Chapter 5
Multiple Choice
1. Which of the following is an example of a strategic behavior used to maintain a relationship
between married partners?
a. Picking kids up after ball practice
b. Carrying out the garbage
c. Chatting about what happened at work or school
d. Apologizing profusely for a fight or argument
2. Which of the following statements are true about relational maintenance?
a. Family relationships require less maintenance than friendships because of the
involuntary ties inherent within families.
b. All relationships require maintenance, but the type of maintenance needed varies based
upon the type of relationship.
c. Relationships only require maintenance when there is persistent conflict within the
relationship, or when one or both partners is dissatisfied with the relationship.
d. Relationship maintenance requires one partner changing behaviors and patterns in
order to accommodate the other.
3. The Murphys strongly identify with their Irish heritage, and thus wear green and orange, bake
Irish soda bread, and make Irish stew on St. Patrick’s Day, just as those in Ireland do. Which type
of family ritual are these?
a. Family celebrations
b. Intimacy expressions
c. Patterned interactions
d. Symbolic/Idiosyncratic
4. When family members get together at Thanksgiving and other major family celebrations,
members usually talk about the recent past and catch each other up on events in their lives. This
communicative behavior is called _____.
a. Entertaining
b. Joining
c. Chronicling
d. Narrating
5. According to Stafford and Canary, which of the following is NOT a maintenance strategies that
help couples?
a. Assurances
b. Positivity
c. Sharing tasks
d. Reducing social networks
6. According to the research of Myers et al. on sibling relationships, which of the following is
FALSE?
a. They are involuntarily linked, but most siblings have a commitment beyond the
obligatory ties.
b. They reported sharing tasks most frequently and participating in family events.
c. They reported more openness with siblings than friends.
d. They use more relationship maintenance behaviors when they like their siblings.
7. “My father always makes fun of my mother’s cooking in front of the extended family. He’s done
it for years even after other people told him it wasn’t funny.” This is an example of which of the
following?
a. Bonding ritual
b. Couple time
c. Negative ritual
d. Relational currency
8. When Jack was a little boy, he and his father used to build model airplanes together. When Jack
grew up and went to college, got a job, and created a life of his own, he and his dad stopped
building models together. Recently, however, Jack’s father had to be placed in an elderly care
facility. Jack goes to visit him once a week, and always brings along his son and a model airplane
for them to build together. Jack bringing a model airplane to build with his father is an example
of:
a. Inter-generational ritual
b. Assurance
c. Shared task
d. Couple time
9. Which one of the following examples illustrates confirming communication?
a. My mother continues to talk on the phone and clip coupons when I’m ready to talk
about the art contest.
b. My father still orders for his mother in restaurants even though she has recovered quite
well from her stroke.
c. My mother says we should sit on the porch when I come home to visit, so she can listen
without distraction to my latest stories.
d. My best friend often interrupts me in the middle of stories I’m telling to explain how she
understands how I’m feeling based upon a similar situation in her life.
10. Successful family rituals in a blended family:
a. Are created from scratch within the new family, leaving behind old rituals
b. Incorporate old rituals with new rituals
c. Occur when one side of the family adopts the rituals of the other
d. Cannot occur because old rituals are too powerful
11. When Mark and Amy first moved in together, Amy decided to make Mark his favorite chocolate
chip pancakes on his first day back at work as a loving gesture to wish him a good start to the
week. Two years later, Amy habitually gets up early every Monday morning to make Mark
chocolate chip pancakes. Which of the following relational currencies is Amy displaying?
a. Service
b. Access rights
c. Nonverbal affect displays
d. Gifts
12. Ceremonial rituals:
a. Offer special opportunities for family members to bond with each other
b. Can include weddings, graduations and funerals
c. May be limited for some members of the community
d. All of the above
13. Every Sunday, the Moore family comes together to have dinner at Grandma Moore’s house. This
is an example of a _____
a. Currency
b. Patterned family interaction
c. Rule
d. Ritual
14. Bob and Cyndi try to include expressions of love, support and commitment in their
communication to stress the desire to remain in the relationship. Which maintenance strategy
are they using?
a. Positivity
b. Openness
c. Assurances
d. Social networks
Answer Key
Quiz True False
1. According to Duck, relational maintenance prevents friends or partners from taking each other
for granted in the relationship.
a. True
b. False
2. Relationships continue to function through a combination of everyday routines and strategic
behaviors.
a. True
b. False
3. The point of the “Wicky–Wacky chocolate cake” example is that couples can create symbolic and
idiosyncratic meanings.
a. True
b. False
4. Simply knowing why a spouse uses a certain relational currency, even if it’s not one valued by
the partner, increases relational satisfaction.
a. True
b. False
5. Insistence on maintaining rituals from the previous families can threaten the new stepfamily.
6. Negative rituals are easy to identify.
a. True
b. False
7. Meanings attached to relational currencies have a direct impact on relationship development.
a. True
b. False
8. Even though siblings are involuntarily linked, they often feel commitment to the relationship
that extend beyond obligatory or biological ties
a. True
b. False
9. No one relational currency is better or more satisfying than another; rather families experience
more rewards when they have shared meanings for their relational currencies.
a. True
b. False
Answer Key
Chapter 5:
We have all been in successful and not-so-successful relationships! Discuss four to five characteristics of
successful maintenance strategies you have used or observed others using that have helped to make these
relationships last or become stable over time. Give specific examples of these characteristics.
Identify two separate examples—either in a real or fictional family—in which the use of disconfirming
messages was problematic. Explain the qualities in the messages that had a disconfirming effect, and
explain the effect that the disconfirming message had on the interaction and the relationship. Then,
provide a suggestion for how the individual(s) in the examples could have reframed their messages to be
confirming. How do you think the outcome of the interaction would have changed if confirming messages
had been used instead of disconfirming messages?
Discuss three maintenance strategies that would enhance marital resilience, prevent relationships from
decaying, and/or repair troubled relationships. Be sure to explain the reasons why these particular
strategies would lead to the desired effect.
How can you figure out which relational currencies are most important to other people? In the process of
answering this question, identify 3 relational currencies that are the most meaningful to you and explain
why. If you began a relationship with a new person, how would they be able to tell which currencies were
most important to you?