The following videos feature Dr. John Gottman, one of the leading couples and marriage researchers in the world. Dr. Gottman has studied relationships between and among couples for the past 40 years and is able to predict with amazing accuracy whether marital relationships will be successful or fail.

He is a professor emeritus in psychology known for his work on marital stability and relationship analysis through scientific direct observations, many of which were published in peer-reviewed literature. The lessons derived from this work represent a partial basis for the relationship counseling movement that aims to improve relationship functioning and the avoidance of those behaviors shown by Gottman and other researchers to harm human relationships.

His work has also had a major impact on the development of important concepts on social sequence analysis. Gottman developed multiple models, scales and formulas to predict marital stability and divorce in couples, and has completed seven studies in this field. These studies regarding newlywed couples are most well known.

This work concludes that the four negative behaviors that most predict divorce are criticism of partners’ personality, contempt (from a position of superiority), defensiveness, and stonewalling, or emotional withdrawal from interaction. On the other hand, stable couples handle conflicts in gentle, positive ways, and are supportive of each other.

He developed the Gottman Method Couple’s Therapy based on his research findings. The therapy aims to increase respect, affection, and closeness, break through and resolve conflict, generate greater understandings, and to keep conflict discussions calm. The Gottman Method seeks to help couples build happy and stable marriages.