바로가기메뉴

본문 바로가기 주메뉴 바로가기

The Korean Journal of Woman Psychology

Understanding the Complexity of Marital Maintenance Process in Korea

Abstract

The United States has been classified as an individualistic culture where the emphasis of a romantic relationship is on romantic excitement, open communication, and egalitarianism. The Republic of Korea (hereafter Korea) has been described as a collectivistic culture where the emphasis is rather on harmony, implicit communication, and a hierarchical relationship (Gudykunst & Matsumoto, 1996). Korean married couples today, however, are in a unique situation where traditional collectivistic values and modern individualistic values dynamically coexist and conflict. Some studies attempted to address the relational maintenance phenomenon in Korea, but were unable to provide a meaningful examination of Korean relational maintenance by relying on Western-inspired measures and overlooking various cultural aspects of modern Korea. Recent studies conducted in Korea suggest that while Korean married couples highly regard individualistic values such as open communication and similarities in personality, they still tend to prioritize parenting issues over couple issues and concern about proper relational hierarchy. As these kinds of changes and confusions occur at different paces between husbands and wives, and also through generations, the marital maintenance phenomenon among Korean married couples becomes more unique and complex. Clinical implications and directions for future research based on these findings were discussed.

keywords
marital maintenance, individualism, collectivism, Korean married couples, 결혼 유지, 개인주의, 집단주의, 한국 부부, marital maintenance, individualism, collectivism, Korean married couples

Reference

1.

Arygle, M., Henderson, M., Bond, M., Iizuka, Y., & Contarello, A. (1986). Cross-cultural variations in relationship rules. International Journal of Psychology, 21, 287-315.

2.

Ayres, J. (1983). Strategies to maintain relationships: Their identification and perceived deception. Communication Quarterly, 31, 62-67.

3.

Bell, R. A., Daly, J. A., & Gonzalez, C. (1987). Affinity-maintenance in marriage and its relationship to women’s marital satisfaction. Journal of Marriage and Family, 49, 445-454.

4.

Buss, D. M., Abbott, M., Angleitner, A., Asherian, A., Biaggio, A., & Blanco- Villasenor, A. (1990). International preferences in selecting mates: A study of 37 countries. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 21, 5-47.

5.

Canary, D. J. & Stafford, L. (1992). Relational maintenance strategies and equity in marriage. Communication Monographs, 59, 243- 267.

6.

Chang, S. (2006). Marriage counseling in Korean culture: reality dynamic counseling approach. Korean Journal of Psychological and Social Issues, 12, 117-131.

7.

Cho, H. & Bang, H. J. (2005). A reason of Korean women's avoidance tendency of marriage and child-bearing: gender role stereotype. The Korean Journal of Woman Psychology, 10, 95-112.

8.

Choi, H. A. (2005) Korean women and God: Experiencing God in a multi-religious colonial context. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.

9.

Chung, Y. K. & Choi, J. H. (2010). The effect of parents' marital quality on married women's marital adjustment and perspective toward marriage. The Korean Journal of Woman Psychology, 15, 331-353.

10.

Dainton, M., Stafford, L., & Canary, D. J. (1994). Maintenance strategies and physical affection as predictors of love, liking, and satisfaction in marriage. Communication Reports, 7, 88-98.

11.

Dindia, K., & Emmers-Sommer, T. M. (2006). What partners do to maintain their close relationships. In P. Noller & J. A. Feeney (Eds). Close relationships: Function, forms and processes (pp.305-324). New York: Psychology Press.

12.

Epstein, N. B., Chen, F., & Beyder-Kamjou, I. (2005). Relationship standards and marital satisfaction in Chinese and American couples. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 31, 59-74.

13.

Goodwin, R. (1999). Personal relationships across cultures. London: Routledge.

14.

Gottman, J. M. (1994). What predicts divorce? Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

15.

Grice, H. (1975). Logic and conversation. In P. Cole & J. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and semantics: Vol.3. Speech acts (pp.107-142). New York: Academic Press.

16.

Gudykunst, W. B., & Matsumoto, Y (1996). Cross-cultural variability of communication in personal relationships. In W.B. Gudykunst, S. Ting-Toomey, & T. Nishida (Eds.), Communication in personal relationships across cultures (pp.19-56). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

17.

Gudykunst, W. B., Matsumoto, Y., Ting- Toomey, S., Nishida, T., Kim, K., & Heyman, S. (1996). The influence of cultural individualism-collectivism, self- construal, and individual values on communication styles across cultures. Human Communication Research, 22, 510-543.

18.

Hong, S. & Chae, P. K. (2010). A study on Korean couples' marital satisfaction based on Gottman's theory. Journal of Human Understanding and Counseling, 31, 299-316.

19.

Hwang, J. (2009). Factors associated with marital satisfaction and stability of married men and women. Korean Journal of Human Ecology, 18, 825-840.

20.

Hwang, M. & Ko, J. (2010). Discrepancy, misunderstanding, and conflict in married couples: the role of communication. The Korean Journal of Woman Psychology, 15, 779- 800.

21.

Higgins, L. T., Zheng, M., Liu, Y., & Sun, C. H. (2002) Attitudes to marriage and sexual behaviors: A survey of gender and culture differences in China and United Kingdom. Sex Roles, 46, 75-89.

22.

Holtgraves, T., & Yang, J. N. (1990). Politeness as universal: Cross-cultural perceptions of request strategies and inferences based on their use. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 719-729.

23.

