Stress Pushes Married Couples to Love Their Partner’s Dark Side

How does stress affect the interaction between couples? Stress makes people focus more on their romantic partner's negative behaviors than positive ones.

Highlights:

Stress can harm health is a known fact but its role in martial relationships is unexplored
Surveying newlywed couples about their partner’s behavior is giving insights into this area
Stress makes couples reflect on their partner’s negative rather than positive behavior

Stressful life circumstances can make married couples notice their spouse’s negative behavior more than positive, according to a new study published in Social Psychological and Personality Science.

Prior research has focused on how stress influences behavior, but this study suggests that stress could affect what actions partners notice in the first place ().

Stress and the Gender Divide-Mars and Venus-Biology-Different Strokes
Stress has become entwined in the current lifestyle of a young working couple and has resulted in the rise in incidence of hypertension, diabetes and psychosomatic illnesses.

‘People who are experiencing more stressful life events were more likely to notice their partner’s behavior in an inconsiderate manner.’

The negative actions being monitored included a spouse breaking a promise, showing anger or impatience, or criticizing their partner.

Stress in Life Can Make Your Partner Seem More Irritating

Researchers asked 79 heterosexual newlywed couples to complete a short survey each night for 10 days, in which they documented both their own and their partner’s behavior. Before beginning this portion of the study, participants completed a questionnaire in which they shared details of stressful events in their life.

Studying newlyweds drives home the significance of the results because couples are especially likely to focus on each other’s positive behavior and overlook negative actions during the honeymoon period.

Researchers noted a single stressful day was not enough to make someone zero in on their partner’s negative behavior, but a longer accumulation of stressful life circumstances could cause this shift in focus.

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The findings also suggest that those under stress were not any less likely to notice their partner’s positive behavior, but they were more likely to notice inconsiderate actions. If stress focuses individuals’ attention on their partner’s more inconsiderate behaviors, this is likely to take a toll on the relationship ().

While it’s possible that being aware of the effects of stress could allow couples to correct their behavior and limit harm to the relationship. This will remain speculation until it is studied further. Future research would do well to expand this study beyond the honeymoon phase.

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References:

The role of stress on close relationships and marital satisfaction - (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23937453_The_role_of_stress_on_close_relationships_and_marital_satisfaction)
Social and Emotional Aging - (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3950961/)

Source-Medindia

Quiz on Stress

Introduction

Stress has become one of the major health concerns in the modern world, but it is still difficult to define. Stress is a normal physical response when faced with a challenge, and in small doses, stress can motivate us and drive us to better performance. But stress overload is typically described as a negative concept that can have an impact on a person’s mental and physical well-being ().

There are 10 questions on ‘Stress’ in this quiz that will explore the depth of your knowledge and provide answers to the following:

Symptoms of stress ()
Stress hormone ()
Complication of chronic stress ()
Phobia ()
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder ()