Donald H. Baucom

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | UNC · Department of Psychology

Interpersonal emotion dynamics in couples have implications for the interpersonal maintenance of psychopathology. That is, how individuals regulate their own emotions and respond to their partners’ emotions is part of the interpersonal context of psychopathology and could influence treatment. The present study explored associations of (a) intrapers...

This article reviews the efficacy of couple-based, cognitive-behavioral interventions for psychopathology. Over the past two decades, cognitive-behavioral couples therapy has been adapted and systematically integrated with individual cognitive-behavioral therapy for the treatment of a range of individual mental disorders. These integrated approache...

This paper outlines a pilot validation study of the newly developed Behavioural Couple Therapy Scale for Depression (BCTS-D). The BCTS-D aims to assess therapist competence in delivering behavioural couple therapy (BCT) and provide therapists with summative and formative feedback on their performance. Completed by both therapist and supervisor, thi...

Close relationships and mental health are two key ingredients to living a meaningful, fulfilled life. These two domains are the central focus of Treating Relationship Distress and Psychopathology in Couples: A Cognitive-Behavioural Approach. As expert clinicians, trainers, and researchers in the field of cognitive-behavioural couple therapy and cou...

Maladaptive emotional reactivity and dysfunctional communication during couple conflict are both destructive to couple functioning, and observational research has elucidated how conflict escalates. However, much of the evidence is based on measures that combine content (i.e., what was said) and the emotion with which it was said, which are then exa...

Objective: The "critical comments" dimension of the expressed emotion (EE) construct has been found to predict the illness course of patients with bipolar disorder, but less is known about the "emotional overinvolvement" component. The goal of this study was to evaluate whether relatives' observed appropriate and inappropriate emotional involvemen...

We describe cognitive-behavioral therapy for bulimia nervosa (CBT-BN) with a Latina woman that incorporates culturally relevant topics. A single case report of a 31-year-old monolingual Latina woman with BN describes the application of a couple-based intervention adjunctive to CBT-BN. The patient reported no binge and purge episodes by session 20 a...

The demand/withdraw interaction pattern is a destructive cycle of relationship communication behavior that is associated with negative individual and relationship outcomes. Demand/withdraw behavior is thought to be strongly linked to partners' emotional reactions, but current theories are inconsistent with empirical findings. The current study prop...

Objective: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is associated with increased morbidity and mortality and reduced quality of life (QoL). Novel interventions are needed to improve outcomes in COPD patients. The present study assessed the effects of a telephone-based coping skills intervention on psychological and somatic QoL and on the combi...

Women who are diagnosed with breast cancer can experience an array of psychosocial difficulties; however, social support, particularly from a spouse, has been shown to have a protective function during this time. This study examined the ways in which a woman's daily mood, pain, and fatigue, and her spouse's marital satisfaction predict the woman's...

Vor dem Hintergrund hoher Scheidungsraten, einer insgesamt mit zunehmender Partnerschaftsdauer sinkenden Beziehungszufriedenheit und den zahlreichen damit einhergehenden negativen Folgen für die Betroffenen und ihre Familien gewinnt die Prävention von Partnerschaftsstörungen nicht nur wissenschaftlich sondern auch politisch an immer größerer Bedeut...

Whereas most couples enter into marriage or similar committed, romantic relationships with the full expectation that they will live their lives together in a happy and rewarding manner, the divorce rate in the United States and many Western countries continues to be alarmingly high-in the United States hovering around 50%. As a result, mental healt...

Several studies showed associations among marital variables and panic disorder with agoraphobia (PDA) symptomatology. However, very few explored this issue using behavioural coding of couples’ interactions. We conducted this study to investigate whether observed marital interaction patterns would predict PDA severity. Cross-sectional, pre-treatment...

Couple conflict in unhappy marriages is suggested to impair individual health via chronic psychophysiological stress reactions in couples' everyday lives. As a consequence, we hypothesized that standard couples relationship education (CRE) would decrease psychophysiological stress, namely salivary cortisol levels, during couple conflict in the labo...

