Difficulties In Marriage
One student of the psychology of divorce has said: "To expect marriage to last indefinitely under modem conditions is to expect a lot." Whereas divorce was once socially unacceptable, today it is tolerated m spite of the unhappiness it may cause. Yet, most people who marry say that they plan to stay married. A 1972 survey of a sample of 2,500 college-age students showed 97.8 percent said that they planned to 'Tlarry in spite of any difficulties that might be involved. Researchers seem to be toning 90wn their criticisms of romantic love as a primary basis for marriage.
Love is a strongly felt emotion, but it is an emotion. Among many couples it lasts a lifetime. In contrast is the statistic that roughly one-third of marriages contracted in our society end in iivorce. Added to the causes of difficulty in marriage discussed in the ast few pages are two new ones: increased individual autonomy and rapid social change. One sociologist suggests that the faulty initial perception of who would make an appropriate marriage partner may contribution to divorce, but that the divorce rate in America would hav climbed at least as rapidly without romantic love as with it, We hear so much about the negatives in marriage that we tend to forget the positives. And sometimes the positives have to wait for a "second time around."
