AN EVALUATION ON THE AMBIGUITY CAUSED BY THE CONCEPTS DEVELOPED ON THE QUALITY OF MARRIAGE

The aim of this study is to determine the limits and clarify the meaning content of the concepts produced in order to measure the quality of marriage. When the studies are examined, it is seen that there is no agreement on what these concepts mean and in what sense they should be used. In this connection, we first tried to explain the concepts of marital adjustment, marital satisfaction, marital happiness, marital stability, marital commitment, and marital conflict. It is stated that marriage satisfaction is a static product, marriage adaptation refers to a dynamic process, not static or instantaneous, and unlike marital adjustment, marriage satisfaction emphasizes subjective evaluations of the relationship. In addition, it is stated that marriage satisfaction is considered as a psychological-based concept in which individual perception comes to the fore, and marital adjustment is considered as a social psychological-based concept that considers the interrelation of couples rather than individual perceptions. It is emphasized that marital satisfaction and marital happiness is similar concepts in terms of content, and emotional characteristics in happiness and cognitive characteristics in satisfaction come to the fore. It is seen that the concepts of marital stability and marital commitment are dealt with in the context of continuation or termination of marriage, and studies with these concepts are conducted within the framework of theories based on reward and cost. It is said that marriage conflict is influenced by issues such as communication style between spouses, personality adaptation and attribution styles, and conflict resolution styles are generally used in marital conflict studies. Although the conflict is considered as a negative situation, it is stated that the conflict is a normal outcome of the marital life and may support or damage the relationship according to the chosen conflict style. On the other hand problems such as using the concepts interchangeably, not revealing the similarities and differences between the concepts clearly, and developing different operational definitions for a concept are discussed. Finally, “marital quality” is proposed as a roof concept which contains the aforementioned concepts, and it is emphasized that it would be more appropriate to consider other concepts as a sub-dimension of marital quality.

Keywords

Marital quality, marital adjustment, marital satisfaction, marital stability, marital conflict, close relationships.