Talk Table Technique in Couple Interaction

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Questions and Answers

What is the purpose of the Talk Table technique?

To identify sources of miscommunication in couple interactions (correct)

To examine the impact of infidelity on relationships

To study genetic variation in infidelity

To analyze attachment styles in relationships

In a demand/withdraw pattern, one partner expresses a desire for change and the other partner actively collaborates in the change process.

False

What does cross-validation involve?

repeating a finding from one study with a new sample

In an intimate relationship, polarization occurs when the two partners adopt ________ viewpoints in an argument.

opposing Signup and view all the answers

Match the attachment style with its description:

Secure = Good problem solvers, not threatened by partner’s emotions or discussing problems Anxious = Fear conflict, threats to approval, obsess over conflicts, express anxiety Avoidant = Avoid conflict, minimize intimacy, defend themselves instead of cooperating Signup and view all the answers

According to the Commitment calibration hypothesis, threats trigger defense actions only if the threat matches the couple's ________.

Commitment level Signup and view all the answers

What are stressors in the context of relationships?

Any aspect of the environment that makes demands on people and reduces a couple's capacity to maintain their relationship. Signup and view all the answers

Couples with fewer chronic stresses and more resources handle acute events better.

True Signup and view all the answers

Stress pile-up refers to the accumulating consequences of a __________ event.

stressful Signup and view all the answers

Match the following types of cohabitation with their descriptions:

Precursor to marriage = Couples engaged or planning to marry, living together as a step toward marriage Coresidential daters = Couples romantically involved with no plans to marry, living together for non-serious reasons Trial marriage = Couples not engaged but open to marriage, living together to evaluate compatibility Substitute marriage = Couples who reject marriage but view their relationship as permanent Signup and view all the answers

What are the three kinds of behaviors involved in relationship maintenance?

strengthening an already good relationship, averting declines, repairing problems Signup and view all the answers

According to the intimacy process model, communication between partners can do what?

Strengthen feelings of understanding, validation, and caring Signup and view all the answers

Social integration involves involvement and interconnections with _____________ .

other people Signup and view all the answers

Match the following components with the correct response types:

Active response = Enthusiastic, showing genuine interest in a positive event Passive response = Mild, understated, or indifferent response to a positive event Constructive response = Acknowledges and supports a positive event, reinforcing positive emotions Destructive response = Undermines or minimizes a positive event, detracting from positive emotions Signup and view all the answers

Forgiveness involves transforming anger or hurt feelings into a desire to be indifferent toward the offending partner.

False Signup and view all the answers

What is sexual satisfaction in intimate relationships?

a partner’s evaluation of the quality of the sexual aspect of the relationship Signup and view all the answers

According to the Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, why do people seek positive experiences and avoid negative ones as they age?

Becoming aware of their mortality Signup and view all the answers

Men over 65 are nearly twice as likely to be married as women due to higher remarriage rates.

True Signup and view all the answers

What impact does positive prior marriage have on depression after a spouse's death?

reduces depression Signup and view all the answers

Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy focuses on creating new patterns of emotional expression to unite partners by managing strong primary emotions such as feelings of abandonment, fear of rejection, sadness, shame, and helplessness which are masked by self-protective __________.

secondary emotions Signup and view all the answers

Match the following models with their characteristics:

Systems models = Identify and change unspoken rules causing undesirable interactions Behavioral models = Change behaviors and thoughts, promote communication and problem-solving skills Emotion models = Emphasize managing feelings in distressed relationships to bring partners closer together Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Relationship Maintenance

Relationship maintenance refers to the behaviors and strategies partners use to ensure a valued relationship continues.
Three types of behaviors: strengthening a good relationship, averting declines, and repairing problems.

Intimacy Process Model

The intimacy process model shows how communication between partners can strengthen or weaken feelings of understanding, validation, and caring in a committed relationship.
Process: A makes a disclosure, goes through B's interpretive filter, B responds, and A has a reaction to B's response.
Factors influencing the process: A and B's motives, needs, goals, and fears.

