Emotional Expression,Ambivalence Over Expression,and Marital Satisfaction

Abstract

This study examined the relations among emotional expression, ambivalence over expression and marital satisfaction. Fifty married couples completed two mail-in surveys containing the Emotional Expressiveness Questionnaire and the Ambivalence Over Emotional Expression Questionnaire as well as measures of marital satisfaction. Subjects also rated their spouses' emotional expressiveness. Emotional expressiveness was positively correlated with marital satisfaction. Spouses' ratings of each other's expressiveness correlated with marital satisfaction, independent of spouses' self-reported expressiveness. Only husbands' ambivalence over expression was negatively correlated with wives' satisfaction. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of emotional expressiveness to close interpersonal relationships, particularly for men, and the relation between intrapsychic inhibitory processes and social relationships.