Discuss Research into the Breakdown of Romantic Relationships

Discuss research into the breakdown of romantic relationships 8+16 Marks

An explanation of the breakdown in romantic relationships is given by Rollie and Duck refined from their 1982 in 2006 study. This model claims that the breakdown commences with a sense of dissatisfaction from the relationship felt from an individual in the relationship. The intrapsychic process which is next, focuses on partner’s behaviour more, causing them to increasingly notice the negative points in the partner. The dyadic process follows this, which involves a sense of resentment after confrontation towards the partner, this sometimes involves an attempt to reconcile and repair relationships. This leads on to the social processes, which allows the individual to publicly alert family or friends about the intention of the break up. Advice from family or friends could either delay or increase the speed of the break up. During the grave dressing process, the break up has usually happened and the individual will give their own version of how the break up happened to the public, to ensure it does not deter new partners. Finally the resurrection process is eventually the point where somebody moves on and learns from past mistakes made in previous relationships.

Originally Rollie and Duck only gave four stages to the relationship breakdown. These were the, intrapsychic phase, dyadic phase, social phase and grave-digging phase. These were magnified due to the different processes found when breaking up. An advantage of Duck and Rollies model is that it is not deterministic and allows individuals to go through the stages at their own pace. It even allows people to go back in stages if the relationship improves. An example of this is the social process which could enable the partner to realise how amazing their partner is and do not want to lose them. This shows people do not have to go through all stages in the given order, which makes it more accessible to a variety of people. Tashiro and Frazier support this model of relationship