To the desk of the President of the United States:
President Obama, Our country is one rooted in family values and raising our youth to achieve their dreams. The basis for how our nation thrives comes from the prosperity of love throughout each family in the United States. There is countless past research on some of the negatively lasting effects than can result from divorce and marriage dissolution. Although trending downward, the divorce rate in America still hovers close to 50%. This means that half of our nations youth wont receive the love and benefits that a nuclear family provides in creating the dream achievers we pride ourselves on being. As you have called upon me to do so, I will provide insight through past empirical research …show more content…
Even you and Michelle have conflict at times, but the ability to forgive and overcome issues is one found to have lasting implications. McNulty (2008) conducted a study through questionnaires and a behavioral interaction on forgiveness that examined consequences of spouse’s tendencies to forgive their partners over the first 2 years of newlywed couples. McNulty found that more forgiving spouses reported being happier in their marriages, having fewer problems, and behaving less negatively. However, no significant effects were found for forgiveness changing satisfaction or severity of problems. As time and negativity in relationships continued on, evidence suggests that spouses married to partners who frequently engaged in negative behavior, increased forgiveness appeared to be harmful overtime whereas decreased forgiveness appeared to be beneficial. These findings are very important in understanding how forgiveness is not a universally positive thing for all relationships, especially those with increased negative behavior that are naturally more inclined to lead into divorce. McNulty (2008) proves that forgiveness can initially benefit newlyweds and can help keep marriages to benevolent partners stable as time goes on. Even so, the evidence also challenges that forgiveness is beneficial in high-conflict marriages in that the potential for easy forgiveness leads to declined marital …show more content…
Murray et al (1999) tested married couples where each partner completed measures of relationship satisfaction and described themselves and their spouse on a series of virtues and faults while nominating friends who described each spouse on the same qualities. Their findings provide optimism towards the positive affects of motivated and benevolent beliefs have in marriage. It was found more satisfied individuals found significantly greater virtue in their partners than their friends perceived, and less satisfied spouses found significantly less virtue in partners than friends perceived (Murray et al 1998). This revealed that those in satisfying marriages perceive more virtue in their spouses than their friends or even their spouses themselves perceive. This benevolently distorted light satisfied couples see each other may take on the phenomena of a self-fulfilling prophecy that leads to more satisfaction and support. These findings have implications on spouses and therapist in identifying strong or weakening marital bonds. Specifically, how partners view the virtues and faults in each other are critical determinants in satisfaction. When these beliefs are greater than each respective partners own view of themselves and how friends view them, this leads to stronger bonds. Conversely, not seeing each other in a “light
President Obama, Our country is one rooted in family values and raising our youth to achieve their dreams. The basis for how our nation thrives comes from the prosperity of love throughout each family in the United States. There is countless past research on some of the negatively lasting effects than can result from divorce and marriage dissolution. Although trending downward, the divorce rate in America still hovers close to 50%. This means that half of our nations youth wont receive the love and benefits that a nuclear family provides in creating the dream achievers we pride ourselves on being. As you have called upon me to do so, I will provide insight through past empirical research …show more content…
Even you and Michelle have conflict at times, but the ability to forgive and overcome issues is one found to have lasting implications. McNulty (2008) conducted a study through questionnaires and a behavioral interaction on forgiveness that examined consequences of spouse’s tendencies to forgive their partners over the first 2 years of newlywed couples. McNulty found that more forgiving spouses reported being happier in their marriages, having fewer problems, and behaving less negatively. However, no significant effects were found for forgiveness changing satisfaction or severity of problems. As time and negativity in relationships continued on, evidence suggests that spouses married to partners who frequently engaged in negative behavior, increased forgiveness appeared to be harmful overtime whereas decreased forgiveness appeared to be beneficial. These findings are very important in understanding how forgiveness is not a universally positive thing for all relationships, especially those with increased negative behavior that are naturally more inclined to lead into divorce. McNulty (2008) proves that forgiveness can initially benefit newlyweds and can help keep marriages to benevolent partners stable as time goes on. Even so, the evidence also challenges that forgiveness is beneficial in high-conflict marriages in that the potential for easy forgiveness leads to declined marital …show more content…
Murray et al (1999) tested married couples where each partner completed measures of relationship satisfaction and described themselves and their spouse on a series of virtues and faults while nominating friends who described each spouse on the same qualities. Their findings provide optimism towards the positive affects of motivated and benevolent beliefs have in marriage. It was found more satisfied individuals found significantly greater virtue in their partners than their friends perceived, and less satisfied spouses found significantly less virtue in partners than friends perceived (Murray et al 1998). This revealed that those in satisfying marriages perceive more virtue in their spouses than their friends or even their spouses themselves perceive. This benevolently distorted light satisfied couples see each other may take on the phenomena of a self-fulfilling prophecy that leads to more satisfaction and support. These findings have implications on spouses and therapist in identifying strong or weakening marital bonds. Specifically, how partners view the virtues and faults in each other are critical determinants in satisfaction. When these beliefs are greater than each respective partners own view of themselves and how friends view them, this leads to stronger bonds. Conversely, not seeing each other in a “light