Psychology-oriented Strategies for Strengthening your Relationship

Young and old psychologists have advised that using their research-backed strategies can help people strengthen relationships. These strategies are proven to help navigate issues like arguments and negativity. You and your partner can create a more positive and long-lasting relationship with the following:

•     Empathic listening
•     Cognitive re-framing
•     A soft start-up

 

Communicating and working with your partner will be more accessible when these techniques are implemented.

Many well-researched psychological strategies can help strengthen your love relationships. Here are seven systems, the psychology behind them, and how to use them.

1. The Expectancy Effect is one of the most well-researched psychological phenomena. Psychologist Robert Rosenthal demonstrated that by holding positive expectations about another’s behaviour, we can subtly influence their behaviour in a good way (the “I-know-you-can-do-it” effect). Keeping positive expectations about your loved one (“You are a good person”; “I think you are fabulous”; “You will succeed”) can not only make them feel better, but make them perform better as well.

2. Positive Social Support — Considerable research shows that positive support to a stressed loved one can help them cope. The key, however, is to avoid negativity in the supportive relationship. Examples of negative social support are comments like, “I told you so,” or lashing out in a scolding or punitive manner. Be positively supportive by listening rather than telling. If your partner primarily needs to be heard and understood, be empathic and supportive (see empathic listening below). If problem-solving is in order, try to help solve the problem. Be what your loved one needs at the given time. If in doubt, ask.

3. The Norm of Reciprocity — This is the “one good turn deserves another” phenomenon that has important implications for all of the other strategies. In essence, the norm of reciprocity states that if someone does us a favor, we feel indebted, and there is a psychological motivation to return the favor. So, if our partner compliments us, we feel the urge to return the compliment. The key is to keep the norm in positive territory — focusing on our loved one’s positive attributes and behaviors. Compliment, perform some favor, help with some chore — and you will usually receive something positive in return.

4. Cognitive Re framing — When your loved one is troubled and dwelling on only the negatives — an illness, a misfortune, some stressors at work — try to provide an alternative way of viewing the situation in a more positive light. This is the old, proven technique of having the individual focus on positives instead of negatives (“Count your blessings”). Here is a helpful website to help you understand cognitive re-framing.

5. Empathic Listening — The goal of empathic listening is to allow your partner to disclose feelings, thoughts, concerns, stresses, or problems, and to do so by fully listening and empathizing with them. One difficulty is our tendency to want to say something — to offer advice or make suggestions — but it is important to focus simply on gaining an understanding of our partner’s emotions and concerns, and to demonstrate that we understand their feelings. Empathic listening can make our partner feel better, relieve stress, and provide a sense of security. The norm of reciprocity suggests that if we are an empathic listener, our partner will also become more empathic — but it doesn’t hurt to remind them. Like many of these strategies, empathic listening needs to be developed. Here is a detailed guide to empathic listening.

6. Unconditional Positive Regard — Developed by humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers, this is being accepting and supportive of a loved one, regardless of what the person has done, experienced, or said. Like empathic listening, showing unconditional positive regard takes patience and practice. You need to suspend your own feelings and opinions and just value the other individual. Over time, demonstrating unconditional positive regard should be returned by your partner.

7. Model Forgiveness — When your partner transgresses, it is important to maintain the relationship that you forgive. We all make mistakes, and by showing forgiveness, we can model how to begin to repair fractured relationships.

Of course, relationships are a two-way street. Both partners need to engage in these positive psychological behaviors for a relationship to succeed.

1. Seek to understand before trying to be understood.

One of the most common negative patterns in my work with couples is the cycle of criticism and defensiveness. This often happens when you hear something you perceive as an attack or criticism from your partner, which leads you immediately to defend yourself.

This pattern sets both of you up not to be heard. As soon as you start to defend your position, you’ve lost the opportunity to understand your partner. Even if you feel under attack or think you hear a criticism, try to understand your partner’s thoughts and feelings before you respond.

