Inventory of Marital Conflicts (IMC): An Experimental Interaction Procedure

Abstract

The IMC is an interaction technique which was developed to provide valid and reliable interaction data on decision-making processes and conflict resolution in couples. The IMC consists of 18 vignettes which present various types of marital conflicts that are generally relevant to couples. The IMC has several advantages compared to other marital interaction techniques and a new 29-category coding system has been developed to score the interaction material. The IMC also provides win scores and information on the relevancy of the material for each couple. Data has been collected from 1,000 couples married one and two years, with and without children. In addition to its possibilities as a research tool, the IMC also has potential as a diagnostic tool for marital therapy and as a means of evaluating process change resulting from treatment.