Couples usually do not decide to end their marriages on a whim. Filing for divorce is typically the result of years’ worth of problems. Marital and family law problems may look different for everyone, but the underlying reasons for those problems are much more similar than most people realize. Here are two common behaviors that push partners apart from one another and toward divorce.
According to a psychologist who spent years studying marriages and relationships, being critical of a spouse can actually predict whether that couple will divorce. When one person criticizes a partner, he or she is giving a negative opinion because the other person did not live up to a certain expectation. Criticism can be about anything, but it usually involves trivial issues that do not really matter in the long run.
Building off of criticism is contempt. Contempt is actually a much bigger divorce predictor than criticism because one person believes that he or she has moral superiority. Contempt starts off with a criticism but does not stop there. The partner doing the criticizing will then use that feeling of superiority to act as if he or she is the expert on the matter even when that is not the case.
Both of these behaviors make it very hard to connect emotionally and have important conversations. Instead, couples generally default to verbal, emotional attacks on one another. This can lead to any number of marital problems. Ultimately, many couples choose to end their marriages because of these behaviors. In these unfortunate situations, it can be helpful to speak with an attorney who is experienced with Alabama family law.
