Four horsemen of the apocalypse: A framework for understanding family conflict

Abstract

Conflict is an inevitable part of life with intimates. Disagreements between family members, more specifically, are as ubiquitous as cirrus clouds on a summer day. Because conflict is unavoidable, researchers and practitioners have explored how it can be managed. Scholars across disciplines have studied conflict styles and patterns. Additionally, they have examined how individuals in certain family structures, such as blended families, divorced, or single-parent households, manage conflict. Moreover, researchers have focused on how different family dyads, such as parent-child, sibling, and romantic relationships, negotiate conflictual interactions. It is the conflict experienced by the romantic couple that is of particular import to this chapter-namely, a marital process cascade known as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.