The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among several demographic and emotional/relational variables, and physical abuse victimization in conjugal relations. Participants were eighty-two individuals, involving 41 heterosexual couples in permanent relationships, who were being seen in marital therapy for discordant relationships. This was a cross-sectional sample, with participants selected from four community-based couple and family therapy treatment facilities. Couple participants completed a questionnaire package which measured their standing on a number of socio-demographic (age, income, duration of marriage, employment, education), emotional/relationship (attachment, differentiation, self esteem, marital satisfaction, global distress, problem solving communication), and violence (aggression, physical and non-physical abuse) variables. The emotional variables selected for this study drew on principles from both attachment and Bowen family systems theory. The design of this study differentiated victims of physical violence from non-victims of violence and included multiple measures of abuse. / The findings revealed significant gender correlations in terms of level of aggression in relationships. For females, level of global distress and problem solving communication were positively associated with higher levels of marital aggression. An association between poor differentiation and marital aggression was identified for females, while self esteem only approached significance. For males, a significant correlation was identified between level of aggression and the dismissing attachment style. For males the anxious attachment style was negatively correlated with being a victim of physical violence, with self-differentiation and with having a dismissive attachment style. / The central findings were identified through the use of logistic regression analysis. Attachment style was found to be the more powerful predictor for both females and males in predicting victimization of physical violence. Separate gender analysis revealed evidence that women's anxious attachment style is a significant predictor of physical violence victimization. For males, the dismissing style was less powerful a predictor of male victimization, however the combined female-anxious, male-dismissing attachment combination was found to be highly predictive of relationship violence. Logistic regression has provided evidence for the combination of female-anxious and male-dismissing attachment pattern with poor problem solving and communication skill, within the context of a longer relationship, as significant predictors of relationship violence for the whole sample. These three variables, anxious-dismissing attachment style, poor problem solving communication and longer duration of marriage taken together have provided a predictor model or couple profile for conjugal violence in a sample of discordant couples. / Results of the final couple analysis have contributed to an emerging hypothesis, with the identification of a particular "toxic" gender defined couple attachment pattern, that can predispose a couple for relationship violence. Results have identified that anxious females coupled with dismissing males significantly increased the odds of relationship violence. Research findings were discussed in terms of clinical applications and implications for theory and future research.

When romantic partners interact together, they continually respond to each other in ways that yield distinctive across-time patterns of behaviour. To illuminate specific ways in which dysphoria may influence the dynamics of marital communication, the present study investigated how dysphoria in either spouse may affect such across-time patterns of interpersonal behaviour. Using a computer joystick device, observers rated moment-to-moment levels of dominance and affiliation for each partner in videotaped conflict interactions, one preceded by a sad mood induction for the wife, and the other with no mood induction, of 60 romantic couples. As a measure of dysphoria, all participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II; Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996). The data for each couple were then submitted to time series analyses, including regression and cross-spectral analysis. Results revealed that husbands’ and wives’ dysphoria had strongly differentiated effects on the marital interaction dynamics. Specifically, wives’ dysphoria affected how dominance was handled between partners. Higher wife’s dysphoria was significantly related to wife’s change in dominance and inversely related to husband’s change in dominance. That is, the higher the wife’s dysphoria, the more dominant she became and the more submissive her husband became over the course of the interaction. In contrast, husbands’ dysphoria affected affiliation patterns during conflict interactions. Higher husband’s dysphoria was inversely related to both wife’s change in affiliation and the couple’s level of entrainment on affiliation. That is, the higher the husband’s dysphoria, the less affiliative the wife became over time and the less entrained the partners were on affiliation. The wife’s mood induction mostly had no effect on the interaction dynamics examined. In summary, wives’ dysphoria tended to affect the dynamics of dominance during conflict interactions, whereas husbands’ dysphoria tended to affect the dynamics of affiliation. The results shed new light on the role each spouse may play in managing marital disagreements and how dysphoria disrupts patterns of interpersonal behaviour in such interactions.

Thesis (M.S.)--Auburn University, 2007. / Abstract. Vita. Includes survey instruments. Includes bibliographic references (ℓ. 55-62)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 73-79).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--School of Education. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2007. / "A dissertation in counseling psychology." Advisor: Johanna E. Nilsson. Typescript. Vita. Title from "catalog record" of the print edition Description based on contents viewed Jan. 24, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-113 ). Online version of the print edition.

Thesis (M.S.)--Auburn University, 2007. / Abstract. Vita. Includes survey instruments. Includes bibliographic references (ℓ. 49-56)

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (B.A. (Hons))--University of Adelaide, 1988. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves i-iii).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Columbia University, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Mainz, 1974. / Bibliography: p. xiii-xxii.