Crime, hostility, wife battering, and the heart: on the Meehan et al. (2001) failure to replicate the Gottman et al. (1995) typology.
Comments on the J. C. Meehan, A. Holtzworth-Munroe, and K. Herron (2001) failure to replicate the J. M. Gottman et al. (1995) results of 2 different types of batterers, defined by heart rate reactivity: Type 1 men lowered their heart rate from baseline to the high-conflict marital discussion, and Type 2 men increased their heart rate from baseline to the high-conflict marital discussion. Discussion is about criminality-psychopathy literature associated hypoarousal and hyporeactivity and the hostility-cardiovascular disease literature, which reports associated hyperreactivity and hostility related to cardiovascular disease. The Type 1-Type 2 distinction should be referred to these two venerable literatures. This article proposes the hypothesis that the Meehan et al. study failed to replicate Gottman et al. because it used a low-conflict marital discussion rather than the high-conflict discussion Gottman et al. used. This article reviews a study that did use a high-conflict marital task and found results generally supporting the Gottman et al. findings.
Gottman
J M
JM
Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Guthrie Hall, Mail Stop N1-25, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. jgottman@gottman.com
D000328:Adult; D003415:Crime; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010552:Personality Assessment; D011599:Psychopathology; D013179:Spouse Abuse / Q000523:psychology*; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology