[Conflict resolution strategies in couples in the 2d half of life]

Starting from the connections between the conflict-solving behaviour of marital couples and the quality of their partnership it can be stated that for this scientifically as well as practically important topic no empirical findings exist, which are related to marriages of the older generation. 48 distressed and 31 nondistressed couples married more than 20 years as well as 29 young couples married less than 5 years were examined by a variant of the revealed difference technique with regard to their use of five operationally defined conflict-solving tactics. It was found that in all three groups the solution of the experimentally-induced conflict was most probable by using the tactics "assimilation to the opinion of the wife" and "confirmation of a spontaneous agreement", and most unlikely by using the tactics "deviation from the initial position". The typical strategies of conflict-solving for each sample were identified by means of the statistical procedure of lag analysis. Our results suggest that the conflict-solving strategies of the two distressed marital groups are more comparable than those of the two samples long-term married. The gerontological and clinical psychological conclusions are discussed.