Are you wondering what "relationship psychology" is and how it applies to your relationship? The fundamental of relationship psychology is that there is some sort of conflict in a relationship. Some studies are specific in pinpointing different conflicts that could exist like egos either being too dominant or overpowering. Some studies focus on the reactions each person has during a conflict, generalizing reactions into two categories: one that a man has and another that a woman has. How does this all apply to you, though, especially if you aren’t in a "normal relationship"? People have varying results and that is why it’s important to identify, categorize and understand what relationship psychology is.

Defining and Understanding Relationship Psychology

Relationship psychology is the study of interactions between two people in a relationship and how each person reacts. People will try to categorize that only men have one reaction while women have a completely different reaction. That can never be completely true and is just a general consensus. It is important to lie out factors for varying conflicts. In psychology, every detail matters because psychology is a science and different variables will have different results.

Identifying Your Own Results

You are the only person that really knows how you feel; thus your results might vary from the general studies. While it may be fact that women produce cortisol during a conflict, it isn’t a fact that each woman will respond the same to a conflict. It also isn’t a fact that all (or only) men are passive when it comes to trying to resolve conflict. Many women try to avoid conflict, too. Many men are very aggressive about trying to solve a problem. Passiveness and aggressiveness aren’t factors of sex. You need to identify how you are when it comes to a relationship conflict. Study yourself. If your partner isn’t helping in the cleaning and that bothers you, do you just continue cleaning yourself or do you bring it up to your partner? If you’re passive, you will just sit on the matter; if you’re aggressive, you’re taking action to resolve a problem. Both men and women will have both traits for different conflicts.

Categorizing Conflicts

One study about relationship psychology focuses on ego being a part of conflict. Ego can play a major part but there are also many other factors that can cause conflict. Some of these categories can be resolved on your own because they’re personal while others need to be discussed with your partner. Ego is certainly one category; pride/selfishness, personal preferences and differing interests are all categories, too. You might react differently to each of these categories and part of understanding relationship psychology is to understand how you react in each of these different circumstances.

Your relationship certainly shouldn’t become a scientific study about people and how your partner might react. Relationship psychology is important for fixing any problems you might want to resolve. You just have to understand what you’re looking for and why you might react differently to a situation compared to your partner. That requires having a deep understanding of your partner and having an open communication and understanding on both parties’ part.