Besides explicating his typology of marital conflict, Gottman (1994) addressed the

importance of match between partners' preferred conflict styles. He posited a "mismatch

theory" (p. 235), suggesting the hostile and hostile/detached types may represent couples'

failed attempts to construct a regulated type as the preferences of the two partners differ.

Although his data did not allow for a thorough examination of this hypothesis, he did find

that the partners in the two nonregulated types were more dissimilar from each other in

their conflict behaviors than were the partners in the regulated types.

Intersections of the Theoretical Frameworks

 The three theoretical frameworks described above, though not typically integrated,

are mutually informing and have areas of intersection and overlap valuable to the present

study. For example, how gender is "done" in a couple may be dependent on their place in

the family life cycle. Cusinato (1994) notes "The relation between parenthood and

parenting is dialectic: the meaning of parenthood anticipates, accompanies, and

condenses the parenting experience over the life cycle" (pp. 84-85). Thus how couples

construct the meanings of fatherhood and motherhood is tied to their experience of the

transition to parenthood; the transition from one lifecycle stage to another structures

gendered interactions. Backett (1982) quoted Berger and Kellner (1970), noting, "Whilst

the couple might approach marriage (and parenthood) with taken-for-granted culturally

derived preconceptions, 'these relatively empty projections now have to be actualised,

lived through and filled with experiential content by the protagonists'" (p. 6). As such,

vague ideologies couples may possess about gender and marital and parental roles early

in their relationship must be translated into daily practices as they become parents. This is

consistent with Cowan's (1991) contention that "the transition amplifies processes

already in motion before the transition begins" (p. 20).