Women and Men More Alike than Different
Even though women and men usually focus on their differences, according to UNC psychology professor Zlatan Krizan, who analyzed over 100 studies including more than 12 million people, there’s almost an 80% overlap for 75% of our psychological characteristics. In reality, men and women are much more alike than different when it comes to IQ, personality traits, well-being, satisfaction in life, stress, morality, etc. (more…)
Key Traits for Couple Success: Kindness and Generosity, Masters and Disasters
According to psychologist Ty Tashiro, author of ‘The Science of Happily Ever After,’ unfortunately only about 30% of couples who marry will create and maintain a long-term happy and healthy marriage. Tolstoy wrote that each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, but the happy ones are happy in ways they share in common. (more…)
Partners Greatly Influence Each Other’s Habits
Want to stop smoking, start exercising, lose weight, improve your diet, or reduce your alcohol use? We’re much more successful in developing and maintaining healthy habits if our partner does the same. Scientists at University College London studied over 3700 couples married or living together, and found that if you want to improve your habits, get your partner to do the same. (more…)
More Reasons to Get Married and Stay Married
Psychologists have long known that generally people are happier and more satisfied when they’re married, and according to two international studies this is especially true during times of stress. And it’s even truer for those couples who feel that they’re each other’s best friend. In recent decades, men and women are less locked into the old roles of men as provider and woman as homemaker. (more…)
Impact of Infidelity Differs for Men and Women
A study of infidelity among 64,000 Americans by David Frederick, PhD of Chapman University found that men and women differ when it comes to jealousy. Heterosexual men were much more upset than women by sexual infidelity (54% men vs 35% women) and less likely than heterosexual women to be most upset by emotional infidelity (46% men vs 65% of women). (more…)
Marriage Humor
Before criticizing your wife’s faults, you must remember it may have been these very defects which prevented her from getting a better husband that the one she married. Before marriage, a man will lie awake thinking about something you said; after marriage, he’ll fall asleep before you finish saying it. (Helen Rowland) The best exercise for a good marriage is bending over backward. (more…)
Angry at Your Partner – Check Your Blood Sugar
Hunger and low blood sugar create irritability and conflict, and research sponsored by the National Academy of Science shows that many fights couples have can be traced to this common physiological problem. Especially in this era when tens of millions of people are diabetic or pre-diabetic, physically caused anger often and easily leads to marital conflict. (more…)
A Third of Married Couples Meet Online
Traditionally, married couples meet through work, school, friends, relatives, religious gatherings, or a common hobby or other shared activity. But maybe it’s easier to find someone with whom we have a lot in common, increasing our chances of success, when we have thousands of people from which to choose, rather than just the few we can meet in person. (more…)
Working Moms Happier and Healthier
A recent Pew study finds that regardless of income, stay-at-home moms who do not work outside the home at all, report more sadness, anger, and depression than moms who are employed. About 65% of mothers work outside the home full or part-time, and 40% of moms with children under 18 are now the sole or primary breadwinner for their family. (more…)
Strong Social Ties Key to Longer Life
A Duke University study of over 4800 people found that surviving middle age is highly related to having a partner. Single adults are at higher risk of premature death at midlife and those who never married were more than twice as likely to die early, compared to those who had been in a stable marriage throughout their adult life. Stable social ties are crucial to staying healthy and alive, and marriage can provide this strong, ongoing social connection.