Marriage Satisfaction in India

The institution of marriage is universal. Marriage results in the development of family and lays foundations of building home in which husband and wife act as pillars that hold the family together. Marriage leads to the development of a series of important relationship: the marital relationship, the kinship relationships, and later parent-child relationships, all which contribute to happiness and wellbeing (Argyle, 2001).

Over the past several years, along with the economic sector the process of globalization has probably influenced political, cultural, and all other sectors of Indian society in the urban areas. Marriage system is perhaps no exception to it. Family structure has also undergone substantial changes in recent times especially in the context of roles performed by husbands and wives. It seems traditional division of roles is no longer widely prevalent in Indian modern society rather many spousal relationships are believed to be moving towards becoming more egalitarian.

Also over the past few years there has been an increase in the failure of marriages. It is observed that people have changed their attitudes toward marriage. All these changes have put an additional pressure on the individual and have perhaps made marital adjustment really a tough job. It has called into questioning the quality of existing marriages and the reasons for marriage failure.

Emotions play a significant role in our lives. We communicate and interact with others through the use of verbal or non-verbal expression of our emotions. These expressions make it easy for others to understand an individual’s feelings. And in turn interaction with people becomes more effective (Feldman, 2005, p. 346). Those who are emotionally intelligent are able to build life-long relationships. These competencies help people develop tolerance and cope with life stressors as they affect the partner, themselves and the relationship. Many researches have established a relationship between emotional intelligence and marital quality proving that emotional intelligence aids in establishing and maintaining healthy relationships.

The term emotional intelligence came into scenario with the publication of the article by Salovey and Mayer (1990) which gave an initial definition and theory of emotional intelligence however the concept gained more popularity after the publication of book ‘Emotional Intelligence’ (Goleman, 1995).
Generally emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to effectively deal with emotions.
Salovey & Mayer (1990) defined emotional intelligence as “The ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one's thinking and actions”.