CFS 3070: Dr. Plauche Chapter 13 - 15

This is a study guide for Dr. Plauche's final exam for Intimate Relationships.

context

includes all outside factors that affect a relationship

* physical surrounding
* social involvements
* culture
* historical period

Context ranges along a continuum

* more proximal as they affect the couple more directly and more distal as they affect less directly

proximal context

factors that are in close proximity to the relationship, such as people’s friends and immediate environment

* has direct impact on relationships

distal context

factors that are in more distant proximity to the relationship, such as the country where people live

* has an indirect impact on relationships through the impact on the proximal context

stressors

something that makes demands on partners

* car trouble or home repair

resources

sources of support for partners

* supportive family members or income

chronic conditions

stressors that persist over time

* stressors due to living in a neighborhood with a high crime rate tend not to change

stress pile-up: chronic stress, which involves the accumulation of events over time, may be more likely to have an impact on relationships

* ABC-X model

acute events

stressors that come and go

* a car that breaks down is a stressor only until it’s fixed
* impact of these events is likely to diminish over time
* help explain some of the ups and downs in relationships

fight or flight response

stress activates

* prepares the body for action when a threat is perceived
* sympathetic adrenal medullary system
* hypothalamic pituitary adrenocortical axis

stress spillover

stress from one area of someone’s life has an impact on other areas

stress crossover

stress that one partner faces has an impact on the other partner

social networks

an intimate relationship links these together

* families, friendships, colleagues, neighborhoods, clubs, and institutions

describing:

* psychological v. interactive networks
* different network compositions
* different levels of network overlap

advantages of social networks

provide resources: social capital which can help partners cope with stressors

* shared networks that approve make it easier to build and foster relationship

challenges of social networks

if they disapprove of the relationship, makes it difficult to sustain

if there is substitutability within network makes maintaining it more difficult to sustain

socioeconomic status

people in states that are low in this tend to have

* higher levels of divorce
* higher levels of marital distress
* children before marriage and more children

low-income challenges

this presents challenges that make life and relationships more difficult.

* few resources
* health difficulties
* lower levels of education
* little free time

impact of adult conflict children

* adolescents with hostile parents are hostile when negotiating their own intimate relationships
* children who were exposed to the adult conflict were more likely to exhibit signs of distress
* children become more sensitized to conflict

sibling relationships

can be filled with conflict

* compete for their parents’ attention
* when they perceive differential parental treatment, there is likely to be jealousy and conflict
* only when siblings find it unfair and not just differentiated

benefit of sibling relationships

children learn that others have different ideas than yourself

* kids with siblings have a more advanced theory of mind
* apparent from false belief tests (sally-anne)

childhood friendships

unlike family relationships, friendships:

* are voluntary
* require reciprocity
* both have equal status

strong friendships can make up for a weak sibling relationship

* even best sibling relationships can’t compensate for lack of good friendship

shared imaginative play

* negotiate rules and expectations
* share a mental world
* establish shared assumptions about how things will work

reasons for cohabitation

* precursor to marriage
* coresidential daters
* a trial marriage
* a substitute for marriage

cohabitation and marriage

most cohabitating relationships do not end in marriage

* 90% of cohabitating end within 5 years

Many marriages begin in cohabitation

* over 50% of married couples lived together first

cohabitation and divorce

living together before marriage was related to a higher likelihood of divorce

* related to lower levels of marital satisfaction
* partially due to selection effects involving cohabits
* partially due to societal view of cohabitation

marriage and parenthood

parenthood is related to greater declines in marital satisfaction

* especially if unplanned

parenthood is also related to a lower likelihood of divorce

* when children leave the house, some satisfaction improves
* couples who are very unhappy may divorce

divorce and remarriage

Divorce is related to:

* depression
* financial difficulties
* physical health problems

Most people who have divorced would likely remarry

* the likelihood of divorce is greater in second marriages than in first marriages because they bring their previous problems to new relationships

varieties of intimacy for older adults

rates of marriage differ between men and women

* men more likely to remarry
* women tend to live longer

wealth and health are also affected

* fewer divorces and remarriages tend to:
* accumulate more wealth
* fewer health problems later in life

Men and women differ in health

* men who remarry tend to recover from the increased risk of health problems when they remarry
* the likelihood of health problems in women remains increased even when they remarry

marital status is not a good indicator for characterizing older adults seeking intimacy

* older adults continue to form new relationships
* older adults are increasingly cohabiting

quality of intimacy in later life

tend to engage in fewer negative behaviors with their partner

* partially due to adapting to relationship behavior
* partially due to seeking out positive rather than negative experiences because aware of their own mortality - socioemotional selectivity theory

couples therapy

people in relationships are frequently unhappy for a long time seek this

systems models

approach focuses on unspoken rules and expectations within the relationship

* problems occur when these unspoken rules and expectations are too rigid
* the key task in intervention is interrupting the repetitive pattern of harmful interactions

goals: reframe problems

* enables partners to articulate the unspoken rules and expectations of their relationship


* help partners develop new, more adaptive rules and expectations for the relationships

behavioral models

couples therapy emphasizes the behavioral exchanges of spouses such as

* how partners’ behaviors are followed by rewards or punishments
* rewards increase the likelihood of those behaviors in the the future
* punishments decrease the likelihood of that behavior in the future

incorporates social learning theory into a measurable model

* views exchanged behaviors as the problem themselves
* first step is behavioral exchange - which provides diagnostic information about behavioral interaction within the relationship

goals:

* communication training: advice on how to listen and talk productively
* problem-solving training: help to apply skills from communication training to the discussion of specific problems

cognitive-behavioral couples therapy

emphasize couples’ cognitive interpretations of each other’s behavior such as:

* selective attention for certain types of partner behavior
* attributions for why partners behave as they do
* expectations about partners’ likely reactions
* assumptions about how relationships operate
* standards about how relationships should operate

processes can either enhance or weaken the relationship

goal: help couples interpret their partner’s behavior in a positive light by for instance:

* helping people make adaptive attributions regarding their partner’s action
* helping people attend to their partner’s positive behaviors

integrative behavioral couples therapy

emphasizes teaching couples that some behaviors and aspects of their relationships need to be tolerated

* focuses on helping partners accommodate each other’s behavior, rather than changing each other’s behavior

goals:

* empathic joining - help partners adopt each other’s perspective
* unified detachment- help partners view their problems with less emotion
* tolerance building - help partners accept that not all problems can be solved

emotion models

the approach encourages the free expression of core emotions in healthy ways that bring partners closer

goals: help partners see through their secondary emotions to their primary emotions through:

* de-escalation of negative cycles
* shaping new cycles of responsiveness and accessibility
* consolidation and integration

emotionally focused couples therapy

divides emotions into two categories

* primary emotions: feelings related to basic attachment needs
* secondary emotions: feelings that may mask primary emotions for reasons of self-protection

Evaluating the Models of Couples therapy

outcome research examines the effectiveness of interventions

2 basic types:

* efficacy studies
* effectiveness studies

efficacy studies

couples randomly assigned to a control group or type of therapy

* couples who underwent therapy tended to function better than couples in the control group
* approximately half of couples who underwent therapy remain distressed
* it is unclear how long the changes last
* different types of therapy have approximately the same level of efficacy

effectiveness studies

study of therapy outcomes that do not involve random assignment

* large numbers of couples drop out of therapy
* treatments for individual difficulties are more effective than treatments for couple difficulties