Throughout the last half of the century, our society has watched the divorce rate of married couples skyrocket to numbers previously not seen. Although their has been a slight decline in divorce rates, “half of first marriages still were expected to dissolve before death.” (Stacy, 15, 1991) Whatever happened to that meaningful exchange of words, “until death do us part,” uttered by the bride and groom to each other on their wedding day? What could have been the cause of such inflated divorce rates? Perhaps young married couples are not mature enough to be engaged in such a trremendous responsibility, or, maybe, the couples really do not know each other as well as they thought. Possibly, they have been blinded by infatuation rather than by …show more content…
First, the expectations of a relationship and how these expectations are met play a large part in the dyad’s assesment of how well the marriage is going. Also, the decision-making process, another important procedure that should engage both parties of a marriage, is of increasing importance in these post modern, feminist times. As with any marriage, problems will obviously occur, and the manner in which these problems are handled will most often affect the happiness of the couple. Another major issue of dicussion is the amount of time a couple spends with each other, as well as the quality of the interaction, and lastly, the issue of similarity will be addressed. In order for a marriage to succeed, the communication patterns of the couple must be similar and compatible if there is to be any agreement between the spouses. Marital satisfaction and the contributing factords are of extreme importance at this juncture in our society, though it has become obvious that there is a degeneration of communication and a lack of satisfaction in today’s married couples. This disatisfaction results in the divorce rate being sohigh that it begs the question: how does this marital satisfaction originate? This topic deserves a lot of attention so that the reasons for this degeneration can be avoided. The topic of marital satisfaction must be studied from a
The following two articles were compared and contrasted to each other. “Why Marriage Makes People Happy” by Phillip Moeller talks about the causes of happiness in marriage. “Most Woman Would Rather Divorce Than Be A Housewife” by Lisa Wade discusses that women would prefer an egalitarian marriage. Both articles state that when social roles are divided into half, women are happy in their marriage. Living arrangements of gender roles in marriages years ago differed from marriages today but in some cases it still lingers in relationships. After completing a survey of the type of ideal relationship women and men
Patz opens the article with a personal anecdote and explanation of her interest behind this article, being a lecture given addressing high divorce rates and their roots, and her own experience with divorce. She directly discusses the emotions often felt early in a relationship and the euphoric nature of the marriage directly after the honeymoon. She specifically cites the indicator that the first two years of marriage directly correlate to the trajectory of the following marriage. Furthermore, she also later references specific examples from a long study on 56 different couples, in which couples that were in the ‘courting’ stage longer saw more successful results in creating a long and lasting marriage founded on love and respect. Her claim of the direct correlation between time and marital success is discussed frequently throughout the article, further underlining her message, and emphasizing ill-preparedness as a major factor in failing marriages.
Stephanie Coontz is a sociologist who is interested in marriage and the change in its structure over the time-span as love became a main proponent of the relationship involved in marriages. In her article, “What 's Love Got to Do With It,” Coontz argues that the more love becomes a part of the equation the less stable the institution of marriage becomes. Marriage at one point was a social contract that bound two families together to increase their property and wealth as well as ally connections. Each party entered into the contract knowing their roles and if one partner failed to meet the expectations, they were still contractually obligated to one another and were not allowed to divorce. As love became part of the equation, each partner was less sure of their obligations and often chose to end their marriages if at all possible.
There is a staggeringly large amount of divorces in the United States (US). In total, the US had a recorded total of 2,140,272 marriages in the year 2014 alone, and of those marriages, 813,862 ended up in divorce or annulment (Center for Disease Control). This means that as recently as 2014, there was a divorce rate of approximately 40%. This supports the statistics that the divorce rate for the US has stayed within 40-50% since the 1970’s (Austin Institute, 2014). While the numbers themselves are important, it is also important that the causes for the high divorce rate be explored, so that it can be known what pitfalls to avoid when participating in such an important union as marriage. There are many causes of divorce in the US such as conflicting gender roles, socioeconomic status, religious conflicts, physical abuse, emotional abuse, alcohol addictions, and many more (Amato & Previti, 2003). This paper will look at many of these reasons, but it will also focus on the differing reasons reported by men and women.
It is believed that marriages fail due to a lack of affection. As a result, partners seek outside of their marriage to fulfill that void. I agree with the idea that Etzioni details in “Happiness is the Wrong Metric,” “humankind is motivated in part by their quest to live up to their moral commitments.” This is can be true in marriages that persisted for years. It is also assumed that many of these marriages have been through some uncompromising situations which is difficult to say in our current society.
