| Finding someone with whom you want to start up a close relationship is hard, but making the relationship durable may be a lot more difficult. There is hardly a relationship without conflicts. The way in which we cope with these conflict situations will be the determinants of our personalities. Some couples will deal with harder challenges and this causes them to better their relationship or it forces them to break up. Then there are the families that deal with large conflict situations that occur due to kids moving from tweens to teens. Irrespective of the cause, conflict is inevitable and we all need to deal with it sooner or later. Learning to solve conflict situations and working on the relationship using various tactics is important to save the relationship.
Evolutionary researchers examined "mate retention tactics" in American men and ladies and found these tactics include being overly watchful and threatening violence. Men's and women's strategies applied to save relationships differ.
According to the results of a survey conducted of 214 married people by psychologists from the University of Texas, men use their social standing and financial success as a strategy to arouse interest in them more often. Men also reported to keep their spouses interested by making promises of changes and threatening sexual betrayal.
Women were also more likely than men to take care of their physical look as a tactic to keep their mate interested.
As far as marital infidelity goes, it was found out that if a husband suspected that his wife was having a love affair, he would try to keep his wife from public activities, threaten punishment and criticize other men. It is surprising, ladies who suspected that their husbands were cheating did not work on the marriage any harder than those without suspicions.
Unfortunately, some men's tactics included some minor forms of physical abuse of spouses, reported the authors. For example, in an earlier survey, 72 percent of ladies requiring medical attention reported that their husbands limited their contact with family members and friends, insisted on knowing the ladies' whereabouts and verbally insulted ladies. |