Hui, C. H., & Triandis, H. C. (1986). Individualism-Collectivism: A study of cross-cultural researchers. Journal of Cross- Cultural Psychology, 17, 222-248.

24.

Juang, S. J., & Tucker, C. M. (1991). Factors in marital adjustment and their interrelationships: A comparison of Taiwanese couples in America and Caucasian American couples. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 19, 22-31.

25.

Kagitcibasi, C. (1996). Family and human development across cultures: A view from the other side. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

26.

Kamo, Y. (1993). Determinants of marital satisfaction: A comparison of the United States and Japan. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 10, 551-568.

27.

Keesing, R. (1974). Theories of culture. Annual Review of Anthropology, 3, 73-79.

28.

Kim, M. (2009). A comparative study of the factors effecting on marital satisfaction by age cohort. Korean Journal of Family Social Work, 26, 35-62.

29.

Kim, M. S. (2002). Multicultural perspectives on human communication: Implications for theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

30.

Kim, O. J. & Park, J. H. (2010). The effect of couples' similarities and agreement level on their communication and marriage satisfaction. The Korean Journal of Woman Psychology, 15, 403-423.

31.

Kim, M. S., Hunter, J. E., Miyahara, A., Horvath, A. M., Bresnahan, M., & Yoon, H. J. (1996) Individual- vs. culture-level dimensions of individualism and collectivism: effects on preferred conversational styles. Communication Monographs, 63, 29-49.

32.

Kim, M. S., & Wilson, S. R. (1994). A cross- cultural comparison of implicit theories of requesting. Communication Monographs, 61, 210-235.

33.

Koo, J. & Suh, E. (2011). Happiness in Korea: Who is happy and when?, Korean Journal of Social and Personality Psychology, 25, 143-166.

34.

Lee, A. R. (2003). Stability and change in Korean values. Social Indicators Research, 62/ 63, 93-117.

35.

Lee, H. H., Suh, Y. S., & Jung, Y. T. (2011). Marriage and fertility of working women in 20's~30's: their state of mind at the crossroad of choices. The Research of Social Security, 27, 123-142.

36.

Levine, R., Sato, S., Hashimoto, T. & Verma, J. (1995). Love and marriage in eleven cultures. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 26, 554-571.

37.

Lim, T. S. & Choi, S. H. (1996). Interpersonal relationships in Korea. In W. B. Gudykunst, S. Ting-Toomey, & T. Nishida (Eds.), Communication in personal relationships across cultures (pp.122-136). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

38.

Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224-253.

39.

McAdams, D. P. (1993). The stories we live by: Personal myths and the making of the self. New York: William Morrow.

40.

Medora, N., P., Larson, J. H., Hortascu, N., & Dave, P. (2002). Perceived attitudes towards romanticism: A cross-cultural study of American, Asian-Indian, and Turkish young adults. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 33, 155-178.

41.

Merriam, S. B. (2009). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

42.

Miller, J. G. (1994). Cultural psychology: Bridging disciplinary boundaries in understanding the cultural grounding of self. In P. K. Bock (Ed.), Psychological anthropology (pp.139-170). Westport, CT: Praeger/ Greenwood.

43.

Nam, S. (2007). Development of scale for Korean marriage values. Korean Journal of Psychological and Social Issues, 13, 1-27.

44.

Pak, J. (2006). Korean American women: Stories of acculturation and changing selves. New York: Routledge.

45.

Park, E. J. & Chun, H. M. (2011). The effect of vocational consciousness on female college students' perception of marriage and childbirth. The Korean Journal of Family Relations, 16, 87-105.

46.

Park, I. H., & Cho, L. (1995). Confucianism and the Korean family. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 26, pp.117-129.

47.

Putnam, L. L., & Wilson, C. E. (1982). Communication strategies in organizational conflicts: Reliability and validity of a measurement. In M. Burgoon (Ed.), Communication Yearbook 6 (pp.629-652). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

48.

Ryu, J. W. (2011). Ideal women and men in traditional stories and discourses on marriage. The Research of the Korean Classic, 24, 391-422.

49.

Spanier, G. B. (1976). Measuring dyadic adjustment: New scales for assessing the quality of marriage and similar dyads. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 38, 15- 28.

50.

Stafford, L., & Canary, D. J. (1991). Maintenance strategies and romantic relationship type, gender, and relational characteristics. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 8, 217-242.

51.

Stafford, L., Dainton, M., & Haas, S. (2000). Measuring routine and strategic relational maintenance: Scale revision, sex versus gender roles, and the prediction of relational characteristics. Communication Monographs, 67, 306-323.

52.

Triandis, H. C. (1995). Individualism -collectivism. Boulder, CO: Westview.

53.

Yang, O. K. (2003). Family structure and relations. Social Indicator Research, 62/63, 121-148.

54.

Yum, J. O. (1988). The impact of Confucianism on interpersonal relationships and communication patterns in East Asia. Communication Monographs, 55, 374-389.

55.

Yum, Y. (2000). Cross-cultural comparisons of links among relational maintenance behaviors, exchange factors, and individual characteristics in close relationships. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.

56.

Yum, Y. (2004). Culture and self-construal as predictors of responses to accommodative dilemmas in dating relationships. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 21, 817-835.

57.

Yum, Y. & Canary, D. J. (2003). Maintaining relationships in Korea and the United States: Features of Korean culture that affect relational maintenance beliefs and behaviors. In D. J. Canary & M. Dainton (Eds.), Maintaining relationships through communication (pp.277-296). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

The Korean Journal of Woman Psychology