Crisis and Conjugal Power

The present study investigates the effects of crisis on conjugal power using SIMFAM, a laboratory method. Research on non-family groups has shown that during an unsolved crisis a leader tends to decrease in power and to be replaced. The relevance of these ideas for marital dyads was tested, as well as the idea that the more equalitarian the conjugal power structure during a non-crisis situation, the more likely a change in relative conjugal power will occur during a crisis. Hypothesis based on these ideas were supported with a sample of 50 married couples.