Neurosis and marital interaction. II. Time sharing and social activity.

Abstract

1. It was hypothesized (a) that patients' marriage would be characterized by the spouses spending more time in face-to-face contact than would be found in control marriages, and (b) that the wives of male patients would have less diversity of social contacts and poorer social integration than control wives. 2. The primary instrument used to test these hypotheses was a time-budget for a one-week period. The method is described and data are given on its reliability. 3. Patients and their wives were found to have spent significantly more time in face-to-face contact than controls, and to have spent less time as a couple in social intercourse with others. These differences were most evident in the longest-married pairs, and were more clear-cut the more closely the health of the husband was categorized. Time spent in face-to-face contact appeared to depend more on the psychological health of the husband than of the wife. 4. The wives of male patients were found to have significantly less independent social activity than the controls. At longer durations of marriage this discrepancy was more marked, though the effect of duration of marriage was not demonstrable statistically. 5. An index of social integration yielded lower scores for the patients' wives than controls, a difference which was statistically significant in the long-married sub-group. The scores obtained by the patients' wives appeared to be associated primarily with certain characteristics of the patient than of the wife herself, though interpretation of these data needs to be cautious. 6. It was concluded that both hypotheses were supported. Their relevance was discussed in terms of the increasing similarity of patients and their spouses as marriage progresses, termed \`convergence', both as indicating the interpersonal setting of the marriage and as influencing the \`modelling' activity of the wife as theorized by Bandura. 7. Attention was drawn to the progressive increase in social activity of normal wives as marriage progresses, and the lack of such a progression in the patients' wives.