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CHAPTER 5
RELATIONAL MAINTENANCE WITHIN FAMILIES
TRUE/FALSE
maintaining relationships.
taking each other for granted in the relationship.
routines and strategic behaviors.
can create symbolic and idiosyncratic meanings.
not one valued by the partner, increases relational satisfaction.
relationships, but overall gay and lesbian relationships experience fewer
stressors, especially in the work environment.
relationship development.
grow and eventually become caretakers of elderly parents.
express affection through teasing, insults, nicknames, and euphemisms.
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to the relationship that extend beyond obligatory or biological ties
rather families experience more rewards when they have shared meanings
for their relational currencies.
an acknowledgement of their thoughts and feelings.
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
2. All of the following are functions of “sense making” via rituals in families, except:
D. Providing continuity that creates some stability for the family
3. 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
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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
5. According to Stafford and Canary, all of the following are maintenance strategies
that help couples, except for:
A. Assurances
6. Stories, rules, and secrets are part of a family’s:
A. System calibration processes
7. The following are reasons aggression is considered a relational currency, except:
A. Siblings may be aggressive with each other because being open creates anxiety.
8. 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.
9. Couple rituals of sharing, such as Sunday breakfast or evening walks, are:
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D. Finding ways to reduce stress
10. The following description of a couple is an example of which answer? “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.”
A. Positive ritual
11. Which statement best describes the dialectical dilemma in stepfamily relationships?
D. The outcome depends primarily upon how deeply the couple loves one another
and models this love.
12. Which of the following maintenance strategies are most predictive of sibling liking?
A. Assurances and openness
13. When Jack was a little boy, he and his father used to build model airplanes together.
No matter how busy his father was, when he could make the time for Jack, he’d
bring home a model airplane for them to build. 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 a model
airplane for them to build together. Jack bringing a model airplane to build with his
father is an example of:
A. Shared tasks
14. 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.
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18. Successful family rituals in a blended family:
D. Cannot occur because old rituals are too powerful
19. 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?
D. Gifts
20. The key to successfully expressing love through relational currencies is:
A. To use a variety of currencies so partners know they are loved in many different
ways
18. Ceremonial rituals:
A. Offer special opportunities for family members to bond with each other
19. Every Sunday, the Moore family comes together to have dinner at Grandma Moore’s house.
This is an example of a _____
A. Currency
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20. At 8:30 p.m., the Horstman children are expected to brush their teeth and go to bed. This is an
example of what type of rule?
D. Pluralistic
ESSAY QUESTIONS
1. 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.
2. 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?
3. 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.
4. 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?