A West campus study on positive interaction in married couples may prove touch can improve relationships.
Researchers at the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences are conducting a study called the “Healthy Couples Project.”
“Our hypothesis was that having positive interaction with spouse will reduce your stress response,” said Mary Burleson, the project’s principal investigator.
Burleson said she wanted to see if Latino couples perceive touch differently from non-Latino couples and if their touch can improve marriages.
Burleson said the study was partly inspired by articles with the idea that Latino culture had more “interpersonal touching” than mainstream American culture.
The study began two and a half years ago and will have official analysis in June 2012, she said.
Burleson said so far the results show similarities in Latino and non-Latino couples in the way they respond physiologically to touch.
“We monitor the couple’s physiological response through heart rate, blood pressure and facial expressions and self report,” Burleson said.
Burleson could not disclose the tasks couples are asked to do in order to not give away specifics of the study.
Pilot participant and ASU alumna Laura Hess was part of the study before it was tested on actual participants.
Hess said she was surprised something she saw as simple study was truly intricate because of the sophisticated equipment and professional student researchers.
“I didn’t realize that detailed of research would be on-going on a college campus,” Hess said.
Both undergraduate and graduate students help Burleson monitor and record the data.
Graduate student and Healthy Couples Project lab manager Tara Vincelette is one of the students helping Burleson with the research.
Vincelette believes studies like this are important to conduct.
“If having a happy marriage can reduce stress, that’s important to know,” Vincelette said. “I think it shows the benefits of being happily married.”
Billy Dinsmore, a psychology senior and project researcher, said he noticed the marital issues between the couples.
“I heard husbands complain that their wives were on Facebook too much and the wives complain about their husbands were playing too many video games,” he said.
Dinsmore said he got a feel for what it feels like to be in married relationship.
Burleson said they are in need for more mature participants in the study and they recently increased the age limit to 75.
Vincelette said couples earn up to $160 in the study and receive research credit for certain classes.
Couples can see if they are eligible and can fill the pre-screening form at healthycouples.net to be participants.
Reach the reporter at thaniab@asu.edu
