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Wife power
New marriage research by psychology's David Vogel goes global.
- David Vogel's research was the talk of television. CNN Headline News' Glenn Beck interviewed him live. He was on The Today Show. Katie Couric mentioned it on the CBS Evening News and Jay Leno made light of the findings on late-night TV. The topic: women appear to be the bosses at home.
Vogel, associate professor of psychology, and his colleagues learned that wives, on average, exerted greater power in the form of domineering and dominant behaviors than their husbands during problem-solving discussions.
The results were contrary to the common belief that men, because they often exhibit dominant behavior in the workplace, would do the same at home.
The study's findings caught the attention of the world's news media. Print and online articles appeared in the media from Canada to Kuwait, via China, India, Europe and most other areas of the globe. Vogel and colleague Megan Murphy of human studies and family development did enough radio interviews to fill hours of airtime.
The researchers' paper, "Sex Differences in the Use of Demand and Withdraw Behavior in Marriage: Examining the Social Structure Hypothesis," appeared in the Journal of Counseling Psychology in May.
Also involved in the research were Carolyn Cutrona, professor of psychology and director of ISU's Institute for Social and Behavioral Research, Ron Werner-Wilson, associate professor of human studies and family development, and Joann Seeman, psychology graduate student.
Seventy-two Iowa married couples, all relatively happy in their relationships, took part in the study.
"Previously, the assumption was that men have more power in general and have more power in the workforce and so they would likely have more power in the home," Vogel explained.
"Specifically, it was believed that men would assert their power in an intimate relationship by withdrawing from discussions that would have them do more in the relationship. But no one had actually tested that idea, they just asserted it. So we tried to explicitly test it by measuring withdrawal behaviors and explicitly measuring power."
What the researchers learned was counter to this hypothesis. They found that women have more power in the discussions they watched.
"We don't know if it led to ultimate changes. But, at least when we had the couple talk about a problem in a relationship, women were able to exert their needs. We also found men were responding to those needs.
"Thus, our study suggests that marriage, at least for relatively satisfied couples, is a place where women are able to exert some power," Vogel said. "However, it's difficult for us to say why."
Vogel noted the difference in the amount of power exerted by women and men was not large. "We were finding it was significant but it was a small difference."
He would like to extend the research to learn how couples' communication, particularly power dynamics, impact relationships over time.
Around LAS
November 12 to December 2, 2007
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