Love Wise: The Science Behind Thriving Relationships

Wednesday, March 18, 7-9 p.m.
James West Alumni Center
Free Admission

Wisdom says that the secret to a happy life is to have strong, healthy relationships. But then what’s the secret to finding and maintaining great, meaningful relationships?

Professors Benjamin Karney and Thomas Bradbury from The Relationship Institute at UCLA use their dynamic and engaging style to relay their findings on how to forge fulfilling relationships. Unlike typical advice columns in consumer magazines, this presentation is grounded in psychological science based on longitudinal studies of thousands of couples.

Topics will include:

• Online Dating: A Cost-Benefit Analysis
• Respect Your Stress
• Communicating the Right way
• Strategies for Longevity

Whether single or in a relationship, you’re sure to get some unique practical insights on how to improve your current and future relationships.

Due to popular demand, this event has reached capacity. Please email youngalumniprograms@alumni.ucla.edu to be placed on the waiting list.

About the Presenters

Thomas N. Bradbury earned a B.A. in psychobiology from Hamilton College, an M.A. in general psychology from Wake Forest University, and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Illinois. A professor of psychology at UCLA since 1990, Dr. Bradbury has published more than 150 scientific articles and has received awards for teaching, mentoring, and research. These awards include the Distinguished Early Career Award in 1998 from the American Psychological Association, the Distinguished Teaching Award in 2000 from the UCLA Department of Psychology, and an honorary academic degree, the Laurea Honoris Causa, in 2013 from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, Italy.

Benjamin Karney is a professor of social psychology at UCLA and an adjunct behavioral scientist at the RAND Corporation. For the past 20 years, he has studied how intimate relationships, and marriages in particular, succeed and fail, publishing over 100 empirical papers and books on this topic. While on the faculty at University of Florida, Karney was the director and principle investigator of the Florida Project on Newlywed Marriage, a series of longitudinal studies examining the processes through which initially satisfying marriages either remain satisfying or deteriorate over time. In 2003, he conducted the baseline survey of marriage and families for the state of Florida as part of their initiative to support families. Since joining the faculty at UCLA in 2007, his ongoing studies have addressed how couples maintain intimacy in stressful environments, including research on military marriages funded by the Department of Defense and research on low-income newlyweds funded by the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development. Dr. Karney has twice been the recipient of the National Council on Family Relation’s Reuben Hill Research and Theory Award for outstanding contributions to family science.