Contradictions and Struggles in the Dialogues of Affection: Development and Validation of the Marital Dialectics Harmony Scale

Uncertainties are an integral part of intimate relationships. They exist because people, at certain points, find it difficult to resolve the tension between their desires to simultaneously pursue self and relational goals. Relational contradictions have been found to vary, ranging from uncertainty to dialectics. The present study investigated the validity and reliability of a measure on relational dialectics harmony. The scale measures how relational partners may cognitively project and harmonize their personal-relational tensions to stay connected in healthy relationships. The procedure involved content and principal component analyses and the convergent/discriminant validity evaluation of the new scale with four existing and related measures: the relational maintenance strategies measure, infidelity proneness scale, attributional complexity scale and the marital performance ecology scale which was simultaneously developed. Pilot survey involving 70 married persons yielded a Cronbach alpha of .91. The scale was later administered to 664 couples (1328 respondents) at different stages of their marital relationships. A high internal consistency estimate for the Marital Dialectics Harmony Scale (MDHS) was obtained. An exploratory factor analysis produced a simple factor (eigen value = 3.674) accounting for 52.5% of variability based on seven of the 10 scale items that loaded between .70 and .75 factor pattern coefficient. A single scale was therefore created to represent the Marital Dialectics Harmony Scale with a Cronbach's alpha of .85. Significant convergent relationships were also found between the Marital Dialectics Harmony scale and each of the four relational measures. The scale has therefore filled an important gap in couples' empathic research that was hitherto open. It is therefore recommended that researchers adopt the measure for marital assessment and interventions