Martial Relationships Over The Family Life Cycle

Please identify a married couple from a popular television show, and apply the four marital power patterns to this relationship. Choose which power pattern you believe the actors are displaying and give examples as to why. There are many different forums in which to examine this, cable, satellite, netflix, hulu, youtube, etc.Grading Criteria:Your grade in the DF will be assigned as follows:Quality primary input-Your initial post will count as 80%. Primary input should be thorough and direct and posted no later than Friday, or 1/2 the points will be deducted. Quality primary input should be complete, thoughtful, and well-developed responses that are substantive and may contain specific text references. Students should refrain from personal opinions unless it is based upon objective facts. It must be detailed; at least two paragraphs (5-7 sentences each). If there is more than one part to a question, you must answer all parts of the question.
Chapter 7Learning ObjectivesLearning Objectives
· Describe the basic stages of the family life cycle in an intact marriage and in a family in which there is divorce and remarriage.· Discuss the various trends in marital satisfaction, from the honeymoon stage to late adulthood.· Summarize the major marital adjustment tasks and problems early in marriage.· Explain how gay and lesbian families are different from and similar to other types of families.· Describe the adjustments to parenthood.· Identify the major adjustments during middle adulthood, including the postparental years.· Summarize the major adjustment during late adulthood, including divorce.· Discuss problems of family relationships for elderly and widowed individuals, including alternatives for caring for older people.Summary1. The quality of marriage has an important effect on happiness and satisfaction with life, but marriage relationships are seldom static. Their quality varies over time.2. The family life cycle divides the family experience into phases, or stages, each with its own challenges, tasks, problems, and rewards.3. Gay and lesbian families share many of the same characteristics of heterosexual families. They differ in more often being a couple (without children). Research regarding children reared in same-sex families indicates that most fare well although there are unique challenges.4. Marital adjustments may be define as the process of modifying, adapting, and altering individual and couple patterns of behavior and interaction to achieve maximum satisfaction in the relationship. The goal of adjustment is to achieve the greatest possible degree of marital satisfaction and success.5. Marital adjustment tasks early in marriage may be grouped in a number of different categories: emotional fulfillment and support; sexual adjustment; personal habits; gender roles; marital concerns; work, employment, and achievement; social life, friends, and recreation; family and relatives; communication; power and decision making; conflict and problem solving; and morals, values, and ideology.6. Beginning marriage may lead to a period of disillusionment if the spouses do not realize ahead of time what marriage involves.7. One longitudinal study of marriage satisfaction during three early stages of marriage found that money was the biggest problem. Problems relating to jealousy, friends, religion, and alcohol and drug abuse declined in importance, whereas problems relating to communication and sex increased in importance. Relatives were a greater problem for couples before marriage and after the birth of the first child.8. Fatherhood is a profound experience for many men. Assuming responsibility for actively parenting a child changes men developmentally, and men who engage in active parenting develop and mature different from men who do not.9. Midlife issues include adjusting to physical changes and to the increasing awareness of one’s mortality. This leads to a shift in time orientation; to introspection, self-analysis, and self-appraisal; and to basic questions about the purpose of and goals in life.10. The assessment of self extends to an examination of the responsibilities of one’s career and marriage. Midlife can become a time for reexamination and for charting new courses in life.11. Middle age also can be a time for revitalizing a tired marriage, for rethinking the relationship, and for deciding what things partners want to share.12. Some middle-age couples must care for aging parents.13. The postparental years are usually happier for couple, who now have a greater chance to do what they want without the responsibility of children.14. Sometimes the empty nest does not stay that way. Children move back home for various reasons, resulting in potential conflict.15. The task of staying physically healthy becomes more difficult as people age. It requires good health habits and the practice of preventative medicine.16. Many adults face the problem of having inadequate income in their old age. Most people face a significant drop in income when they retire.17. Retirment is an easier transition when people are able to retire when they want, when they have adequate resources, and when they have positive plans for retirement. Couples seem to be most satisfied when they retire at the same time. People are happier if they retire to, not from, something.18. Having acceptable housing and living conditions is a problem for many elderly people. Many want their own residence, which allows them independence.19. Maintaining identity and social status after retirement becomes a problem when people’s identities and status were rooted in the work they performed. Older persons must find identity through avocations, social events, marriage, their children, or other activities.20. Finding companionship and friendship is one important key to life satisfaction in late adulthood.21. Learning to enjoy leisure time contributes to well-being in late adulthood.22. Roles in the family change as people get older, but new ones must be established in relation to grown children and grandchildren.23. The achievement of ego integrity through a life review and acceptance of one’s life as it has been is the chief psychosocial task of the last stage of life,24. Marital happiness and satisfaction usually increase after the children leave home and after retirement.25. The divorce rate among people older than age 50 has doubled since 1900. The increase may be a result of increased longevity and expectations of marriage as providing personal happiness. When children are launched, people may decide to leave an unhappy marriage to seek satisfaction somewhere else.26. The image of parents growing out of contact with their adult children does not coincide with the facts. Aging parents and their grown children want to have good relationships. They are troubled by tensions, especially with regard to personality differences and unsolicited advice. Parents tend to perceive the tensions as more serious than the children do. There is also ambivalence in the adult child and parent relationship. Both parties experience irritation and frustration but also love of and desire for contact.27. The death of a spouse is one life’s most traumatic events. Because of women’s greater longevity and because men are older when they marry, a married woman can expect to live the last 7 years of her life as a widow.28. Widows face a number of problems, including loneliness, home maintenance and car repairs, finances, and role changes in the family.29. Widowers are usually not as close to their families are widows are and so have less social support.30. As longevity increase, the question arises: who is going to care for people as they get older? The majority of older people care for themselves or for one another. They value their independence, and a great majority prefer not to live with their children. Socioeconomic resources influence greatly the amount and kind of care that elderly individual receive. When a spouse is not available, a child (especially a daughter or daughter-in-law) is usually the major source of support.31. When elderly people become incapable of caring for themselves, alternative living arrangements must be made. The older person’s own home can be adapted and community support services of various kinds can be used. If it is necessary for an elderly person to be put in a nursing home, the home ought to be chosen with great care. Family members must consult the elder person himself or herself and explore a variety of options before committing to any particular type of care.Key TermsFamily life cycle: The phases, or stages, of the family life span, each of which is characterized by changes in family structure, composition, and function.Marital adjustment: The process of modifying, adapting, and altering individual and couple patterns of behavior and interaction to achieve maximum satisfaction in the relationship.Marital adjustment tasks: Areas of concern in marriage in which adjustment must be made.Ego resiliency (ER): The generalized capacity for flexible and resourceful adaption to stressors.Sandwich generation: Middle-age adults caught between care giving for their children and for their elderly parents.Postparental years: The period between the last child leaving home and the parents’ retirement; also called the empty-nest years.Developmental tasks: Growth responsibilities that arise at various stages of life.