Outline and evaluate two explanations relating to the breakdown of relationships

Outline and evaluate two explanations relating to the breakdown of relationships

Duck's model of relationship breakdown describes the breakdown of romantic relationships in a series of phases. The first phase is the intrapsychic phase, which involves the realisation of negative aspects about one's partner. If the negative aspects are not resolved, the couple will enter the dyadic phase, in which the problems that one partner is experiencing are brought to the attention of the other partner, with resolution attempts following. If such resolution attempts fail, the couple will enter the social phase, in which the relationship is doomed to end, and partners think of face-saving accounts of why the relationship will end. Finally, the partners enter the grave-dressing phase, in which the relationship has ended, and both partners communicate a socially acceptable account of what happened.

This model of relationship breakdown has been widely criticised for being unidirectional, implying that if the smallest of problems arises, a couple is doomed to separate. An improvement therefore may be Lee's model, which in five stages covers much of the same ground as Duck's model, but also incorporates negotiations and resolution attempts before the termination of the relationship. Some have proposed that a combination of the two models into a seven or eight-stage model would better describe how relationships end and how partners attempt to avoid it. However, the reductionism involved in generating a stage model of relationship breakdown such as that of Duck may mean that the models are not easy to generalise, because they assume that every relationship breaks down in the same way, which may not be the case. In addition, the model does little to explain why relationships break down, instead focussing on how they do so. In response to this criticism Duck later proposed the idea of risk factors as playing a role in the breakdown of relationships. He divided the risk factors into 'predisposing risk factors' and 'precipitating risk factors'; predisposing risk factors come from a realisation about characteristics of a partner that may have not been realised in the first stages of the relationship, and precipitating risk factors are external and develop separately from the relationship (e.g. infidelity, illness and jealousy). This may therefore offer a good explanation of how and why relationships break down when combined with the stage models. However, the limitation exists that even with such factors taken into account, the models focus on Western, monogamous, male-female relationships, and may not be suitable in describing the breakdown of friendships or non-Western dyadic relationships.