Discuss the Role of Communication in Maintaining Relationships

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One can consider communication as a highly crucial factor in a good healthy relationship because when couples do not communicate well with each other, their relationships could experience difficulties. Many psychologists have begun to shift in focusing on marital studies – what determines successful and unsuccessful couples. In this essay, the role of communication in maintaining relationships will be discussed.
In the earliest marital research, psychologists such as Burgess & Cottrell (1939) mainly focused on the characteristics of the spouses, which offered the idea of that some people were just more inclined to have successful marriages than others. However, as the numbers of divorce and marital therapies increased, psychologists then were interested in studying about communication and conflict resolution. Two of these psychologists were Bradbury and Fincham (1990) who gave their attention within each spouse; how spouses understand and think about each other (i.e. Spouses in happy relationships tend to focus on their partner’s positive behavior as a dispositional factor and negative behavior as situational factors).
It is believed that in order to reach a positive, successful relationship, such as in marriages, forgiveness and sacrifice should be involved by mean that conflict must not be turned away but it must be understood better instead. McCullough et al (1998) with their research on marital conflict argued that couples who interact poorly towards each other when encountered by one specific problem should also interact poorly with all of their problems. What matter in this poorly-interact couples is not the problem they are dealing with but the real problem is actually within themselves; how the spouses discuss their p...

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...mo and heterosexual, dating and marriage experience a conflict, therefore, good communication is needed at all times. It would be great if couples with communication problems, seek for alternative communication patterns, not avoiding interaction and problems. Studies discussed above largely come from western societies (individualists), hence cannot be generalized as other cultures (collectivists) might have their own way of communicating with their partner.

Bibliography
Karney, Benjamin R. "Not Shifting but Broadening Marital Research: Comments on Fincham, Stanley, and Beach." Journal of Marriage and Family 2nd ser. 69 (2007): 310-14.JSTOR. National Council on Family Relations. Web. 26 Jan. 2014. .
Gottman, John. "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by John Gottman." Speech. YouTube. YouTube, 2 Jan. 2010. Web. 26 Jan. 2014.

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