Week 12: The Dissolution and Loss of Relationships

Question 1

What are the reasons why relationships end, based on divorce data?

Answer 1

1) Infidelity/Interest in third party
2) Incompatibility
3) Drinking or drug use
4) Grew apart
5) Partner’s personality

6) Lack of communication
7) Physical or psychological abuse
8) Loss of love
9) Not meeting family responsibilities
10) Work problems

Question 2

What are some influences underlying the big increase in the rate of divorce?

Answer 2

1) Demanding expectations
2) Women work outside the house
3) Gender roles are changing
4) Western culture is more individualistic
5) Sex ratios are lower (less traditional and more permissive)
6) Divorce is less shameful and easier to obtain
7) Cohabitation is more prevalent

Question 3

What are the new trends in relationship dissolution?

Answer 3

• Ghosting
• Churning
• Conscious uncoupling

Question 4

What is ghosting?

Answer 4

Breaking off a relationship without warning/justification, and ignoring the former partner’s efforts to communicate

Question 5

What is churning?

Answer 5

On-again/off-again relationship

Question 6

What is conscious uncoupling?

Answer 6

Letting go of the idea that marriage must end in death in order to be considered a success

Allowing the marriage to end with goodwill, honor, and gratitude on all sides

Question 7

What are the models for the predictors of relationship dissolution?

Answer 7

• Investment model

- Vulnerability-stress-adaptation model

Question 8

Based on the PAIR project, what are the models that predict divorce?

Answer 8

Enduring dynamics
Emergent distress
Disillusionment

Question 9

What is the outcome that the enduring dynamic model predicts in the PAIR project?

Answer 9

The enduring dynamics model predicted how happy marriages would be

Question 10

What is the best predictor of which couples would actually divorce?

Answer 10

The disillusionment model

Question 11

What is the enduring dynamics model?

Answer 11

Suggests that spouses bring to their marriages problems, incompatibilities, and enduring vulnerabilities that surface during their courtship

Question 12

What is the emergent distress model?

Answer 12

Suggests that the problematic behavior that ultimately destroys a couple begins after they marry

Question 13

What is the disillusionment model?

Answer 13

Suggests that couples typically begin their marriages with rosy, romanticized views of their relationship that are unrealistically positive, then marital satisfaction declines steeply afterwards

Question 14

What are the key factors in relational outcomes?

Answer 14

Both the LEVEL of satisfaction a couple experiences and the CHANGE in that satisfaction over time

Question 15

What are the patterns of the ways people end relationships?

Answer 15

Indirect efforts (vs. explicit and direct)
Selfish, self-oriented (vs. considerate, other-oriented)
Typically make several protracted attempts to end r/s (vs. succeeding quickly)
Usually no formal effort to repair the r/s

Question 16

How do people usually think about breakups?

Answer 16

Ppl think about breakups in an independent rather than interdependent way

Question 17

What is the usual sequence of events during relationship dissolution?

Answer 17

Ambivalence, vacillation and a length process of r/s dissolution – breakups are not a decisive process

Question 18

How does discontent occur?

Answer 18

Discontent usually grows gradually rather than suddenly

Question 19

What is catastrophe theory?

Answer 19

Some relationships do not gradually unwind through stages of r/s dissolution, but instead are characterised by sudden death (i.e. a single critical event)

Question 20

What are some examples of critical events in catastrophe theory?

Answer 20

Infidelity, serious arguments, physical violence

Question 21

What are the processes involved in recovery?

Answer 21

• Visualising future w/o old partner
• Taking lessons away from the experience
• Revising the breakup story
• Exploring new alternatives

Question 22

Engaging in writing about their recovery process aids in…

Answer 22

Self-concept clarity

Question 23

What is the association between commitment and closeness after breakup?

Answer 23

Higher commitment during the r/s is associated with greater closeness after the breakup

Question 24

What are the consequences for health after divorce?

Answer 24

Relative to married people, those whose marriage has dissolved are less likely to be fully healthy

Question 25

What are the consequences for the self after r/s dissolution?

Answer 25

• Self-regulatory consequences

- Self-concept clarity

Question 26

How does r/s status and partner instrumentality affect self-regulatory consequences in achieving personal goals?

Answer 26

R/s intact: High PI > low PI - greater goal progress

R/s dissolved: Low PI > high PI - greater goal progress

Question 27

How does r/s dissolution relate to self-concept clarity?

Answer 27

Breakup predicts reduction in self-concept clarity

Question 28

What is the affective forecasting bias in r/s dissolution?

Answer 28

We overestimate the magnitude of risk before breaking up

Question 29

How does affective forecasting bias vary in couples?

Answer 29

Ppl who were highly “in love” when making their forecasts overestimate their distress the most

Question 30

What are some positive outcomes of relational breakups?

Answer 30

• Personal positives
• Relational positives
• Environmental positives
• Future positives

Question 31

What are personal positives?

Answer 31

Increased self-sufficiency; being able to handle life on one’s own; better progress on personal goals

Question 32

What are relational positives?

Answer 32

Knowing more about how to communicate w/ partners; how to develop, maintain, and terminate r/s

Question 33

What are environmental positives?

Answer 33

Being able to concentrate more on school, work, friends

Question 34

What are future positives?

Answer 34

Knowing what one wants and does not want in future r/s