Beliefs That Contribute to Dissatisfaction in Romantic Relationships

Abstract

Some lay beliefs people hold are harmful to their romantic relationships because they reduce relationship satisfaction. Two studies were conducted in two different national settings (N = 253 in the UK and N = 132 in Hungary) to test the effects of three potential dysfunctional beliefs: an aversion to disagreement between the partners, an expectation that mindreading should happen, and a belief that relationships are formed due to destiny. When predicting two different indices of relationship satisfaction, consistently across both national settings, results revealed that an aversion to disagreement was negatively linked with relationship outcomes, whereas the other two beliefs were not. Findings are discussed in terms of their applied value: Those working with struggling couples will want to know which lay beliefs, out of several potentially dysfunctional beliefs, have the strongest negative effect on relationship outcomes because those should be tackled first in interventions.