Zusammenfassung. Theoretischer Hintergrund: In uberwiegend US-amerikanischen Studien konnten individuelle, partnerschaftliche und kontextuelle Faktoren identifiziert werden, die das Eingehen einer auserpartnerschaftlichen Beziehung beeinflussen. Fragestellung: Welche der identifizierten Risikofaktoren konnen als Pradiktoren fur das Eingehen von Unt...

This study had two goals. First, it investigated marital interaction variables as predictors of treatment outcome in panic disorder with agoraphobia (PDA) in sixty-five couples with one spouse suffering from PDA. Second, it analyzed the impact of PDA improvement, following therapy, on marital interaction patterns of both spouses. The partners were...

Background: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a progressive illness characterized by airflow obstruction and dyspnea that afflicts over 12 million people and represents a leading cause of death in the United States. Not surprisingly, COPD is often associated with emotional distress and reduced psychosocial adjustment, which can negat...

Theory and Techniques of Standard Cognitive-Behavioral Couple Therapy (CBCT)Primary and Secondary Distress in Couple RelationshipsImplications of Primary and Secondary Distress for Brief Couple TherapyDevelopments in CBCT that Address Primary Distress IssuesCriteria and Assessment Methods for Deciding Between Brief and Open-Ended Couple TherapySumm...

Extramarital involvement (EMI) occurs with high prevalence among couples in clinical and community settings, frequently resulting in considerable distress both to participants and their spouses. The field lacks a synthesized review of this literature. Without such a synthesis, it has been difficult for researchers and clinicians to have an understa...

This preliminary study tested the efficacy of a partner-guided cancer pain management protocol for patients who are at the end of life. Seventy-eight advanced cancer patients meeting criteria for hospice eligibility and their partners were randomly assigned to a partner-guided pain management training intervention, or usual care control condition....

Forgiveness is an issue that recently has received increasing attention in the psycbological literature, yet little empirical research has been conducted on this topic. This article presents initial support and validation of an inventory based upon Gordon and Baucom's (1998) three-stage synthesized model of forgiveness in marital relationships. Thi...

This book expands the boundaries of cognitive-behavioral therapy and traditional notions of marriage in a framework that focuses on the behavior of individuals in relationships within the context of broader relationship patterns. For couples to derive maximum fulfillment from their relationships, an equal emphasis must be given to the role of posit...

The focus of this chapter is a detailed case example that illustrates the application of cognitive-behavioral couples therapy (CBCT), with a distressed couple. This chapter briefly describes the central concepts and methods of(CBCT). Other topics discussed include: principles and methods of cognitive-behavioral couple therapy; assessment of present...

Long-term maintenance of behavior change to reduce health risk factors is essential to producing a positive effect on medical outcomes. Recently, increased attention has turned toward a patient's spouse, or intimate partner, in understanding response to illness, medically necessary behavioral change, and adherence with medical recommendations. The...

Long-term maintenance of behavior change to reduce health risk factors is essential to producing a positive effect on medical outcomes. Recently, increased attention has turned toward a patient's spouse, or intimate partner, in understanding response to illness, medically necessary behavioral change, and adherence with medical recommendations. The...

The 1984 article that Neil Jacobson senior authored, entitled Variability in outcome and clinical significance of behavioral marital therapy: A reanalysis of outcome data (see record 1984-32021-001), is now 15 years old. However, it continues to be cited widely in the literature, and it has scientific importance for both methodological and substa...

Despite considerable research that has demonstrated the positive aspects of social support, little is known about the mechanisms that influence the experience of feeling supported. This study examined the association between proximal (e.g., support content) and distal (e.g., marital satisfaction) factors and the experience of feeling supported by o...

