Citation is not endorsement. None of the researchers, clinicians or authors listed on this page are affiliated with Brightway Academy, and none have reviewed, approved or endorsed our material. We cite their published work as any writer does — to credit where an idea comes from and to point a reader to the original.
We reproduce no proprietary instrument, questionnaire or trademarked model. Where a well-known instrument exists under trademark, our material says so and does not imitate it.
On this page
How we use a source
A Brightway volume is a synthesis, not a summary. We read the primary literature on a subject, decide what a non-specialist actually needs in order to act, and write that from scratch in our own voice. A source earns its place in a volume in one of three ways:
- It establishes the concept. The paper or book where an idea entered the field — Salovey and Mayer defining emotional intelligence, Hazan and Shaver bringing attachment theory to adult relationships.
- It supplies the evidence. Observational, longitudinal or experimental work that tells us a pattern is real and not folklore.
- It supplies the clinical practice. Therapeutic literature describing what practitioners actually do with couples and individuals, which is where most of the applied material comes from.
When a popular idea has weak or contested evidence, we either leave it out or mark it as a framing device rather than a finding. That decision is recorded in the volume, not hidden.
The Emotional Intelligence Collection
Twenty volumes on self-knowledge, habit, conflict, attention, empathy and leadership.
Foundations of emotional intelligence
- Salovey, P., & Mayer, J. D. (1990). Emotional Intelligence. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 9(3). The paper that defined the construct.
- Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. The work that carried the field into general and workplace readership.
- Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., & Caruso, D. R. — the ability model of emotional intelligence. The four-branch framework: perceiving, using, understanding and managing emotion.
Self-awareness and emotional agility
- Eurich, T. (2018). What Self-Awareness Really Is (and How to Cultivate It). Harvard Business Review. The distinction between internal and external self-awareness, and the finding that the two do not travel together.
- David, S. (2016). Emotional Agility. Acting from values rather than from the emotion of the moment.
- Neff, K. (2003). Self-compassion research programme. Self-kindness, common humanity and mindfulness as an alternative to self-criticism.
Habit, attention and motivation
- Clear, J. (2018). Atomic Habits. Cue, craving, response, reward — and the case for small changes over willpower.
- Brewer, J. (2017). The Craving Mind. Habit loops, craving and the mindfulness-based approach to interrupting them.
- Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Absorbed attention and the conditions that produce it.
- Amabile, T., & Kramer, S. (2011). The Progress Principle. Diary study evidence that small visible progress is the strongest driver of inner work life.
- Duckworth, A. (2016). Grit. Perseverance and sustained interest over time.
Positive emotion, meaning and well-being
- Fredrickson, B. (2001). The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist. Positive emotion widens the range of thought and action available.
- Gilbert, D. (2006). Stumbling on Happiness. Affective forecasting: how badly people predict what will make them happy.
Conflict, listening and influence at work
- Gallo, A. (2017). HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict. Conflict types, de-escalation, and working with difficult colleagues.
- Zenger, J., & Folkman, J. (2016). What Great Listeners Actually Do. Harvard Business Review. Listening as an active, two-way behaviour rather than silence.
- Cialdini, R. (1984). Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. The principles of influence, used in our material to help readers recognize them.
Leadership
- George, B., Sims, P., McLean, A. N., & Mayer, D. (2007). Discovering Your Authentic Leadership. Harvard Business Review. Leadership built on personal history and values rather than an imitated style.
- Brown, B. (2012). Daring Greatly. Vulnerability and shame research, applied to leading and being led.
- Grant, A. (2013). Give and Take. Reciprocity styles and their effect on long-run outcomes.
The Couples Library
Twenty volumes on conflict, trust, attachment, intimacy, household labour, resentment and repair.
Conflict, repair and what predicts distress
- Gottman, J. M., & Levenson, R. W. (1992). Marital processes predictive of later dissolution. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Observational work linking specific interaction patterns to later outcomes.
- Gottman, J. M., & Silver, N. (1999). The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work. The four corrosive patterns — criticism, contempt, defensiveness, stonewalling — and their antidotes; the harsh versus soft start-up; the ratio of positive to negative interaction.
- Gottman, J. M., & DeClaire, J. (2001). The Relationship Cure. Bids for connection, and turning toward, away or against them.
- Gottman, J. S., & Gottman, J. M. — clinical work on repair and the aftermath of a fight. The basis of our material on repair attempts and processing an argument afterwards.
Attachment and the pursue–withdraw cycle
- Bowlby, J., & Ainsworth, M. — attachment theory. The origin of the framework, in infant development.
- Hazan, C., & Shaver, P. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The paper that brought attachment into adult relationships.
- Johnson, S. (2008). Hold Me Tight. Emotionally focused therapy for couples: the negative cycle, the raw spot, and the conversations that interrupt it.
- Levine, A., & Heller, R. (2010). Attached. Adult attachment styles written for a general reader.
- Tatkin, S. (2011). Wired for Love. A psychobiological approach to couple regulation and security.
Desire and intimacy
- Nagoski, E. (2015). Come As You Are. Responsive versus spontaneous desire, and the dual control model of sexual response.
- Bancroft, J., & Janssen, E. — the dual control model. Kinsey Institute. Excitation and inhibition as separate systems, the model underneath the above.
- Perel, E. (2006). Mating in Captivity. The tension between security and desire in long-term relationships.
- Perel, E. (2017). The State of Affairs. Infidelity, its aftermath, and what recovery actually involves.
Household labour and the mental load
- Daminger, A. (2019). The Cognitive Dimension of Household Labor. American Sociological Review. The empirical account of anticipating, identifying, deciding and monitoring — the work that is invisible because it is cognitive.
- Rodsky, E. (2019). Fair Play. A system for dividing domestic responsibility by ownership rather than by task.
Repair, resentment and forgiveness
- Real, T. (2022). Us. Relational life therapy: moving from adversarial to collaborative in a couple.
- Hendrix, H. (1988). Getting the Love You Want. Imago relationship therapy and the structured dialogue.
- Solomon, A. (2017). Loving Bravely. Relational self-awareness as the precondition for change in a couple.
- Worthington, E. L. — forgiveness research. Forgiveness as a process distinct from reconciliation and from restored trust.
Connection, closeness and the modern relationship
- Aron, A., et al. (1997). The Experimental Generation of Interpersonal Closeness. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. The escalating-disclosure procedure widely known as the 36 questions.
- Finkel, E. (2017). The All-or-Nothing Marriage. How expectations of marriage have risen, and what that demands of the couple.
- Johnson, S. et al. — outcome research on emotionally focused therapy. The evidence base behind the clinical approach our reconnection material draws on.
Where the evidence is thinner
Not every popular idea in this field is equally well supported, and we think a publisher should say which is which.
- Headline predictive accuracy figures. Widely repeated claims that a short observation can predict divorce with a specific percentage accuracy have been criticized on methodological grounds. We use the underlying interaction patterns, which are well documented, and do not quote the percentages.
- Love languages. Chapman's categories are useful as a conversation prompt and are widely recognized by readers, but the model has limited empirical support. Where we use the vocabulary, we present it as a framing device, not as a finding.
- Attachment style as a fixed type. Adult attachment is well evidenced as a set of tendencies that shift with relationship and context. We avoid writing about it as a permanent personality label.
- Willpower depletion. Early ego-depletion findings have not replicated reliably. Our habit material rests on environment and cue design rather than on a limited willpower reserve.
Found an error? If we have misattributed an idea, misstated a finding, or cited something that should be corrected, write to corrections@brightwayacademy.net. Corrections are made in the next edition of the affected volume and noted on this page.