2. Slow down your communication to truly hear your partner.

Many issues get out of control because once this dynamic of criticism and defense is under way, the interaction often moves very quickly. When your communication is speeding up, you can miss a lot of important information your partner is expressing. This fast pace also increases the volatility of your discussion, making it harder for you to keep the conversation calm.

If you notice your discussion moving too quickly, intentionally put on the brakes and slow down the exchange. Ensure your partner knows you truly want to understand what he or she is saying. This helps defuse the reactivity and allows you to continue communicating in an adult-to-adult way.

3. Be curious about your partner’s perspective.

This is easier said than done when you’re feeling blamed, criticized or attacked. However, one of the best things you can do in such circumstances is to be curious about your partner’s perspective. This can be disarming positively, and it immediately helps de-escalate the rising tension between you.

By being curious, you can learn new things about your partner and support your conversation in moving toward a resolution. You can still disagree with your partner’s perspective and remain curious and interested in how their view differs from yours. Practice this next time you feel a heated discussion coming on and see what happens.

4. Recognize your emotional triggers and learn to self-soothe.

Knowing what your emotional triggers are allows you to be aware when the potential for their activation is present. We all bring ‘baggage’ into our relationships — from our childhood, previous relationships, school experiences and our family of origin. There’s no such thing as a person who is ‘baggage-free;’ however, you can use your awareness of your hot spots to know when they will likely be triggered.

Practice observing yourself, even when you feel triggered by your partner. See if you can name it by saying “I’m feeling [insert feeling] now, and I think it’s also touching something in my past that’s unrelated to you.” By naming the trigger, it helps your partner understand there’s more at play here than just the current conversation. This understanding can help both of you be less reactive in the moment.

5. Practice using empathy to foster a closer connection.

Empathy is the fuel of good relationships. Being empathic is about imagining yourself walking in your partner’s shoes seeing the world from their perspective. Responding empathically to your partner facilitates a deeper bond and creates a strong sense of safety and trust between you. However, when you’re feeling attacked, this is the last thing you feel like doing. It does require you to be able to step outside yourself and begin to appreciate a reality different from yours.

Practicing empathy does not mean you have to completely surrender and give up what you want or your own reality. It just means you need to suspend your perspective, even momentarily, so you can appreciate the smallest part of how your partner sees things. Start small – even if you imagine only one to five percent of your partner's feelings — and then build on that. Your partner will feel the shift and will be able to let down his or her guard a little, opening up the possibility of a better connection.

6. Listen for the hidden unmet need or emotion.

When your partner is in distress and voicing a complaint or you’re feeling criticized or blamed, there’s always some unmet need, want, desire or unexpressed emotion underlying this cry. The challenge for you is to go underneath the overt complaint and see if you can tap into the hidden emotion. By uncovering this emotion and tentatively asking if the covert emotion is also going on for your partner, you can bypass the surface anger, irritation or resentment and cut to the core emotion that needs to be validated.

This is no easy task, as it requires you to step up and out of the current conflict and look and listen for what’s not being expressed. It also requires you to suspend your own reactivity and defensiveness to connect with your partner’s deeper needs.When you find yourself in a conflict situation, pause for a moment and see if you can feel what else your partner is not expressing in the conversation. To help you with this, remind yourself that your partner is in distress, but cannot share the whole picture of the distress with you. Listen carefully for this and use your curiosity to find out what else is not being overtly shared.

7. Anticipate issues before they become issues.

Many current issues could have been dealt with earlier in the relationship but weren’t. Avoiding talking about minor problems often can lead to unresolved issues festering and expanding over time, only eventually exploding and becoming much more significant than they were initially. You may not want to rock the boat when things seem to be going well. You may believe that nothing good comes of raising complaints or issues.

The reality is, couples who seek to avoid conflict almost always end up in lots of it. Get into the habit of naming and flagging issues with each other, even when they are small. One of the ways to do this is to have a regular check-in to discuss current issues and assess where your relationship is going. Over time, this structure can help you feel more confident about effectively dealing with conflict and disagreements.

Communication in a relationship requires constant attention. Start with the basics and establish rituals of communication and connection to ensure the longevity of your love and connection with each other.