Discuss research into the breakdown of romantic relationships (8 marks+16 marks) One theory into the dissolution of relationships was created by Rollie and Duck in 2006. They suggested that breakdowns happened in five phases: the intra psychic phase, the dyadic phase, the social phase, the grave dressing phase and the resurrection phase. The intra-psychic phase is where one partner becomes dissatisfied with the relationship but does not share this with the other partner; they may tell friends or family about their dissatisfaction. The dyadic phase is where the dissatisfied partner discusses their feelings with the other partner; if the issues are not resolved the relationship moves on to the social phase. Once the relationship is in the social phase the breakup is made public to friends or family, this is also the stage where social issues are discussed (such as childcare and distribution of possessions or wealth).
Once the relationship has ended the grave dressing phase begins, this is the phase where the ex-partners begin the organization process of their past relationships.
Each ex-partner tells others why they think the relationship failed, it has been theorised that in this phase women aim to befriend their ex whereas men prefer to cut their losses and move on. The final phase of this theory is the resurrection phase, in this phase partners prepare themselves for new relationships by building upon their past dating mistakes. Lee devised a model based on his research into premarital breakdown. He surveyed 112 romantic break ups and found that most of the participants appeared to be going through the same five phases: dissatisfaction, exposure, negotiation, resolution and finally termination. He theorised that the dissatisfaction stage is where one partner becomes unhappy with the relationship. Exposure is where the dissatisfaction is brought to the other partner’s attention, which then leads to the negotiation phase. The negotiation phase is where the partners discuss their thoughts of the relationship and how it could be improved. The resolution phase involves the partners attempting to remove the dissatisfaction from their relationship.
The Essay on Hartley And Mitsy Can Be Called A Multiphase Hart Phase Relationship
The relationship of Hartley and Mitsy can be called a multiphase relationship because it has gone through many phases such as physical passion, unrequited love from Hartley's side of the relationship, estrangement, hostility, friendship lost & gained, and at the end an uncertain future. At the beginning of the novel Hartley becomes friends with Mitsy, because Alice (Hartley's sister) was good ...
If the relationship is not fixed in the resolution phase it leads to termination of the relationship. At each stage the relationship can be saved by the partners adjusting the way they act and things they do in order to rectify the aspect of the relationship the other partner felt dissatisfied with. Both lee’s model and Rollie and Duck’s model are nomothetic; this means that they ignore individual differences and instead focus on relationships within the human race as a whole. They based their theories on the idea that we all behave in a similar way. This can act as strength as it makes both theories easier to understand. The primary use of these theories is to help clients of relationship councillors, the fact that anyone can understand them it makes it a perfect explanation tool. Councillors are able to tell clients when to let go of a relationship and allow them to discuss what phase they think they are in. the model stresses the importance of communication in relationships and supplies clients with the means to save the relationship if they want to. the nomothetic nature of these theories could also be viewed as a negative as it is a basic description of the breakdown of relationships and it is deterministic. The main issue with this is that all relationship are different so the theories cannot be applied universally.
Both studies are culturally biased as many collectivist, non-western (generally Asian and north African) cultures have arranged marriages. Arranged marriages are generally expected to be permanent and couples are pressured to stay together no matter how they feel about the relationship, this means that the idea that dissatisfaction leads to breakdown is not applicable to these cultures. Issues with arranged marriages are the concern of the whole family not just the couple, this is another aspect not accounted for in the theories. Rollie and Duck’s model is supported by research evidence such as Tashiro and Frazier’s experimental study on students in 2003. They surveyed students that had recently broken up with a partner; the participants reported that they had experienced emotional distress and personal growth. This study supports the grave dressing and resurrection aspects of Rollie and Duck’s model, as the students expressed their view that they had grown emotionally after the breakup; they had a clearer idea of what they wanted from future relationships. This study has a high validity as it clearly shows a real life example of the last two phases of Rollie and Duck’s model.
The Essay on Models and Theories
New technological advances have changed the way organizations are preparing for the future. Management must focus on the human implications resulting from the implementation of new technology and be prepared for resistance and human implications resulting from technological changes. The way management prepares for the change can create a smooth transition or failure. Many theories and models for ...
This study has low population validity as all of the participants are students; you cannot generalise the findings to other social groups. The research may have been affected by social desirability bias due to the self-reporting nature of the experiment. Participants may have changed their answers to what they view as more socially acceptable options, they might have also realised what the study was about and subconsciously tried to fit their answers to what they think the experimenters wanted. Akert carried out a study in 1992 to find out whether instigators of a relational breakdown suffer equal negative consequences to non-instigators. Akert found that instigators suffer less negative consequences than non-instigators, Rollie and Duck’s model is used for both instigators and non-instigators. Because Rollie and Duck have not accounted for this difference the model is much less reliable; it may not be as applicable to one of the groups (instigator/non-instigator).
Rollie and Duck’s theory is supported by people’s activity on social networking websites.
When a couple splits up the partners will often ‘unfriend’ each other, this is an example of the grave dressing phase as they are looking to move on and forget about their ex-partner. There are ethical issues throughout the research into the breakdown of romantic relationships. Confidentiality can be an issue as when research is published the experimenters may accidentally give clues away that hint at who the participants are. Participants could be provided a copy of the research and be given the ability to ask the experimenters to cut out specific details; this could mean changing key parts of the research or making the research less useful which is another potential issue. The main concern with the research is the distress caused to participants after discussing breakdown of a long term relationship. This could be overcome by the researchers offering therapy sessions post experiment; this would hopefully assure that participants leave the experiment in a better, or at least the same mental state.
The Research paper on Scientific Method and Research
Ethnography is a research design to search the culture phenomena. Gerhard Muller has developed idea of ethnography as separate discipline. Ethnography is the way to represent the group culture graphically. Ethnography is branch of ‘Anthropology’ which deals with the individual human society. Ethnography has double meanings which depend on whether it is used uncountable or countable. It is study ...
Both Lee’s theory and Rollie and Duck’s theory have beta gender bias as they do not specify any differences between men and women. Research has found that men prefer to ‘cut their losses’ and move on where women want to remain friends with ex partners. The research clearly shows that men and women react differently to the breakdown of romantic relationships. This difference is not accounted for in either model and they are supposed to be applicable to both genders. All in all both theories are useful tools for explaining the breakdown of romantic relationships. They both have flaws and should not be used to explain dissolution in collectivist cultures. The gender bias is harder to overcome in something like therapy as the therapists will be applying the same model to two different genders which may remove some of the effectiveness as an explaining tool. The models are basic and easy to understand which is the most important factor considering their primary use (during therapy) so they have both been successful in what they were aiming to achieve.
