Negativity, Annoyance, and Divorce Rates

Hanh. A new study has come out that says that negativity and annoyance in a marriage only get worse over time.

Golly day! What a surprise! To you too? (Duh-uh..) In view of the statistics about divorce rates, I wonder that the researchers should find this.

On reading further, they report that "older couples" tend to simply try to avoid confronting the problem, while younger couples don't. Another huge surprise, isn't it? No? Hmmmm! Older people come from a different cultural perspective, even within the majority culture. And they didn't grow up with video games focussed mainly on killing each other.

When the interviewees were asked the same questions about their friends, coworkers, and children, their answers showed that negativity and annoyance did not get worse over time, however. I'm not so sure I believe this.

Think about it .. If your coworkers drive you distraction, do you just suffer in silence? My observation is, only for awhile; then you go to either the coworker and try to get them to stop doing whatever-it-is, or you go to your supervisor and ask for help.

If your friends do things that bug you, do you really just blow it off and continue the 'friendship'? I don't believe that, either. That isn't a friendship, in my mind, because it doesn't do anything to help you both weather the storms of the world.

If you're a parent and your children bug you, you discipline them after awhile, yes? Yes!

I have a degree in one of the hard sciences. When I see a study like this, I get kind of squirmy inside, from embarrassment at what some people put out as "research results", ,when common sense says "tain't so! tain't so!" I mean, don't these people have contact with the rest of the world? Are they so isolated that they don't think about what they say they observed, vs. what is routine in daily life for the majority of people? Do they isolate themselves to such a degree that they lose touch with common sense?

Thanks for listening to my rant.