Marriage Matters

1. Marriage Matters • Marriage is the broadest and most intimate of all human interactions.

2. Marriage Matters • Building togetherness and maintaining autonomy is one of several important balancing acts that partners must manage if a marriage is to be successful.

3. Men and Marriage • Married men have longer life expectancies than single men. • Married men earn between 10 and 40% more than single men with similar education. • Marriage increases the likelihood fathers will have good relationships with their children.

4. Women and Marriage • Married mothers have lower rates of depression than single or cohabiting mothers. • Marriage significantly reduces poverty rates for both mothers and their children.

5. Women and Marriage • Married women appear to have a lower risk of domestic violence. • Even after controlling for race, age, and education, people who cohabit are three times more likely to report violent arguments than married women.

6. Marriage and Children • A successful marriage increases the likelihood that children will graduate from college and achieve high-status jobs. • Children who live with their married parents enjoy better health.

7. Marriage and Children • The health advantages of married homes remain even after taking into account socioeconomic status. • Parental divorce approximately doubles the odds that adult children will end up divorced.

8. Marriage and Society • Adults who cohabit are more similar to singles than married couple in terms of physical health and disability, emotional well-being and mental health, and assets and earnings. • Their children more closely resemble the children of single people than of married people. • Marriage reduces the risk that children and adults will be perpetrators or victims of crime.

9. Married Life • Marriage brings duties and obligations • Your identity changes with marriage • Compromises must be worked out • As time passes, the marriage will change and will

10. Married Life • require both partners further transitions • Continuing education • New careers • Children • There has to be continued successful given and take between married partners

11. Fulfilling needs in Marriage • Sexual needs • Sexual intercourse is a state-mandated part of marriage. If sexual needs are not fulfilled in a marriage the can be dissolved

12. Fulfilling needs in Marriage • Material needs • Affect how successful psychological and sexual needs are met • Marital disruption is higher among families in economic trouble

13. Fulfilling needs in Marriage • Psychological needs • Today, men and women seek not only love,bur also emotional survival within the context of their intimate relationships

14. Characteristics of Mental Health • The National Association for Mental Health has described mentally healthy people as generally: • feeling comfortable about themselves • feeling good about other people • being able to meet the demands of life

15. Marital Success Marital success is defined broadly to include adjustment, happiness, and permanence.

16. Marital Success • Partners adjust to the relationship • Relative agreement on most important issues • Comfortable in their new roles • Work together to solve most problems

17. Marital Expectations • Expectations play a crucial role in determining our level of satisfaction in an intimate relationship especially in a marriage

18. Expectations • The study of how people experience their world is called phenomenology. • It is important to realize that most people react to their perceptions of the world rather than to what the world really is.

19. The honeymoon is over • When our expectations are unconscious, uncommunicated, or unrealistic we can feel betrayed even when we haven’t been • When roles are not clear cut and accepted by everyone, the chances of conflicting role expectations increase greatly

20. The expectation of commitment • The expectation that a relationship will grow • Be strong and last • String relationship commitment to your partner • Single most important factor in influencing a successful relationship

21. Monogamy • Is an important part of American marriage • 90% of the general public say it is always or almost always wrong for a married person to have sex outside of marriage

22. Factors correlating with Greater Acceptance of Extramarital Sex • Being male • Being young • Being nonreligious • Being highly educated • Believing in the equality of the sexes • Being politically liberal • Being unmarried • Being premaritally sexually permissive • Being in a cohabitation situation

23. Extramarital affairs • Men for the sex • Women companionship and emotional support

24. Extramarital affairs • Most threatening to a marriage is an affair that stems from in love the new partner • Women-more upset about emotional infidelity • Men-more upset about sexual infidelity

25. The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy • Expectations that an individual holds about another person tend to influence that person in the direction of the expectations.

26. The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy • Holding slightly high expectations about another person is productive as long as the other person can fulfill them.

27. The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy • Having expectations of another’s behavior that are clearly out of that person’s reach tells that person that he/she is doomed to failure because the expectations can’t be met. • Feeling of being unloved and unwanted

28. Self actualization • People who can reach a high level of growth • Realize their full potential • Top of the mental health ladder • Can create successful intimate relationships

29. Characteristics of Self-Actualization • A more adequate perception of reality and a more comfortable relationship with reality than average people have.

30. Characteristics of Self-Actualization • A high degree of acceptance of themselves, of others, and of the realities of human nature.

31. Characteristics of Self-Actualization • A high degree of spontaneity. • A focus on problem-centeredness. • They devote themselves to the particular task at hand

32. Characteristics of Self-Actualization • A need for privacy. • Solitude does not frighten them • A high degree of autonomy. • Independent people capable of making their decisions • A continued freshness of appreciation. • Capacity to appreciate life

33. Marriage and the Law • A domestic partnership recognizes as valid some unmarried heterosexual and homosexual couples’ relationships.

34. Marriage and the Law • A marriage or prenuptial contract works out the details of a couple’s relationship before they wed.

35. Quick Quiz

36. 1. Marital success is defined broadly to include • sex, love and communication. • a prenuptial contract. • adjustment, happiness, and permanence. • a high degree of spontaneity.

37. Answer: c • Marital success is defined broadly in the text to include adjustment, happiness, and permanence.

38. 2. According to the text, this is the broadest and most intimate of all human interactions. • Marriage • Communication • Self-Actualization • Love

39. Answer: a • According to the text, marriage is the broadest and most intimate of all human interactions.

40. 3. Recognizes as valid some unmarried heterosexual and homosexual couples’ relationships. • Prenuptial contract • Self-actualization • Domestic partnership • Common Law Marriage

41. Answer: c • Domestic partnerships recognize as valid some unmarried heterosexual and homosexual couples’ relationships.