# 1999 VHS • The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work 60 FPS

This is a live workshop recording featuring Dr. John Gottman, founder of the Gottman Institute and professor at the University of Washington, presenting the research behind his book The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work. Gottman opens by distinguishing his role as a researcher rather than a therapist and describes his lab methodology, which includes videotaping couples discussing their day, areas of conflict, and topics they enjoy, then coding interactions at the physiological and behavioral level. The workshop covers his major predictors of divorce, called the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: criticism, contempt (the single strongest predictor), defensiveness, and stonewalling. He then presents what distinguishes stable marriages: a positive-to-negative ratio of 5-to-1 during conflict, the ability to make and accept repair attempts, softened startup, accepting influence from one's partner, and building shared meaning. The Q&A addresses perpetual problems, gender differences in flooding, common interests, and parenting. The tape runs approximately one hour and 27 minutes.

- Kind: Film
- Year: 1999
- By: The Vista Group®
- Archive: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/TheVistaGroup-TheSevenPrinciplesforMakingMarriageWork1999)
- Licence or status: none stated by the archive
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/ia/TheVistaGroup-TheSevenPrinciplesforMakingMarriageWork1999?play=1)