In trying to overcome conflicts in a relationship, psychology may help us understand why men and women react differently. If you are dating or in a marriage, there are going to be arguments from time to time. What can make things worse is if the two people’s ways of dealing with conflict cause them to make things worse. Many marriages have turned to marriage counselors and those who aren’t married will still seek out relationship advice. Most counseling will help you realize some things that may help each understand how the other party thinks.

There was a study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health which showed that most couples who had been together for only a couple of months between the ages of 18 and 21 avoided intimacy and being dependent on their other half. They also showed levels of anxiety concerning being rejected or abandoned. Those tested all exhibited different degrees of the anxiety over being abandoned.

Of course those who were more secure in themselves had lower levels and others, depending on how they dealt with anxiety and thought about abandonment, reacted differently as well.

Testing Reveals Differences Between men and Women

What was especially intriguing about these test results was how different the statistics for men and women were. Interestingly,the results seem to indicate that the physiological reaction shown to relationship troubles is most obvious in men. The majority of these reactions were a higher stress level in men, whereas the females in the study only showed similar reactions if they were an avoidant personality.

Females are far more inclined to try a dialogue with their partner as a conflict resolution in a relationship. Psychology reveals females in this case to be the aggressor in solving problems. During the argument, women have a higher level of cortisol, while afterward the level drops quickly. This reveals that if the conflict is over rapidly, more psychological satisfaction will be achieved.

Conversely, Males are shown to be less aggressive in conflict resolution. Even though it was clear that males wanted conflicts resolved, they were far less eager to face the problem. Males who were partnered with secure females tended to have less stress. Females did not have any change in their stress levels, regardless of if their partner was self confident or not.

When you seek out relationship advice, whether you go to family therapy or psychologists, they are going to try to help you understand how men and women react differently. The above research on studying the effects of conflict in men and women will help you know why the react the way that they do in the relationship. Psychology and physiological research will help you deal with conflict better.