In the modern era, with economic independence available for both men and women, many people are choosing not to marry these days. Williams reports that marriage rates have dropped to a forty-year low while divorce rates continue to hover just above 50 percent. In addition to the high divorce rate, the report issued by Rutgers University’s National Marriage Project indicates that the percentage of married people who reported “being happy” in their marriages fell from 53.5 in 1973-76 to 37.8 in 1996 (1). Williams attributes these phenomena to social changes such as legalization of cohabitation between
Shared individual satisfaction is an intricate and advancing objective, and, without the additional paste of budgetary reliance, individuals who no more feel satisfied may all will more effortlessly leave a relationship. Positively, every marriage is diverse. An upbeat couple who wedded in 1960 would likely stay wedded, even without the support of monetary difference in the middle of men and ladies. Be that as it may, as published by U.Va. magazine, a despondent couple wedded in 2000s would be more inclined to separate than a troubled couple in 1960. More of that, the foundation of marriage is changing and it merits investigating why and where it may wind up. It is a question that attempts are being made to reply by investigating the part of ladies in the workforce, enthusiastic desires for organization and marriage's advantages or expenses to people and families. While getting married is declining, unmarried cohabitation is on the ascent. Fifteen times the number of couples today live respectively outside of marriage than in 1960. Half of cohabiting family units incorporate youngsters. One of the result of the gap between the family relations is divorce. Relational
As stated in our text, various factors can bind married couples together, such as economic interdependencies, legal, social and moral constraints, relationship, and amongst other things. In the recent years some of these factors have diminished their strengths. The modern generation sees marriage in a different perspective altogether. Individuals today feel they are stable independently, they do not need to rely on their spouse for emotional or financial support. Many are career driven and soar to conquer their dreams over settling down with a family. Such untraditional views have increased divorce rates.
The majority of the people on this earth choose to believe once they find their soul mate, they will be able to share a long and happy marriage, “until death do [they] part.” This belief amounts to only a simple myth, as more and more couples file for divorce each year. It is ironic how a man can find the love of his life, his source of the ultimate currency, but is forced to a dead end due to external struggles. In Happier, author Ben-Shahar discusses “the mistaken notion that finding love guarantees eternal bliss leads partners to neglect the journey – the day-to-day issues, activities, and events that shape the relationship” (Ben-Shahar, 121). There are many external factors that can be harmful to a marriage if the couple does not know
In the article “WE WANT A DIVORCE” written by SIRS Staff, readers ascertain that divorce rates have proliferated over the past 30 years due to lack of interest in their partner, different beliefs and habits, and financial problems. Declining interest is very problematic because some couples find their relationship was only actualized to escape reality. While losing interest in their partner is troublesome, the lack of commonality in values and customs make it excruciating to live together. Furthermore, the stress of money can diminish the bonds of love and it can terminate the marriage because the power of money becomes stronger than the power of love. Therefore, divorce can manifest when there is a lack of interest in their partner, different
Marriage requires effort and work. Many newlyweds come into a marriage thinking it is easy but do not consider the consequences of marriage that heavily rely on balances and partnership. Marriage is all about compromise. It is important to engage in a premarital program to allow both partners to learn what to expect within a marriage, how to face certain roadblocks, and to better communication when conflict is aroused so that divorce does not become an option. Gottman’s research (2009) has made a significant contribution to the study of relationship and marriage tying unity, harmony, and communication together to make relationship and marriage work. When a couple who does not have consummate love (intimacy, passion, and commitment), they often portray the six indicators of divorce: harsh startup, the Four Horsemen, flooding, body language, failed repair attempts and reflecting on bad memories (Gottman, 2009). Divorce often occurs within the first two years of marriages and almost half of divorces end within the first seven years (Bhutto-Ramirez, 2015).
Conversely, most people perceive marriage as a sanctuary, satisfying the needs of both partners involved. It is one of the most important institutions affecting people’s health and well-being. Firstly, a strong marriage has a dramatic effect on the partners’
From past to present people all over the world have determined to live together, or “get married”. Marriage can be a beautiful thing, but some couples are unable to maintain their relationship, because they choose divorce as a solution to cope with the problems between husband and wife. Furthermore divorce is definitely on a rise. The effects of divorce can be detrimental to a family, but the causes of divorce can be just as bad. In this essay we will cover one of the main causes of divorce and one of the main effects.
Rather than giving up and ending the marriage, many couples could save the marriage by trying to work through the problems that arise. Many people do not realize how much hard work has to be put into a marriage for it to be successful. When planning a wedding, some couples spend a lot of time preparing the vows that will be exchanged during the ceremony, but sadly the partners fail to live by the vows day after day. Scores of married couples drift apart because their hectic lives do not allow them to spend enough quality time together, which is important for a healthy marriage. Communication is also an essential factor in working through problems in a marriage.
One of the main things people do when they feel great chemistry between one another is get married. Some couples are unable to maintain their relationship and they get a divorce; which is one of the solutions to solve the problems between husband and wife. Most people think carefully before they get married however the divorce rates are continuously increasing.