How Shall We Argue?

How Shall We Argue?
by Linda Anderson Krech and Gregg Krech

It doesn't take much to set off a spark with a spouse, at least around certain issues. He's not ready on time, again. She's buying things they can't afford, again. The history of our arguments remains in the air around us and creates the conditions for sparks to fly, with very little provocation sometimes. In merely an instant the room flashes red, our temperature soars, and our thoughts race wildly ahead. Is there any hope for a different outcome at a moment like this, a better resolution than in the past. . . or are we destined to repeatedly crash and spin in the same old go-round, with anger leading us where we don't want to go?

Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and psychology and Robert Glaser, Ph.D., professor of microbiology, immunology and internal medicine, a husband and wife team at Ohio State University, have spent more than a decade studying the way married couples argue. Their findings pr...