Marriage in the New Millennium: Is There a Place for Social Cognition in Marital Research?

Although the interchange between clinical and social psychological research has been fruitful in the study of cognition in marriage, it has recently waned. This article therefore illustrates the value of continued interplay between developments in the social cognition and marital literatures, focusing on the role of context in understanding marriage. Several studies show how construct accessibility, including the construct of marital quality, provides a context that influences judgments of partner behavior, the stability of marital quality, and observed marital behavior. The effects of context on reported marital quality are also examined. Finally, an expanded interplay between social cognition and marital research is illustrated using as examples self-evaluation maintenance processes and goals analysis. It is concluded that the social cognitive perspective has the potential to provide a different understanding of marital cognition in the new millenium.