THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN IRRATIONAL RELATIONSHIP BELIEFS AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION STRATEGIES IN YOUNG ADULTHOOD
Keywords:
irrational relationship beliefs, conflict resolution srategies, young adulthoodAbstract
Background: Maintaining romantic relationships is one of the most important developmental tasks in young adulthood. Lower relationship satisfaction is associated with more expressed irrational relationship beliefs (Janjani, Momeni, Rai, & Saidi, 2017). According to the Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, irrational beliefs should cause maladaptive behavior in conflicts. However, it is not clear how particular irrational relationship beliefs are associated with specific conflict resolution strategies in young adulthood.
Purpose. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the link between irrational relationship beliefs and conflict resolution strategies in young adulthood.
Method. 148 young adults (110 female, 38 male) having romantic relationships participated in this study. The irrational relationship beliefs were assessed with a questionnaire by R. J. Eidelson and N. Epstein (1982). Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory – II (Rahim & Magner, 1995) was used to measure conflict resolution strategies.
Results: The results showed that the more expressed irrational belief “Disagreement is destructive” was related to higher use of dominating and avoiding and lower use of integrating and compromising conflict resolution strategies in young adulthood. The more expressed irrational belief “Partners cannot change” was associated with lower use of integrating and compromising conflict resolution strategies in young adulthood. No links between the irrational belief “Partners cannot change” and avoiding conflict resolution strategy were found in young adulthood. The more expressed irrational belief “The sexes are different” was associated with higher use of dominating conflict resolution strategy in young adulthood. The more expressed irrational belief “Sexual perfectionism” was related to lower use of integrating conflict resolution strategy in young adulthood.
Conclusions. Results of this study partially support Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. Findings also could contribute to increasing effectiveness of psychological interventions designed to improve romantic relationship in young adulthood.
References
Aloia, L. S. (2017). Verbal Aggression in Romantic Relationships: The Influence of Family History, Destructive Beliefs About Conflict, and Conflict Goals. Communication Quarterly, 66(3), 308-324.
Baiocco, R., Laghi, F., & D’Alessio, M. (2009). Decision-making style among adolescents: Relationship with sensation seeking and locus of control. Journal of Adolescence 32(4), 963-976.
Demirtas-Zorbaz, S., Ulas, O., & Kepir-Savoly, D. D. (2015). University Student’s Relationship’s Believes: Sample of Turkey. Social and Behavioral Sciences, 185, 495 – 499.
Eidelson, R. J., & Epstein, N. (1982). Cognition and Relationship Maladjustment: Development of a Measure of Dysfunctional Relationship Beliefs. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 50(5), 715-720.
Ellis, A. (1986). Rational-emotive therapy applied to relationship therapy. Journal of Rational-Emotive Therapy, 4(1), 4-21.
Gbadamosi, O., Baghestan, A. G., & Al-Mabrouk, K. (2014). Gender, age and nationality: assessing their impact on conflict resolution styles. Journal of Management Development, 33(3), 245-257.
Janjani, P., Momeni, K., Rai, A., & Saidi, M. R. (2017). Mediating role of irrational beliefs in the relationship between the quality of family communication and marital satisfaction. World Family Medicine/ Middle East Journal of Falimy Medicine, 15(7), 89-94.
Kaygusuz, C. (2013). Irrational Beliefs and Abuse in University Students' Romantic Relations. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, 51, 141-155.
Lee, D., Peterson, G. W., Sampson, J. P., & Park, M. (2015). A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Negative Career Thoughts. Journal of Career Assessment, 24(4), 685-700.
Lehnart, J., Neyer, F. J., & Eccles, J. (2010). Long-Term Effects of Social Investment: The Case of Partnering in Young Adulthood. Journal of Personality, 78(2), 639–670.
Lietuvos statistikos departamentas (2016). Susituokusieji. Peržiūrėta: 2018-02-12, https://osp.stat.gov.lt/statistiniu-rodikliu-analize?indicator=S3R489#/.
Macsinga, I., & Dobrița, O. (2010). More Educated, Less Irrational: Gender and Educational Differences in Perfectionism and Irrationality. Romanian Journal of Applied Psychology, 12(2), 79-85.
Neenan, M., & Dryden, W. (2006). Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy in a Nutshell. London: SAGE Publications.
Rahim, M. A., & Magner, N. R. (1995). Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Styles of Handling Interpersonal Conflict: First-Order Factor Model and Its Invariance Across Groups. Journal of Applied Psychology, 80(1), 122-132.
Ricco, R. B., & Sierra, A. (2017). Argument Beliefs Mediate Relations Between Attachment Style and Conflict Tactics. Journal of Counseling & Development, 95(2), 156-167.
Rotter, J. B. (1966). Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. Psychological monographs: General and applied, 80(1), 1-28.
Şahin, N. H., Basım, H. N., & Çetin, F. (2009). Locus of control and self-concept in interpersonal conflict resolution approaches. Turk Psikiyatri Derg, 20, 153-163.
Sarvestani, P. S. (2011). The Effect of Irrational Beliefs on Marital Satisfaction between Iranians. European Journal of Social Sciences, 24(3), 432–442.
Satir, V. (1967). Conjoint Family Therapy. Revised edition. Palo Alto: Science and Behavior Books.
Simon, V. A., Kobielski, S. J., Martin, S. (2008). Conflict Beliefs, Goals, and Behavior in Romantic Relationships During Late Adolescence. Youth Adolescence, 37(3), 324–335.
Slavinskienė, J., & Žardeckaitė-Matulaitienė, K. (2013). Sutuoktinių turimų klaidingų įsitikinimų apie bendravimą poroje ir pasitenkinimo santuoka ryšys. Tarptautinis psichologijos žurnalas: biopsichosocialinis požiūris, 13, 49–68.
Stackert R. A., & Bursik, K. (2003). Why am I unsatisfied? Adult attachment style, gendered irrational relationship beliefs, and young adult romantic relationship satisfaction. Personality and Individual Differences 34(8), 1419–1429.
Taylor, M. (2010). Does Locus of Control Predict Young Adult Conflict Strategies with Superiors? An Examination of Control Orientation and the Organizational Communication Conflict Instrument. North American Journal of Psychology, 12(3), 445-458.
Vasile, C. (2012). Rational/irrational beliefs dynamics in adults. Social and Behavioral Sciences 69, 2108 – 2113.
Wheeler, L. A., Updegraff, K. A., & Thayer, S. M. (2010). Conflict Resolution in Mexican Origin Couples: Culture, Gender, and Marital Quality. Journal of Marriage and Family 72(4), 991–1005.
Wright, C. N., & Roloff, M. E. (2015). You should just know why I’m upset: Expectancy violation theory and the influence of mind reading expectations (MRE) on responses to relational problems. Communication Research Reports, 32(1), 10–19.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Articles submitted to the journal should be original contributions and should not be under consideration for any other publication at the same time. Authors submitting articles warrant that the work is not an infringement of any existing copyright and will indemnify the publisher against any breach of such warranty. For ease of dissemination and to ensure proper policing of use, papers and contributions become the legal copyright of the publisher unless otherwise agreed.
The International Journal of Psychology: A Biopsychosocial Approach applies the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) licence to articles and other works published. Under this Open Access licence, authors agree that anyone can remix, tweak or build upon their articles in whole or part for free for non-comercial purposes using proper citation.
Readers may copy and distribute the material of this Journal in any medium or format, or reuse its content non-commercially as long as the authors of ideas and original source are properly cited. Users must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the licence, and indicate if changes were made. Users may not use the material of this Journal for commercial purposes without notification and agreement of copyright holders.
