M.A. / Most people learn communication and behavioral skills in their families, which means the learning that takes place in the family of origin will affect how children learn to deal with conflict in adult life. People form the basis of their coping skills in early childhood, either through modeling or cognitive awareness, or in the case of inappropriate behaviour, through distortions. This means that communication skills and conflict styles that are acquired early in childhood might be perpetuated when these children become adults and marry. Several studies have been conducted on conflict styles and the family of origin. However, very little is available on the application of conflict styles learnt in the family of origin and the impact they may have in the marriage of progeny children. This pilot study attempts to address this aspect. This investigation examines whether the conflict styles experienced or perceived in the family of origin have any bearing on how progeny children deal with conflict in their own marriages. A quantitative pilot study of fourteen couples was undertaken in which each couple completed two questionnaires. The first one related to how the couples themselves deal with conflict, the second focussed on how they perceive that their parents dealt with conflict. The theoretical model used to describe the structure of the family and its interconnectedness is systems theory. Social cognitive learning theory is examined in terms of how behaviour is learnt and attachment theory examines different types of attachment and the hypothesised resultant behaviours. The results of the study indicated that there was a significant difference between the couples’ and their parents’ conflict styles, on some of the variables measured. The differences recorded were in terms of how couples deal with conflict in their marriage, as opposed to how they perceived their parents to deal with conflict in their own marriages. It can be hypothesised that the conflict styles couples perceived their parents to use did impact on the styles they used in their own marriage. In some cases however, they felt that they improved on the style perceived, instead of simply perpetuating the cycle they had experienced.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:14678 |
| Date | 13 November 2008 |
| Creators | Treasure, Elaine |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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