Clark psychology Prof. Cordova shares insights on couples research

Clark University Professor James V. Córdova, chair of the Psychology Department, may not be a household name — yet — but his research and comments featured recently in The Wall Street Journal nearly have gone viral.

“A Performance Review May Be Good for Your Marriage“, an article by the popular “Bonds” columnist Elizabeth Bernstein, appeared Oct. 5 in The Wall Street Journal and features an interview with Prof. Córdova.

Bernstein writes: “A growing number of marriage therapists and relationship researchers recommend that spouses and romantic partners complete periodic performance reviews. … By taking time to regularly evaluate and review their relationship together, partners can recognize what is and isn’t working — and identify goals for improvement — long before problems become entrenched and irresolvable.”

“It’s the relationship equivalent of the six-month dental checkup,” she quotes Córdova, who is the author of “The Marriage Checkup: A Scientific Program for Sustaining and Strengthening Marital Health” and “The Marriage Checkup Practitioner’s Guide: Promoting Lifelong Relationship Health.”

Read more about the Center for Couples and Family Research at Clark University.

The column mentions the Center for Couples and Family Research at Clark University, which Córdova directs. The Center is a team clinical research effort aiming “to produce cutting-edge research on intimate relationships and on the development of focused interventions to promote relationship and marital health.”

Bernstein’s topic seems to have struck a chord. The Wall Street Journal, the largest daily newspaper in the United States, claims an average circulation of 2.3 million. The column was picked up online by many mainstream and social media news outlets, including the Daily Beast, Psychology Today, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Yahoo! Finance, MSN Lifestyle, Fox News, which combined have millions of unique viewers. There have been more than 4,700 Facebook “likes” and 220 tweets from the original article alone.

Note: Clark faculty members often are featured in media, as expert sources and authors. An archive exists online and is updated regularly. A few recent, notable examples include:

“Why Trump Could Actually Win: A Look Back at an Alarmingly Similar Race in Russia,” by Valerie Sperling in the Huffington Post

“Congress chaos exposes US Republican divide ahead of 2016” — Robert Boatright in Agence France-Presse

“UAW, FCA officials miscalculated young worker angst” — Gary Chaison in USA Today

“Man Decides to Raise Brother After Mom Accuses Him of ‘Making Him Gay'” — Abbie Goldberg in Yahoo! Parenting