What is the golden ratio according to Gottman?

Answer 1

It looks like this question may be filed in the wrong spot. While it includes a "golden ratio," and therefore looks like a math question, it is really about relationships.

John Gottman is a researcher and expert in relationships, particularly marriage. In studying couples, Gottman began to recognize and quantify symptoms that led to marital distress and eventual divorce.

In that process, he also identified the opposite: how can marriages be improved and saved? And herein lies the "Golden Ratio." The ratio is of positive interactions to negative interactions. Or in mathematical formula (Positive interaction)/(Negative interaction).

Dr. Gottman determined that for every negative interaction, there are five positive interactions in healthy couples (or couples that want to move toward health). The beauty of this ratio is that it demonstrates 1) that healthy couples are not without painful moments, and 2) you can do something to improve a distressed relationship, simply by focusing on more positive interactions.

So the short answer is 5/1 positive to negative interactions.

Lee H. Baucom, Ph.D.

Creator, <a href="http://savethemarriage.com">Save The Marriage System</a>