This study examined the association of marital power type to (1) marital adjustment and (2) response to behavioral marital therapy. A behavioral measure was used to classify 53 distressed couples into egalitarian, husband-dominant, wife-dominant, or anarchic power patterns. Marital adjustment was assessed by measures of marital satisfaction, desire...

Objective. To evaluate the effects of a spouse-assisted pain-coping skills training intervention on pain, psychological disability, physical disability, pain-coping, and pain behavior in patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of the knees. Methods. Eighty-eight OA patients with persistent knee pain were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: 1) spouse-...

Attributional dimensions for marital conflicts were derived using a multidimensional scaling of spouses' explanations for relationships problems. Four dimensions for husbands and four dimensions for wives were interpreted by using visual inspection and their relation to attributional dimensions drawn from the literature. Most of the dimensions refl...

This study is one of a series of investigations examining the contribution of sex roles to the development of depression within a learned helplessness framework. Utilizing 143 pairs of undergraduate female participants, the present study explored subjects′ abilities to gain and maintain control in an interpersonal context. Interpersonal control was...

Explored the sequential communication patterns of maritally distressed couples. The findings confirmed the presence of negative and nonnegative (positive and neutral combined) reciprocity. The results indicated that partners tend to respond negatively if their spouses have just spoken about the partners or the relationship and that wives are more l...

Explored differences in communication and perception of communication among 3 types of married couples: maritally distressed, in which the wife was depressed; maritally distressed only couples; and nondistressed-nondepressed couples. Findings revealed differences both in the patterns of communication and in the meanings these patterns have for the...

Explored differences in communication and perception of communication among 3 types of married couples: maritally distressed, in which the wife was depressed; maritally distressed only couples; and nondistressed-nondepressed couples. Findings revealed differences both in the patterns of communication and in the meanings these patterns have for the...

Examined the association between changes in the interaction behaviors of 60 maritally distressed couples in their 30s and the effectiveness of behavioral marital therapy (BMT). Couple problem-solving behavior was coded using the Marital Interaction Coding System. Individual behaviors were assembled into 4 categories (problem-focused, avoidance, non...

Compared 35 maritally distressed couples assigned to 1 of 3 cognitive behavioral marital therapy (BMT) groups. Groups represented (1) couples in which 1 spouse was depressed at pretest, (2) couples in which 1 spouse showed psychopathology other than depression, and (3) couples who showed no symptoms of individual psychopathology. Ss were administer...

One hundred forty-four maritally distressed clinic couples and 138 nonclinic couples participated in a study investigating the relationship between individual sex role identity and marital adjustment. Subjects completed Baucom's (1976) masculinity (MSC) and femininity (FMN) scales, and either the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS; Spanier, 1976) or the...

Explored whether couples develop an attributional style in explaining marital behavior. Results demonstrate that spouses vary greatly in the extent to which they develop an attributional style in this area. Development of an attributional style is correlated with marital distress. Investigators have assumed that simultaneous attributional ratings a...

The current paper identifies several major directions for future research in the area of dyadic interaction: (a) issues related to the unit of observation and unit of measurement in interactional research; (b) issues related to the unit of analysis in interactional research; (c) attempts to investigate the cognition-behavior interface in dyadic int...

Humphreys (this issue) reanalyzed the data of Welsh and Baucom (1977) and stated that their conclusions were unsupportable. Humphreys's criticisms are inappropriate since his findings are based upon a measure of masculinity-femininity (M-F) which is different from the previous approach and based upon a sample which is somewhat different. Thus he ad...

Nonspecific (placebo) control groups are criticized for typically not being equated with experimental treatments on all relevant stylistic and procedural variables. As the result of this confounding, significant differences between behavioral and nonspecific treatment groups are difficult to interpret in many behavior modification outcome studies....

Masculine and feminine subgroups of males and females were selected from samples of high school and college students on the basis of composite scores from several M—F scales. They were compared on intelligence as measured by a verbal test, Terman's Concept Mastery Test, and a nonverbal test, D-48. Results did not support previous findings of sex di...