Self-Expansion Model

The self-expansion model suggests that people seek to grow and improve themselves by acquiring resources, enriching their identity, and strengthening skills, often through intimate relationships.

Overcoming Stress and Adversity

Social integration: involvement and interconnections with other people.
Social support: resources and assistance provided by relationship partners.
Benefits of social support: maintaining strong partnerships, increased satisfaction, improved mood and self-esteem, better problem-solving, and coping with external stress.
Cons of social support: implied obligation, diminished self-esteem, and emotional costs.
Invisible support: avoiding drawbacks, more effective before or just after stress.

Capitalization

Capitalization: sharing positive events in one's life, building personal and interpersonal resources.
Broaden-and-build theory: expressing positive emotions enhances daily experiences and builds resources for well-being.
Active vs passive responses: enthusiastic vs mild, and constructive vs destructive responses: acknowledging and supporting vs undermining positive events.

Forgiveness

Forgiveness: transforming anger or hurt into a desire to be generous and unselfish toward the offending partner.
Factors influencing forgiveness: seriousness of the offense, personality, quality of the apology, and relationship quality.
Three stages of forgiveness: impact, meaning, and moving-on.

Sexual Intimacy

Sexual satisfaction: a partner's evaluation of the quality of the sexual aspect of an intimate relationship.
Importance of sexual satisfaction: closely linked to overall relationship satisfaction, especially for those who value sex and anxiously attached individuals.
Relationship satisfaction without sex: rarely satisfied, associated with distress.

Conflict

Conflict: inevitable in intimate relationships, arising from pursuing goals that interfere with the other partner's goals.
Importance of communication: active listening, seeking compromise, and avoiding stubborn positions.
How scientists study conflict: coding system, conditional and unconditional probabilities.
Characteristics of unhappy couples: less positivity, predictability, and reciprocity.

Infidelity and Aggression

Infidelity: breaking a promise to keep emotional and sexual lives exclusively with each other.
Prevalence: 23% of men and 12% of women have engaged in extramarital sex, with genetic factors contributing to half the variation.
Risk factors: individuals high in sociosexuality, risky relationships, and contexts.
Consequences: individual struggle, relationship dissolution, and severe aggression.
Intimate partner violence: situational couple violence (SCV) and coercive controlling violence (CCV).
SCV: escalating verbal exchanges, pushing, and grabbing, often bilateral.
CCV: one partner uses aggression to dominate the other, often referred to as battering.

Interpreting Experience

Information processing: organizing what we learn about the world.
Belief vs value: idea about what the world is like vs opinion about what's important.
Intimacy process model: linking specific observations to general meanings.
Ideal standards model: relationship satisfaction depends on how closely the current relationship matches what we value.
Perceptual confirmation: our expectations affect our perceptions.
Effects of rejection sensitivity and low self-esteem: expecting rejection, misinterpreting others' behaviors, and impacting interactions.### Behavioral Confirmation
Behavioral confirmation: our expectations cause us to behave in ways that make others respond in ways that confirm those beliefs
Self-fulfilling prophecy: behavior that leads to an expected experience or result; a prediction that causes itself to become true

Culture

Culture: shared beliefs, norms, and values of people who speak the same language and share a geographic area, during a period of time
Arranged marriage: union where parents introduce the partners, approve the marriage, and organize the wedding
Media: how relationships are portrayed in media affect what people believe about relationships, how people evaluate their own relationships, and how they behave

Motivated Reasoning

Motivated reasoning: our desires and preferences shape the way information is interpreted
Explains why outsiders often see a relationship differently than the people in it
Motive: drive to reach a specific goal
Bias: tendency to process information to protect a particular point of view

Different Motives

Enhancement motive: describes how people want to believe their intimate relationships are successful
- Leads to an enhancement bias, the tendency to prefer information that supports/strengthens positive beliefs about the relationships
Accuracy motive: desire to understand a partner and be understood in return
- Judge whether a relationship is worth pursuing
Justification motive: preference for information that makes a person feel moral and reasonable, supporting a positive view of oneself
- Contributes to self-serving bias, the tendency to take credit for our successes and blame others for our failures

