Conflict Resolution in Marriage: Toward a Theory of Spousal Strategies and Marital Dissolution Rates 1

Abstract

THERE are four strategies spouses may attempt to employ in cases of political conflict to elicit a desired outcome: authority, control, influence, and manipulation. These strategies differ in three ways: the costs involved in their use, their reward potentials, and the amount of support provided by institutional sources external to the marital relationship. Employing conflict and exchange perspectives, it is hypothesized that the four strategies are identically rank ordered (as presented above) on each of these; the higher the reward potential, the lower the cost and the greater the external support. Class and culture influence the strategies available for use by husbands compared to their wives. Also, long-term socioeconomic changes have affected the relative abilities of each spouse to employ the different strategies. Rates of marital dissolution are a function of the relative equality between spouses in terms of the types of conflict-resolution strategies they are able to employ; the more equal they are, the higher the rate of marital dissolution.

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