19 Jun Couples and happiness, during good and bad times
Apparently, it’s during the good times when the health of a relationship shows up most clearly – and its breakup can be predicted most accurately, according to studies to be reported this weekend.
A lukewarm or deflating reaction to a partner’s positive news tells more about the health of the relationship, and is even more predictive of its breakup, than whether a partner is supportive after bad news, says Shelly Gable, a psychologist at the University of California-Santa Barbara.
Her studies with more than 300 couples – dating, living together and married – will be presented Sunday at the first World Congress on Positive Psychology in Philadelphia.
The evidence about reactions to a partner’s good fortune ‘starts a whole new direction in the couples field. The focus has been so much on support when things go wrong,” says Arthur Aron, a psychologist and relationships expert at State University of New York-Stony Brook.
To read more about this interesting findings from positive psychology research into happiness and relationships – click here