Discuss why relationships change or end (Bradbury & Fincham and Gottman) Flashcards
Discuss why relationships change or end (There are many reasons why relationships change or end — the main components are…)
There are many reasons why relationships change or end — the main components are when the foundations of a relationship are violated, such as respect or trust, which instigates how intimate relationships may change or end over time.
Define Attribution Theory
To what extent do we attribute (explain) partner’s behavior to the cause. Either situational (outside factor) or dispositional (personal factor). Our way of attribution can affect the QUALITY of relationships and level of satisfaction (affects how easily we forgive them when conflict arises in the future)
Define Gottman’s 4 Horsemen: Negative Communication Patterns (from why relationships change or end)
4 Horsemen of Communication
- Criticism: Negative comments about one’s personality or character eg. “you never reply” etc.
- Contempt: looking down on someone, making jokes/namecalling
- Defensiveness: in response to criticism, the partner becomes defensive and shift the blame to someone else → CONFLICT
- Stonewalling: putting up a barrier and refusing to deal with problems - retracting
Thesis of why relationships change or end
Both the Attribution Theory and Gottman’s 4 Horsemen suggest why relationships can change or end over time.
Claim 1: Attribution Theory
Healthy relationships = positive bias, blame the situation rather than label their partners as bad people
Bradbury and Fincham Aim
How much does attribution contribute to marital satisfaction and distress?
Bradbury and Fincham Method
12-month longitudinal study
- Assessed level of marital satisfaction and kinds of attributions married couples made about each other
Bradbury and Fincham Findings
Kind of attributions couples by the couple made in the beginning predicts marital satisfactions at the end
- Level of satisfaction of the relationship did not predict attributions
- Happy relationships tended to focus on positive dispositional factors and attribute negative events to situational factors eg. he would never be late, it was the train
- Unhappy couples did the opposite
Bradbury and Fincham Link
Relationships last longer when people can understand mistakes of their partner — how individuals interpret and explain the behavior of their parnters. When indivuduals tend to make NEGATIVE attributions about their partner, this breaks trust within the relationship as they believe that their partner’s behavior is INTENTIONALLY hurtful
In the context of relationships, attribution theory can help explain why partners may respond differently to the same behavior or event. For example, if one partner forgets a special occasion, the other partner may attribute this behavior to either a lack of care or an innocent mistake. Depending on the attribution made, the partner responds differently, either causing conflict or understanding.
Relationships last longer when people can understand mistakes of their partner — how individuals interpret and explain the behavior of their parnters. Attributions can act as a protective/risk factor to marital satisfaction.
Bradbury and Fincham Strengths
Longitudinal study - increased reliability
Bradbury and Fincham Weaknesses
Use of questionnaires - limited understanding of experiences - self reported data (participant bias)
Lacks cross-cultural validity – what can be said about attribution patterns in different cultures? Eg. individualism vs collectivism, cultural reasoning
Gottman Aim
Gottman’s “Love Lab” investigate what factors ends marriages
Gottman Method
- Creating an apartment designed for couples to spend the weekend in - cameras situated throughout the apartment that records body language and couple interactions
- Measure heart rate, blood pressure = physiological reactions
- 85 couples were narrowed down dependant on marital satisfaction
- Couples conversed for 15 minutes about what happened during their day, something good in their relationship, and a point of conflict = reactions were noted and transcribed
Gottman Findings
By the end of the final observation, 25% of couples had divorced - happy couples made five positive pieces of communication for every negative one (5-1 rule)
Gottman Link
The 4 Horsemen “predict” the likelihood of divorce as these communication patterns erode a foundations of a relationship - respect and trust - suggests that communication and specifically the lack of it, does tend to cause relationships to end because people who used the four horsemen and would physically show it, would ultimately break up
The four horsemen are four negative styles of communication that were more prevalent in the unhappy couples’ relationships than the happy ones.
Gottman Strengths
Highly controlled environment - control of extraneous variables - high ecological validity were meant to elicit real-life scenarios that couples encounter
Gottman Weaknesses
Knowing that they were in.a lab may have altered the experiment (participant bias) - sampling bias & generalizability as the studies were carried out on American couples. The sample is also BIASED as couples signed up for this experiment in order to save their marriage - thus, they may have already had existing problems - questions on predictive validity?
Counterclaim: Fatal Attraction Theory - Felmlee
Limitations of why relationships change or end:
-The role of peak-end rule in gathering data
-sampling bias
-bidirectional ambiguity
-ecological validity of research
-research is correlational in nature and does not establish a cause and effect relationship.
-Relationships are complex and there is not usually a single variable that leads to the dissolution of the relationship.
-Many theories are reductionist in nature and do not address the interaction of factors that may negatively influence a relationship; predictive validity
What we liked about them turns into what we hate
Felmlee Aim
Can a relationship change or end dependant on the same trait that initially caused attraction?
Felmlee Method
301 University Students asked to list qualities that attracted them to their former (split) partner → Then asked which qualities led to the breakup
Felmlee Findings
Common fatal attraction patterns
- Fun to foolish - doesn’t take anything seriously
- Strong to dominant - confident turns abusive
- Spontaneous to unpredictable - exciting turns to a not reliable person
Felmlee Link
Proposes an alternative theory to why relationships change or end –> Certain types of characteristics, such as exciting and different, were also more likely to be `fatal’ than others.
Felmlee Strengths
Provides quantitative data - ecological validity as they investigate real-life situations
Felmlee Weaknesses
Small sample size - teenage and young relationships are unpredictable
