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The Good Marriage: How and Why Love Lasts has been written by authors well known for their studies of the stresses of divorce (see Wallerstein & Blakeslee, 1989). It is written in Wallerstein's voice, using the pronoun I, and is dedicated to her grandchildren. References to her own family and marriage are intermingled with observations of the couples included in the study. In the search of the literature on happy marriages “only one study was found that relied on individual interviews with happily married couples” (p. 16). Wallerstein explains that “what I have tried to write is a book about the intimate interiors of some successful marriages” (p. 14). The basis for her conclusions was “a qualitative study” of 50 couples who volunteered to be interviewed about their marriage and who subjectively defined their marriage as happy. The participants were drawn from the San Francisco Bay area, and except for one (Asian) were Caucasian. All were urban, well educated, upper class, and in fair to excellent health.
Wallerstein was one of five experienced clinicians who did the interviewing. Prior to the interviews, a four-page questionnaire covering personal and family background was given to each participant. Projective tests and drawings were administered during these interviews. What they were and what data they provided is not discussed in this volume. All interviews began with the questions, “What is happy for you in this marriage?” and “What is disappointing to you in this marriage?” Later, general areas of the participants' early life and marital experiences were addressed.
The authors found that they were able to describe four types of marriage, labeled romantic, rescue, companionate, and traditional. The typology was not intended to describe any one marriage, because most marriages are hybrids. The typology does