Research
More About Our Research
More About Gottman
Join the Gottman Pro Newsletter
Receive regular updates and clinical resources for professionals from the Gottman Institute.
John Gottman’s concept of “flooding” triggers the “fight or flight” response, risking conflict escalation or emotional disengagement. Subscribe for free resources on managing it in clients.
In the beginning, Dr. John Gottman’s research was devoted to the discovery of reliable patterns in observational data. He wanted to see if there were indeed patterns of behavior, or sequences of interactions, that could discriminate happy from unhappy couples.
It was not at all clear that these patterns existed. Dr. Gottman and his colleagues began developing the math for sequential analysis, which now is a well-developed methodology. They began discovering consistent sequences that differentiated happily married from unhappily married couples, which Dr. Gottman wrote about in a book, called Marital Interactions: Experimental Investigations.
Since that time, the Gottman Method has grown from its initial basis in mathematical foundations, through a long history of published books, evolving research, and eventually into the applied method known today, which is taught to and used by thousands of skilled therapists around the globe.
This page covers a brief, but of course, non-exhaustive overview of major milestones and themes of research, from the beginning up to the current day. For more information, please consider checking out the FAQ, the Effectiveness page, the current research, or one of John and Julie Gottmans’ wonderful books, written for both couples and therapists.
Continuing the Tradition - Ongoing Research
Research continues, both internationally and right here in Seattle. Dr. Carrie Cole continues our work here as the Research Director, working in collaboration with John and Julie Gottman to continue the research in new directions.
We currently have several therapy studies ongoing in collaboration with independently-practicing Certified Gottman Therapists working with couples across the U.S. and beyond, and we are always looking for new couples who are interested in working with highly-trained therapists while also being part of the continued research legacy.
When you take part in our couples therapy research, you and your partner will:
- Engage in guided conversations and interventions that are designed to effectively manage conflict with a Certified Gottman Therapist.
- Gain valuable insights from decades of scientific research on love, trust, and communication.
- Contribute to developing and advancing effective strategies for helping couples thrive.
There are currently two opportunities to participate:
- The Outcome Study – traditional, regular couple therapy in 60- or 90-minute sessions
- The Marathon Study – intensive couples therapy (15-18 hours of treatment over 2-3 days) with follow-up
Participation is always voluntary and confidential. Every couple’s story adds valuable knowledge to the field of relationship science, helping therapists, researchers, and partners everywhere.
If you and your partner are interested in being a part of either study and working with a local or online highly-trained Certified Gottman Therapist, please check out the study pages above, or contact us for more information about being a part of the continued Gottman research legacy.
We are also seeking business teams to fill out a pilot survey related to applying Gottman communication strategies (e.g., bids for connection) to the workplace environment. If you think members of your team might be interested in filling out a brief survey about their experience as members of their team, please reach out to us at research@gottman.com.
Early Research and Findings
In the 1970’s, systematic observation of couples started in the Gottman lab. Psychology at that time was having a great deal of difficulty establishing reliable patterns in the personality of one individual. Advice suggested that psychologists should not study couples, because of the unreliability in studying one person might be squared by studying two people. That advice was wrong. Dr. Gottman showed that there was tremendous regularity in a couple over time.
In a series of research studies, Dr. Gottman developed new observational coding systems with his colleagues, and the lab applied brand new methods for studying sequences of interaction. They built a device called a “talk table,” in which people could interact and also rate how positive or negative their intentions were and how positive or negative were the impacts of the messages they received.
Collaboration with Robert Levenson
In 1975, Robert Levenson and John Gottman teamed up to combine the study of emotion with psycho-physiological measurement and a video-recall method that gave them rating dial measures of how people felt during conflict. They discovered Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen’s Facial Affect Coding System (FACS), and Dr. Gottman subsequently developed the Specific Affect Coding System (SPAFF).
Dr. Gottman began applying time-series analysis to the analysis of interaction data. He wrote a book on time-series analysis to explain these methods to psychologists, and developed some new methods for analyzing dominance and bidirectionality with his colleagues. In 1980, Dr. Gottman and Levenson received their first grant together and began attempting to replicate their observations from their first study.
The Gottman lab at the University of Illinois also studied the linkages between marital interaction, parenting, and children’s social development (with Lynn Katz), and later at the University of Washington involved studying these linkages with infants (with Alyson Shapiro). Learn more about the research on parenting.
Divorce Prediction Studies
Gottman and Levenson discovered that couples interaction had enormous stability over time (about 80% stability in conflict discussions separated by 3 years). They also discovered that most relationship problems (69%) never get resolved but are “perpetual” problems based on personality differences between partners. Learn more about the research on marriage and couples.
