download the true hard work of love and relationships

One group picked new and exciting activities to do together for 90 minutes a week - like going to a play or dancing. In research led by relationship expert Art Aron in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, researchers looked at the relationship quality of more than 50 middle-aged married couples and assigned them to one of three groups. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the response that's most closely linked to relationship satisfaction is the active-constructive response.ĭo you and your partner make time to try new things? If so, you're in great shape. Finally, a passive-destructive response would virtually ignore the good news: 'Oh, really? Well you won't believe what happened to me on the drive home today!'.An active-destructive response would be a statement that demeaned the event: 'Does this mean you are going to be working even longer hours now? Are you sure you can handle it?'.A passive-constructive response would be understated support - a warm smile and a simple 'That's good news.'.An active-constructive response from him would be enthusiastic support: 'That's great, honey! I knew you could do it, you've been working so hard.'.Insider previously reported that one litmus test of a happy relationship is how enthusiastically each partner responds to the other's good news.Ī Psychology Today blog post breaks down four ways a man could respond after his partner tells him about a promotion at work: Sharing in each other's joy is another sign of a close bond.

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