Relationship Maintenance Strategies and Dialectical Contradictions in Personal Relationships

Abstract

This questionnaire study of both partners from 162 romantic and marital relationships sought to examine perceived partner maintenance strategies as correlates of participant satisfaction for relationships at varying dialectical moments of the autonomy-connection, predictability-novelty and openness-closedness contradictions. The perceived partner maintenance strategies of contact, romance and avoidance varied in efficacy depending on the particular dialectical conditions of the relationship, especially among male participants.

Dialectical tensions in marital partners’ accounts of their relationships

“…Cornforth (1968) argues that opposing forces struggle with and against one another for dominance. One pole of an opposition is not necessarily dominant at all times and may change places or shift in dominance at different times in the relationship (Bakhtin, 1986;Baxter & Simon, 1993). Baxter (1994) refers to this phenomenon as the "dialectical moment" and characterizes four circumstances in which opposing forces assume dominance.…”

Men's use of networks to manage communication tensions related to a potential diagnosis of prostate cancer

“…First, the obligation/autonomy tension is closely related to the reveal/conceal dilemma in interpersonal relationships (Baxter and Simon, 1993;Scott, 1993) often experienced by people with a stigmatising disease such as cancer (Gray et al, 2000) or HIV/AIDS (Greeff et al, 2008). This study extends the reveal/conceal tension by postulating that networks have a role in managing the tension by giving men choices about who to reveal to/conceal from.…”

‘An engagement-distancing flux’: bringing a voice to experiences with romantic relationships for women with anorexia nervosa

“…Thus, relationships occur in the interaction of conflicting and interconnected forces evident in the partners' behavioural patterns, motivational dynamics and contextual (situational) environment (Montgomery, 1993). From this perspective, the course that romantic relationships take can be viewed as a process of sustaining quality, particularly the satisfaction levels of the partners, in the presence of ongoing dialectical flux (Baxter & Simon, 1993;Montgomery, 1993). The participants in this study were quite active in addressing the presence of dialectical tensions in their relationships.…”

“…Without connection, Baxter (1988Baxter ( , 1990 states, relationships have no identity and thus cannot exist; but without autonomy, individuals have no identity and cannot exist within the relationship. Hence, individuals in relationships pursue both connection and separation, and relationship well-being is thought to be contingent upon meeting both the connection and autonomy needs (Baxter & Simon, 1993).…”