RMICS Coding Center

Rapid Marital Interaction Coding System

Purpose

Provide researchers with reliable and valid observational coding of marital interactions.

Description of RMICS

The RMICS is an observational coding system adapted from the Marital Interaction Coding System-IV (MICS-IV: Heyman, Weiss & Eddy, 1995). A factor analysis of all 1,088 couples coded with the MICS over a 5 year period was conducted to bring the original 37 microbehavioral MICS codes down to the four "categories" — hostility, constructive problem discussion, humor, and responsibility discussion (Heyman, Eddy, Weiss & Vivian, 1995). We used these results to create the RMICS. The first three factors were used to create codes. The fourth, responsibility discussion was incorporated into the broader notion of attributions. We used Holtzworth-Munroe and Jacobson's (1988) distillation of attributions into distress-maintaining and relationship-enhancing attribution codes. Further, we added several codes to make the system exhaustive and content valid. We included two codes added to the original MICS after the factor analysis was conducted — withdrawal and dysphoric affect (Heyman, Weiss, & Eddy, 1995). Two positive codes (self-disclosure and acceptance) were also incorporated from a similar marital coding system, the Kategoriensystem fir partnerschaftliche interaktion (KPI; Hahlweg, Reisner, Kohli, Vollmer, Schindler, & Revenstorf, 1984).In a study comparing the full 37-code MICS and the RMICS, the RMICS performed favorably (Heyman, Vivian, Weiss, Hubbard, & Ayerle, 1993).

The RMICS defines the speaker turn as its basic coding unit. The codes are ordered hierachically, based on both communication theory and substantial research that demonstrates that negative, followed by positive, followed by neutral codes are of decreasing importance in understanding marital conflict (see Weiss & Heyman, 1997). If the partner emits more than one code during a speaker turn, s/he receives the code highest on the hierarchy. To deal with monologues, speaker turns that last more than 30 seconds are interval coded in 30-second segments (i.e., coded as if a new speaker turn occurs every 30 seconds).

In declining hierarchical importance, the RMICS comprises distress-maintaining attributions (negative causal explanations); hostility (e.g., angry affect, criticism, combativeness); dysphoric affect (e.g., sad affect); withdrawal (e.g., stonewalling); relationship-enhancing attributions (positive causal explanations); acceptance (e.g., paraphrasing, expressions of caring); self disclosure ("I" statements that express speaker's feelings, wishes or beliefs; acceptance of responsibility); humor (e.g., joking, laughing); constructive problem discussion (e.g., description of the problem, constructive solutions, questions and agreement); other (statements on something other than a personal or relationship topic; e.g., "Is that the camera?").

Reliability Checking

Tapes are randomly assigned to coders, with 25% of the couples randomly assigned to two coders in order to assess for reliability.

Cost

$60 per tape. This includes:

coding
25% reliability checking
reliability statistics (at both system and code level)
output in SPSS (base rates and sequential statistics)
return shipping of videotapes and data
plus telephone consultation with Dr. Heyman to facilitate the full scientific use of the data provided

Time

Turnaround is several months; deadlines should be negotiated with Dr. Heyman.

Provision of Demographics

In using our coding services, the investigator agrees to provide Dr. Heyman with:

Permission to aggregate the data with that of other investigators to conduct archival investigations of the RMICS' psychometric properties. The investigator retains all rights to substantive analyses.
Marital adjustment scores, basic demographic information, and any recruitment strategies or experimental manipulations that may impact on the archival use of the data.

References

Heyman, R. E., Brown, P. D., Feldbau, S. R., & O’Leary, K. D. (1999). Couples’ Communication Variables as Predictors of Dropout and Treatment Response in Wife Abuse Treatment Programs. Behavior Therapy, 30, 165-190.

Heyman, R. E., Eddy, J. M., Weiss, R. L., & Vivian, D. (1995). Factor analysis of the Marital Interaction Coding System. Journal of Family Psychology, 9, 209-215.

Heyman, R. E. Vivian, D., Weiss, R. L., Hubbard, K., & Hubbard, C. (1993, November). Coding marital interaction at three levels of abstraction. Paper presented at the 27th Annual Meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Behavioral Therapy, Atlanta, GA.

Heyman, R. E., Weiss, R. L., & Eddy, J. M. (1995). Marital Interaction Coding System: Revision and empirical evaluation. Behavioural Research and Therapy, 33, 737-746.

Vivian, D., & Heyman, R. (1994, November). Aggression against wives: Mutual verbal combat "in context." In V. M. Follette (Chair), Gender issues in couples research. Symposium conducted at the 28th Annual Convention of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, San Diego, CA.