Improving Relationships Flashcards
Study: Narratives of singlehood (Reynolds and Wetherell)
- Interviewed single women (historically expected to have family)
- Asked questions to capture experiences, self-evaluation of how ppl see single women
- 4 main narratives to make sense of singleness (personal deficit, social exclusion, independence and choice, self-development and achievement)
Personal deficit (-): Singleness is inadequacy
Social exclusion (-): Being single leads to being left out
Interdependence and choice (+): Singleness is a conscious choice
Self-development and achievement (+): Opportunities for personal growth and self-discovery
- Most women drew on all four (singlehood isn’t just + or -), next is all positive, no all negative
- Those w/ highly polarized views connected singlehood to being alone and had longing for companionship
Voluntary vs Involuntary singlehood
- Romantic loneliness, emotional/psych/social well-being
Romantic loneliness lower in voluntary
No diff in well-being
Loneliness
- How to overcome?
When there is a discrepancy between the number and/or quality of close connections we want and thise we have
- Have more friends or improve quality of friendships
- Attribute loneliness to unstable short influences, feel hopeful that situation will improve, have realistic aspirations
Study: What do couples seek therapy for? (Whisman et al)
- Therapists
- Given list of problems couples might present w/
- Estimated occurrence, treatment difficulty, damaging impact
Most difficult and damaging issues are communication, power struggles, unrealistic expectations, lack of loving feelings, serious individual problems
Psychodynamic models
- Projection, projective identification and containment, introjective identification
Early exps w/ caregivers and unconscious processes
- Projection: Unconscious; tendency to deny own flaws, projecting them onto partner
- Projective identification and containment: Identifying/Acknowledging partner’s projection w/out absorbing, detoxifying the exp for projecting partner
- Introjective identification: Partner who projected takes back emotion in detoxified form
Systems models
- Reframing
- Restructuring
Repetitive patterns of partner interactions and beliefs that govern them (Learned behav)
- Reframing: Seeing diff meanings in specific behavs/emotions
- Restructuring: Understanding problems in new light
Behavioural models
- Behavioural couples therapy
- Cognitive-Behavioural couples therapy
- Integrative behavioural couples therapy
Emphasis on rewarding behavs and reduce focus on punishing behav
Behavioural couples therapy:
- Communication training: Guidance on how to communicate more effectively
- Problem-solving training: Guidance on how to discuss specific problems
Cognitive-Behavioural couples therapy
- CBT: Focus on certain behavs while overlooking others w/ positive reinforcement
- Cognitive restructuring: Interpretations/Explanations for behavs
Integrative behavioural couples therapy:
- Train to see that it’s beneficial to tolerate/accept aspects of their partner that can’t change
Emotion models
- Primary and secondary emotions
- Therapist brings out primary emotions into open and encourages empathy thru? (3)
Emphasis on feelings, creating stronger emotional bonds between partners
- Unmet needs produce primary emotions that are masked by secondary emotions
1) De-escalation of negative cycles
- Due to primary/attachment needs not being met
2) Shaping new cycles of responsiveness and accessibility
- Encouraged to share primary emotions and respond compassionately
3) Consolidation and integration
- Reflect on positive changes made
Self-expansion
When we include close others in our self-concept and thereby expand our own self-concept
- Positive/Exciting feelings
- As close others become familiar, expansion slows
Study: Re-igniting self-expansion (Aron et al)
- Couples in LTR
- Pretested relationship satisfaction + passionate love
- Novel activity vs Mundane vs No activity
- Tested pretest conditions + how fun/exciting activity was
- Novel activity had increased ratings of relationship satisfaction and passionate love
- Blind coders also rated them less hostile and more supportive
Shared participation in novel activities can improve relationship satisfaction and help re-ignite feelings of romantic love
Public health approaches:
- Information dissemination
- Questionnaires w/ personalized feedback
- Skill development courses/workshops
- PREP (Prevention and relationship enhancement program)
Information dissemination: Education about relationship dynamics
Questionnaires: Provide info on what areas couples are strongest in and which areas they may be developing issues in
PREP:
- Speaker-listener technique taught
- Discusses power of commitment to change outlooks and behavs, importance of having fun together, value of open communication about sex, consequences of inappropriate expectations