In seven longitudinal studies, one with violent couples (with Neil Jacobson), the predictions replicated. They could predict whether a couple would divorce with an average of over 90% accuracy, across studies using the ratio of positive to negative SPAFF codes, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Criticism, Defensiveness, Contempt, and Stonewalling), physiology, the rating dial, and an interview they devised called the Oral History Interview.
The Sound Relationship House Theory and The Gottman Institute
In 1994, Dr. Gottman began working with his wife, clinical psychologist Dr. Julie Schwartz Gottman, developing the Sound Relationship House (SRH) theory and interventions based on John’s research. Together, they designed both proximal and distal change studies. In a proximal change study, one intervenes briefly with interventions designed only to make the 2nd of two conflict discussions less divorce prone. In one of these studies they discovered that a 20-minute break in which couples stopped talking and just reading magazines (as their heart rates returned to baseline) dramatically changed the discussion so that people had access to their sense of humor and affection.
In 1996, Drs. Julie and John Gottman co-founded The Gottman Institute to bring this research to the world. We are committed to an ongoing program of research that increases the understanding of relationships and adds to the development of interventions that have been carefully evaluated. Read more about our mission.
Creation of the Love Lab
In 1986, John Gottman and his colleagues built an apartment laboratory at the University of Washington that was dubbed the “Love Lab” by the media. This is where they discovered the basis of friendship and intimacy and its relation to conflict in their Bids and Turning Coding System. With that work they discovered how couples create and maintain friendship and intimacy and how it’s related to conflict.
When 14-year longitudinal data became available Levenson & Gottman discovered a second dysfunctional pattern, emotional disengagement. It was marked by the absence of positive affect during conflict (no interest, affection, humor, or empathy). Now they could predict not only if a couple would divorce, but when. Couples who had the Four Horsemen divorced an average of 5.6 years after the wedding, while emotionally disengaged couples divorced an average of 16.2 years after the wedding.
The Love Lab Today
The newest iteration of the Love Lab, directed by Dr. Carrie Cole, an incredibly skilled clinician and dear friend of the Gottmans, is located in the heart of downtown Seattle, WA, where it serves to continue the tradition of data collection while at the same time translating decades of relationship science into a clear, compassionate experience for couples. The new Love Lab combines assessment, research, tools, and treatment. In a comfortable setting, partners engage in guided conversations—everyday check-ins and conflict discussions—while the research team observes interaction patterns shown by research to predict relationship health, and non-invasive physiological measures and validated questionnaires add depth to the picture.
What makes the Love Lab unique is its precision. Rather than guessing at “what’s wrong,” our
team maps the micro-behaviors that drive disconnection (like harsh start-ups, flooding, or missed bids) and the habits that sustain thriving relationships (turning toward, repair attempts, shared meaning). Dr. Cole synthesizes these findings into a personalized feedback session and an actionable plan that is followed during intensive treatment sessions. The couple receives specific targeted interventions, communication frameworks, and referrals or follow-up coaching when needed.
Whether you’re proactively strengthening a good partnership or navigating high-stakes
challenges, the Gottman Love Lab gives you a science-based roadmap to greater trust, intimacy, and resilience—delivered with warmth, clarity, and respect.
This deep assessment and intensive treatment process is ideal for couples seeking a rapid
transformation in their relationship. To speak to a scheduler to see if the Gottman Love Lab is
right for your relationship, click here.
Research on Same-Sex Couples
Levenson and Gottman also conducted a 12-year study of gay and lesbian couples, work they published in two papers in the Journal of Homosexuality. The research demonstrates that all couple types—straight or gay—have many of the same problems and the same paths to staying happy together. But research has shown that there are also some qualities of strength (like humor and ability to calm down during a fight) that are especially key to same-sex couples. Read more about this research in the Journal of Homosexuality here, and learn more about our research on same-sex couples.
Research on Affair Recovery
The Gottmans, Carrie Cole, and professors Taylor Irvine and Paul Peluso have collaborated to continue research in the area of affairs and infidelity. Their initial pilot study has demonstrated the efficacy of Gottman Method Couples Therapy in helping couples heal from the trauma and betrayal of an affair, and their work continues. You can see their paper in The Family Journal. Training is available for Gottman Therapists to apply Gottman Method Couples Therapy to the specific challenge of affair recovery, via the Atone-Attune-Attach model, and we are excited to continue to support and see research done in this area.
The International Research Community
Other teams have also contributed to the body of work underlying the Gottman Method, and we would be remiss to neglect to mention their contributions. Some of this work that looks specifically at therapeutic outcomes are mentioned on the Effectiveness page. Much of it has been done by international teams working with couples across the globe, adding to both the body of knowledge and expanding the diversity of couples and therefore strengthening the foundation of the method as an approach that works for and can be adapted to couples of any age, background, religion, culture, or presenting challenge.