Marriage Help Video
In this ‘Marriage Help’ video, Mark Tyrrell talks about the research showing the beneficial physical effects of a happy marriage, on both physical and psychological wellbeing. He also goes into what has been shown to help marriages work, and what sort of behaviours are toxic to marriage.
He discusses the fact that people who are unwilling to ever apologise are have been shown to be unlikely to ever get married, or to stay married if they do. He talks about the reaserch done by John Gottman, the 4 ‘Riders of the Apocalypse’ for an unhappy marriage: criticism, contempt, stonewalling or withdrawal, or over-defensiveness. These all undermine the stability of a relationship and Gottman was able to predict marriage breakdown based on observations of them in couples.
Mark talks about the magic ratio of 5 good interactions to every 1 unpleasant interaction. Arguing itself is not a problem, but it’s the way couples argue that predicts whether they will split up or not.
