The Mathematics of Marriage
Dynamic Nonlinear Models
(MIT Press, 2002)
SCI 337
Divorce rates are at an all-time high. But without a theoretical understanding of the processes related to marital stability and dissolution, it is difficult to design and evaluate new marriage interventions. The Mathematics of Marriage provides the foundation for a scientific theory of marital relations. The book does not rely on metaphors, but develops and applies a mathematical model using difference equations. The work is the fulfillment of the goal to build a mathematical framework for the general system theory of families first suggested by Ludwig Von Bertalanffy in the 1960s. The book also presents a complete introduction to the mathematics involved in theory building and testing, and details the development of experiments and models. In one “marriage experiment,” for example, the authors explored the effects of lowering or raising a couple’s heart rates. Armed with their mathematical model, they were able to do real experiments to determine which processes were affected by their interventions.
Applying ideas such as phase space, null clines, influence functions, inertia, and uninfluenced and influenced stable steady states (attractors), the authors show how other researchers can use the methods to weigh their own data with positive and negative weights. While the focus is on modeling marriage, the techniques can be applied to other types of psychological phenomena as well.
(Description Source: MIT Press)
Author
Rebecca Tyson is a professor of Mathematics at the University of British Columbia (Okanagan). Her research area is mathematical biology, chiefly focussed on the population dynamics and spatial movement patterns of biological populations in complex landscapes. She has also done significant work aimed at understanding how opinion dynamics evolve in human populations, and how they interact with disease dynamics.
John M. Gottman is a professor of Psychology at the University of Washington.
James D. Murray is a professor emeritus of Applied Mathematics at the University of Washington.
Catherine Swanson is a software engineer at the University of Washington.
Kristin R. Swanson is a senior fellow in Pathology and Applied Mathematics at the University of Washington.
UBC Library Holdings
How to Purchase this Book
From the Publisher – MIT Press
From Used-book Sellers – ABE, Amazon, Antiqbook, Biblio, Vialibri
Hardcover ISBN: 9780262072267
Paperback ISBN: 9780262572309
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