. New York: Wiley.
36.
Kessler, R. C. , House, J. S., Anspach, R. R., & Williams, D. R. (1995). Social psychology and health. In K. S. Cook, G. A. Fine, & J. S. House (Eds.), Sociological perspectives on social psychology (pp. 548-570). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
37.
Kochman, T. (1981). Black and white styles in conflict. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
38.
Kurdek, L. A. (1998). Developmental changes in marital satisfaction: A 6-year prospective longitudinal study of newlywed couples. In T. Bradbury (Ed.), The developmental course of marital dysfunction (pp. 180-204). New York: Cambridge University Press.
39.
Levinger, G. (1976). A social psychological perspective on marital dissolution. Journal of Social Issues, 32, 21-47.
40.
Maines, D. R. (2000). The social construction of meaning. Contemporary Sociology, 29,577-584.
41.
Markman, H. J. , Renick, M. J., Floyd, F. J., Stanley, S. M., & Clements, M. (1993). Preventing marital distress through communication and conflict management training: A 4- and 5-year follow-up. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 61,70-77.
42.
Markus, H. R. , & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224-253.
43.
Mead, G. H. (1934). Mind, self and society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
44.
Morgan, S. P. , & Rindfuss, R. R. (1985). Marital disruption: Structural and temporal dimensions. American Journal of Sociology, 90, 1055-1077.
45.
Moscovici, S. (1985). Social representations. In J. P. Forgas (Ed.), Social cognition: perspectives on everyday understanding (pp. 181-209). London: Academic.
46.
Murray, S. L. , Holmes, J. G., & Griffin, D. W. (1996). The benefits of positive illusions: Idealization and the construction of satisfaction in close relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 79-98.
47.
Noller, P. , & Feeney, J. A. (1998). Communication in early marriage: Responses to conflict, nonverbal accuracy, and conversational patterns. In T. Bradbury (Ed.), The developmental course of marital dysfunction (pp. 11-43). New York: Cambridge University Press.
48.
Orbuch, T. L. , & Custer, L. (1995). The social context of married women's work and its impact on black husbands and white husbands. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 57,333-345.
49.
Orbuch, T. L. , & Eyster, S .L. (1997). Division of household labor among black couples and white couples. Social Forces, 76(1), 301-322.
50.
Orbuch, T. L. , Veroff, J., & Holmberg, D. (1993). Becoming a married couple: The emergence of meaning in the first years of marriage. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 55, 815-826.
51.
Orbuch, T. L. , Veroff, J., & Hunter, A. G. (1999). Black couples, white couples: The early years of marriage. In E. M. Hetherington (Ed.), Coping with divorce, single parenting, and remarriage (pp. 23-43). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
52.
Perinbanayagam, R. S. (1986). The meaning of uncertainty and the uncertainty of meaning. Symbolic Interaction, 9, 105-126.
53.
Roberts, L. (2000). Fire and ice marital communication: Hostile and distancing behaviours as predictors of marital distress. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62, 693-708.
54.
Rusbult, C. E. , Bissonnette, V. L., Arriaga, X. B., & Cox, C. L. (1998). Accommodation processes during the early years of marriage. In T. Bradbury (Ed.), The developmental course of marital dysfunction (pp.74-113). New York: Cambridge University Press.
55.
Ruvolo, A. (1990). Interpersonal ideas and personal change in newlyweds: A longitudinal analysis. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.
56.
Singer, E. (1981). Reference groups and social evaluations. In M. Rosenberg (Ed.), Social psychology: Sociological perspectives (pp. 66-93). New York: Basic Books.
57.
Tallman, I. , Burke, P. J., & Gecas, V. (1998). Socialization into marital roles: Testing a contextual, developmental model of marital functioning. In T. Bradbury (Ed.), The developmental course of marital dysfunction (pp. 312-342). New York: Cambridge University Press.
58.
Tallman, I. , & Riley, A. (in review). Gender role expectations and couple interactions in newly married couples.
59.
Timmer, S. G. , & Orbuch, T. L. (2001). The link between premarital parenthood, meanings of marriage and marital instability. Family Relations, 50, 178-185.
60.
Timmer, S. G. , & Veroff, J. (2000). Family ties and the discontinuity of divorce in black and white newlywed couples. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62, 349-362.
61.
Timmer, S. G. , Veroff, J., & Hatchett, S. (1996). Family ties and marital happiness: The different marital experiences of black and white newlywed couples, Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 13, 335-359.
62.
Turner, R. H. (1968). The self conception in social interaction. In C. Gordon & K. J. Gergen (Eds.), The self in social interaction (pp. 93-106). New York: Wiley.
63.
Young, A. , & Veroff, J. (1999). The marriage context and changes in self and spouse perception. Unpublished paper, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
64.
Veroff, J. (1999). Marital commitment in the early years of marriage. In W. Jones and J. Adams (Eds.), Handbook of interpersonal commitment and relationship stability (pp. 149-162). New York: Plenum Press.
65.
Veroff, J. , Douvan, E., & Hatchett, S. (1995). Marital instability. Westport, CT: Praeger.
66.
Veroff, J. , Sutherland, L., Chadiha, L., & Ortega, R. (1993). Newlyweds tell their stories: A narrative method for assessing marital experiences. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 10, 437-457.
67.
Webster, P. S. , Orbuch, T. L., & House, J. S. (1995). Effects of childhood family background on adult marital quality and perceived stability. American Journal of Sociology, 101(2), 404-432.
