Marital Satisfaction

Definition

Marital satisfaction is a mental state that reflects the perceived benefits and costs of marriage to a particular person. The more costs a marriage partner inflicts on a person, the less satisfied one generally is with the marriage and with the marriage partner. Similarly, the greater the perceived benefits are, the more satisfied one is with the marriage and with the marriage partner.

Components and Mechanisms

Cognition

In perceiving whether a spouse's behavior is costly or beneficial, cognitions, or thoughts about the behavior, are important. If one's spouse performs a negative (costly) behavior, this may be attributed either to characteristics of the spouse (for example, he or she is lazy), or instead to circumstances surrounding the spouse's behavior (for example, it was an especially taxing day at work, ...

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