week 11 Flashcards
What are relationship maintenance mechanisms?
the strategic
actions people take to sustain
their partnerships.
Cognitive maintenance mechanism: Cognitive interdependence
Couples think of themselves as a unit.
Use pronouns such as we, us, and ours
What is positive illusions?
Partners idealize one another.
Perceived superiority is what
People consider their relationships to be better than most
Maintaining and enhancing relationships: Inattention to alternatives
Committed partners pay less attention to the other
potential partners that are available to them.
What is derogation of tempting alternatives
Judging attractive rivals as less desirable than others think them to be
Behavioural maintenance mechanism: Willingness to sacrifice
Committed people often make various personal sacrifices,
doing things they would prefer not to do, or not doing
things that they would like to do
Michelangelo phenomenon?
Committed lovers also promote their partners’ growth by
supporting their development of desired new skills and
endorsing their acceptance of promising new roles and
responsibilities.
Accommodation:
Committed partners also tend to swallow minor mistreatment
from their partners without fighting back.
Maintaining relationships: Self-control
§ The ability to withstand temptation,
manage impulses, and do the right
thing are also important.
maintenance of relationship: Play
Committed partners find ways to
engage in novel, challenging, exciting,
and pleasant activities together.
Enhancing relationships: Savouring
§ Couples are more satisfied when
they pay attention to and enjoy
shared pleasures.
Enhancing relationships: Rituals
§ Committed partners develop
familiar routines that become
traditions and symbolize and
reinforce the partners’ identity as
a couple.
Staying content: 4 things
Positivity, assurances, sharing tasks, openness
Staying content: positivity
Contented partners strive to be polite and cheerful to one
another.
Staying content: assurances
Contented partners continue to announce their love,
commitment, and regard for each other.
Staying content: sharing tasks.
Contented partners do their fair share of household
chores.
staying content: openness
Contented partners share their thoughts and feelings with one
another.
Different therapeutic approaches vary regarding:
The focus on problematic behaviour, thoughts, or feelings.
* The focus is on the partners’ individual difficulties or those of the couple.
Behavioural approach: traditional behavioural couple therapy
focuses on the couple’s
present interactions and seeks to replace any negative and
punishing behaviour with more gracious and generous actions.
Cognitive-behavioural couple therapy:
seeks to change various
aspects of the ways partners think about their partnership
Behavioural approach: Integrative behavioural couple therapy, tries to teach troubled partners to
accept the
incompatibilities, they cannot
change.
techniques for integrative behavioural couple therapy
1) Empathic joining, 2) unified
detachment, 3) tolerance building
Emotionally focused couple therapy seeks to train partners to treat each other
in ways that allow them to feel safe, loved, and
securely connected.
emotionally focused couple therapy primarily focuses on the emotions the
partners experience as
they seek acceptance from one another
insight-oriented couple therapy
seeks to free partners of some
of the problematic emotional baggage they carry from prior
relationships.
Common features of couple therapy:
Each provides reasonable explanation for a couple of troubles
each offers hope
each increases more effective and more advantageous behaviour