Accommodation vs Assimilation

Accommodation: changing existing beliefs in order to accept new information
Assimilation: integrating new information with existing knowledge without changing the original beliefs

Mechanisms of Motivated Reasoning

Plan A: Keep negative information out of awareness
- Selective attention: noticing and focusing on some aspect of the environment and not others
- Memory bias: tendency to recall past information in a way that justifies one's current feelings about a partner or a relationship
Plan B: Minimize negative information
- Attribution: assigning a specific behavior to a more general cause
- Locus dimension: whether the cause of a behavior is internal or external to the person
- Stability dimension: whether the cause of a behavior is temporary or stable
- Flexible standards: adjusting expectations and standards to be more achievable, making it easier to maintain satisfaction
- Social comparison: the use of information about others to evaluate one's own attitudes and abilities

The Role of Motivation and Ability in Motivated Reasoning

Commitment calibration hypothesis: threats to a relationship trigger defense actions only if the threat matches the couple's commitment level
- Low threat: different commitment levels rated photos of attractive alternatives
- High threat: when the alternative was interested in the rater, only happily married people criticized the alternative, while everyone else rated them as highly attractive

Stress and Context

Proximal context: close and direct elements of the environment
Distal context: removed and indirect elements of the environment
Stressor: any aspect of the environment that makes demands on people, leaving a couple with reduced capacity to maintain a relationship
Resource: a source of support outside the couple, something that contributes to their ability to interact effectively

Chronic vs Acute Conditions

Chronic conditions: aspects of the context that are relatively stable and enduring
Acute events: sudden changes with a clear start and end
Interaction: impact of acute events depends on chronic conditions like resources and stress levels

The Two Routes through which Stress Affects Relationships

Route 1: the content of the relationship
- Stress affects what we talk about, when we interact, where we interact, and how much we interact with our partner
Route 2: processing of relationship problems
- Stress affects how we process and respond to relationship problems

Stress Pile-Up

Stress pile-up: accumulating consequences of stressful events that can be as stressful as or more stressful than the original event

Fight or Flight Response

Fight or flight response: a physiological response to stress or threat that prepares the body to take action, by either confronting the threat (fight) or escaping it (flight)

Stress Spillover vs Stress Crossover

Stress spillover: stressful events from one domain transferring over to another domain
Stress crossover: stressful events affecting multiple people in a relationship

Long Distance Relationships

Pros: idealizing each other, those who choose to stay committed while separated want their relationship to work out, and those who make the greatest use of responsive texting are the most satisfied
Cons: restricting face-to-face interaction, increasing the cost of maintaining relationships, and the potential for jealousy and infidelity

Benefits of Stress

Noticing stress: recognizing how external stressors influence relationships is crucial for minimizing spillover and crossover effects
Building resilience: couples must learn to handle stress effectively

Psychological network: people who play important roles in a person's life
Interactive network: people who we interact with regularly
Network composition: types of relationships and connections in a person's social network
Network overlap: how much partners in a relationship share the same social network
Social capital: the tangible and intangible benefits people derive from their relationships with others
Substitutability: the degree to which different members of a social network may fulfill the same needs for an individual### Adaptive Processes in Relationships
Adaptive processes directly impact the quality and satisfaction of a romantic relationship

Factors Influencing Adaptive Processes

Characteristics of individual partners
Characteristics of their environment

Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation Model

Enduring characteristics of partners influence initial satisfaction in the relationship
External stressors also impact initial satisfaction
Adaptive processes help couples manage stress and solve problems together
Navigating challenges is crucial for maintaining satisfaction in the relationship

Barriers and Alternatives

Shared responsibilities can be a barrier to relationship satisfaction
Other potential partners can be an alternative to the current relationship
These factors determine changes in satisfaction and ultimately influence the decision to stay together or break up

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Description

This quiz explores the Talk Table technique, a method for studying couple interaction and identifying sources of miscommunication. It involves rating messages from 'super negative' to 'super positive' to understand the intent and impact of communication.