E. Lowell Kelly

Personality and compatibility: a prospective analysis of marital stability and marital satisfaction

The antecedents of marital stability (divorce or remaining married) and marital satisfaction (within the group that remains married) were investigated with a panel of 300 couples who were followed from their engagements in the 1930s until 1980. Twenty-two of the couples broke their engagements; of the 278 couples who married, 50 got divorced at some time between 1935 and 1980. Personality characteristics (measured by acquaintance ratings made in the 1930s) were important predictors of both marital stability and marital satisfaction. The three aspects of personality most strongly related to marital outcome were the neuroticism of the husband, the neuroticism of the wife, and the impulse control of the husband. In combination, the 17 major antecedent variables were moderately predictive of a criterion variable composed of both marital stability and marital satisfaction (R = .49). The three major aspects of personality accounted for more than half of the predictable variance. The remaining variance was accounted for by attitudinal, social-environment, and sexual history variables.

Experimental studies of behavioral effects of meprobamate on normal subjects.

With the increasing use of meprobamate, it is important to know its effects on the behavior of relatively normal subjects, on persons who take the drug without discontinuing their usual activities. We need detailed information about the effects of the drug on those common but complex acts in which most people engage as part of their daily lives. One of these activities-potentially dangerous if not properly carried out-is driving an automobile. How does meprobamate affect the motor skills, the sensory processes, and the judgment necessary for safe driving? Does meprobamate in usual doses, alone or in combination with a martini or a drink of whiskey, make it likely that a driver will endanger his own life or the lives of others? The answers to these and related questions have become increasingly important in view of the rapid changes occurring in our modern world. Although some information on these issues can be obtained from general observation and from subjective reports, our knowledge about the drug’s effects will be much sounder if the data are obtained under standardized and controlled conditions. Our research, including studies of reaction time, driving skills, steadiness, and visual performance, was designed to accomplish this.

Influence of suggestion and subjects' prior knowledge in research on sensory deprivation.

Several investigators have reported that normal human subjects placed in a dark, quiet room for several hours undergo a variety of hallucinatory experiences; these are typically attributed to extended periods of reduced sensory input. In the present experiment, similarly dramatic subjective experiences occurred within 1 hour when subjects were told of the possibility and appropriateness of such phenomena.