Behaviorally-based couple therapies reduce emotional arousal during couple
conflict.
Author(s): Baucom BR(1), Sheng E(2), Christensen A(3), Georgiou PG(4), Narayanan SS(4),
Atkins DC(2).
Affiliation(s): Author information:
(1)Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA.
Electronic address: brian.baucom@psych.utah.edu. (2)Department of Psychiatry and
Behavioral Science, University of Washington, USA. (3)Department of Psychology,
University of California, Los Angeles, USA. (4)Department of Electrical
Engineering, University of Southern California, USA.
Publication date & source: 2015, Behav Res Ther. , 72:49-55
Emotional arousal during relationship conflict is a major target for intervention
in couple therapies. The current study examines changes in conflict-related
emotional arousal in 104 couples that participated in a randomized clinical trial
of two behaviorally-based couple therapies. Emotional arousal is measured using
mean fundamental frequency of spouse's speech, and changes in emotional arousal
from pre-to post-therapy are examined using multilevel models. Overall emotional
arousal, the rate of increase in emotional arousal at the beginning of conflict,
and the duration of emotional arousal declined for all couples. Reductions in
overall arousal were stronger for TBCT wives than for IBCT wives but not
significantly different for IBCT and TBCT husbands. Reductions in the rate of
initial arousal were larger for TBCT couples than IBCT couples. Reductions in
duration were larger for IBCT couples than TBCT couples. These findings suggest
that both therapies can reduce emotional arousal, but that the two therapies
create different kinds of change in emotional arousal.
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