Published: February 20, 2012
Cyclical relationships — is the term used for a couple who breaks up and then gets back together. Amber Vennum, assistant professor of family studies and human services at Kansas State University, looking at why couples reunite and how it affects the relationship.
“There has been very little research on this topic, but it turns out that cyclical relationships are quite prevalent,” Vennum said. “With college-age kids, about 40 percent are currently in a relationship where they have broken up and then have gotten back together. That’s shocking, especially when you factor in the outcomes of being in a cyclical relationship.”
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For her research, Vennum analyzed information that cyclical and noncyclical couples gave about their relationship and its characteristics. The information was evaluated using the relationship deciding scale, or RDS, which assesses relationship qualities and accurately predicts what the relationship will be like 14 weeks into the future.
While movies, books and TV shows may portray rekindling a relationship as romantic, Vennum found that the results of getting back together were less than desirable.
Findings showed that couples in a cyclical relationship tended to be more impulsive about major relationship transitions — like moving in together, buying a pet together or having a child together — than those not in a cyclical relationship. As a result, the couples in cyclical relationships tended to be less satisfied with their partner; had worse communication; made more decisions that negatively affected the relationship; had lower self-esteem; and had a higher uncertainty about their future together. [continue reading…]
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Researchers think they have discovered a way to tell if a romantic relationship is going to fall apart- find out what people really think about their partners. The researchers in a new study used a so-called implicit task, which shows how people automatically respond to words – in this case, whether they find it easier to link words referring to their partner to words with pleasant or unpleasant meanings.
Most research on relationship success has focused on how the people in the relationship feel about each other. And this is usually done by the obvious route: asking them. “But the difficulty with that is, that assumes that they know themselves how happy they are, and that’s not always the case,” says Ronald D. Rogge, of the University of Rochester. [continue reading…]
Our busy lives sometimes feel like they are spinning out of control, and we lose track of the little things we can do to add meaning to our lives and make our loved ones feel appreciated. A new article in Personal Relationships points the way to the methods of gratitude we can use to give a boost to our romantic relationships, and help us achieve and maintain satisfaction with our partners. . [continue reading…]
Published: February 12, 2010
While Valentine’s Day used to consist of the traditional dinner date and a gift of flowers or candy, the romance rules have changed, and in many cases, have become much more confusing. “Men no longer have clear-cut cues on how to treat a woman, and the mixed messages they get from the media and women themselves can often leave them questioning what to do,” says Andrew Irwin-Smiler, an assistant professor of psychology at Wake Forest University and an expert in masculinity at Wake Forest University. [continue reading…]
