Understanding relational expectations and perceptions of relational satisfaction in marital relationships.

Abstract

The present study examined the role that relational expectations play in determining marital satisfaction and in discriminating between married couple types. The discrepancy between one's expectations for his or her spouse's relational behavior and one's perceptions of his or her spouse's actual behavior significantly predicted marital satisfaction. In addition, this expectation/perception discrepancy was revealed to be a stronger predictor of marital satisfaction than agreement between spouses on relational expectations. There were few differences in relational expectations when compared across couple type, however when compared across individual marital type significant or near significant differences were displayed for the relational dimensions of intimacy, receptivity, mutual respect and frustration. A global measure of marital satisfaction was developed and the usefulness of this instrument is discussed.