Dr. John Gottman, a world-renowned marriage researcher, over a 20 year period, interviewed thousands of couples on video, and could predict, with an 85% accuracy, whether a couple would stay together or not. He established the Family Research Laboratory at the University of Washington. Dr. Gottman found there were four marriage destroyers: 1. Stonewalling - refusing to cooperate with spouse. 2. Criticism - focusing on faults of spouse. 3. Defensiveness - refusing to accept criticism from spouse. But the #1 marriage destroyer was 4. contempt – considering your spouse worthless, inferior & undeserving of respect. If Dr. Gottman saw contempt in a marriage, then he believed the marriage was doomed.
