College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University

Conflict management

New study will look at physiological effects of marital conflict.
Maybe it was the $60.

Or maybe the couples that responded to an e-mail message from David Vogel, assistant professor of psychology, wanted some free counseling.

Whatever it was, Vogel and his research team looking at physiological effects of marital conflict, had no problems whatsoever in getting enough married couples to conduct the study.

"We had a huge response from our electronic inquiry," Vogel said. "We could have run a much larger test if we had the funding.

"The people that are participating in the project seemed really interested in it," Vogel continued.

Vogel, who is the lead researcher on the project, is teaming up with psychology colleagues Douglas Bonett, Carolyn Cutrona, and Ronald Werner-Wilson of the Department of Human Development and Family Studies. The group has been awarded a one-year $73,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health and also received additional funding for the project from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in the form of a Faculty Development Grant.

Much of the study is based on the assumption that a pattern develops in many relationships and marriages where one partner withdraws from conflict and the other demands answers.

"One will ask for changes," Vogel said, "and the other avoids talking about the issue altogether. This is a particularly destructive behavior and there are a number of theories as to why a couple could get into this pattern."

The theory Vogel and his research group is exploring centers around the physiological effects of this marital conflict. Couples participating in the project will be interviewed on a variety of topics that tend to be sources of conflict in relationships.

Results from previous studies show that women are typically the "demanders" in a relationship when "women's" issues are discussed in a marriage.

"When a couple discusses issues like housework and childcare, issues typically come from the wife's standpoint; the women are more demanding because they want a change," Vogel said. "It flips when it is a subject that tends to be male-oriented."

Physiological reactions vary depending upon the sex of the individual. Vogel says women's physiological responses may not fluctuate as much as men's do when discussions are held between the spouses. Men however may become overall more emotionally aroused during the discussions.

Vogel says awareness of these results could lead to better marriage counseling and possibly reducing spousal abuse.

"Physiological responses are related to violent behavior in couples," he said. "We could look at possible ways to help couples deal with this and other issues."

Vogel is surprised that he is undertaking the survey at all. This is his first external grant, one he says he almost didn't apply for.

"I don't think it would have gone through without this new program," he said.

The program he's talking about is the Mentored Summer Grant Writing Program; a program designed as a follow-up to generic grant-writing workshops, it offers individual mentoring while faculty develop their first grant proposal.

Vogel participated in the program during the summer of 2003 and he was mentored by Cutrona.

"This program encouraged me to apply for the grant in the first place," Vogel said. "It made all the difference from submitting a decent proposal to selecting a winning one."

The mentor must have a successful track record in obtaining grants and must be a scholar in the area in which the young faculty member is working.

"David's proposal had both scientific merit and applications for helping couples in the future," she said. "I suspect that working with this grant writing program helped David cut off at least one year in the review cycle."