In his research on love and relationships in couples John Gottman and his team utilized diverse types of data. Additionally, the information was collected in different ways by implementing validated questionnaires, face-to-face interviews, physiological measurements, etc. Therefore, such types of data as the couples’ story of how they met, heart rate, blood velocity, skin conductance, respiration, strength and weaknesses of the relationship, as well as the score of participants’ emotions (The Science of Love, 00:03:39-00:04:14). On the next step of their research, Gottman and his team collected such data as the perception of the couples’ relationships, facial expressions, voice tone, verbal and non-verbal behavior (The Science of Love, 00:04:14-00:04:30). Right after the data collection stage, the gained information was moved to the stage of accurate and unbiased analysis and synchronization.
The results of the “Love Lab’s” study can impress anyone as the shown prediction rates are quite high, proving the contributed research’s effectiveness and accuracy. According to Gottman’s claim, his team could predict the future of about 90% of the couples and make a conclusion about whether the marriage will last or end up with a divorce (The Science of Love, 00:05:05-00:05:10). Therefore, by implementing the research’s results several basic principles and recommendations for the establishment of a good, stable, and loving couple can be drawn.
Several of his ideas captured my mind by watching the video. Firstly, I was impressed that the positive-negative emotions ratio has to be 5:1 to build a reliable and trustworthy relationship. The second unexpected conclusion is the importance of psychological calm during arguments for maintaining existing relations. I did not expect that anger, disdain, and negative emotions while leading arguments result in misunderstanding of one another; hence, irritation is one of the most significant demolishers of love.
Reference
Tedx Talks. (2018). The Science of Love | John Gottman | TedxVeniceBeach [Video]. Web.