John Gottman's The Four Horseman

John Gottman is one of the most productive marriage scholars in nowadays (Goldenberg, & Goldenberg, 2013). He developed his scientifically based martial therapy, which originally named marriage clinic approach, from the observational and longitudinal research on communication differences between happy, stable and unhappy couples in his “Love lab” (Gottman, Ryan, Carrere, & Erley, 2002). Gottman’s model is unique in the sense that his approach was grounded entirely in research results rather than theory (Gehart, 2014). By synchronizing the physiological measures (e.g., heart rates, blood velocity) with the video time code that consist of body movements and facial expressions, Gottman and his research team gained valuable information about the role of behavioral and physiological responses in couple therapy (Navarra, & Gottman, 2011). Based on the 30-year intensive studies on the key factors in couples’ communication, divorce, and marital satisfaction, Gottman identified the masters and disasters of relationship and set up his therapeutic goals on reducing behaviors that predict divorce and promoting those that predict long-term …show more content…
Even worse, if the damaged done by “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” could not be repaired by repair attempts, then the conflictual interaction will continue and the marital relationship will be further damaged. Repair attempts are the verbal or nonverbal attempts that one partner tries to “make nice” and end the conflict, sooth the other, or soften the complaint. Happy couples usually need less repair attempts as they are more responsive to them. For instance, one of the couples tended to use humor and touch while their partner was distressed, such as helping the spouse to massage. While the distressed couple in my group tended to reject each other’s attempt, such as continuing have stonewalling when the spouse tried to say sorry, which resulting in a higher number of total attempts as to keep the marriage