Popular Press vs Research. Love and romance. Staying Faithful

Popular Press vs Research
Name
Institution
Due Date
Popular Press vs Research
Introduction
The New York Times has published an article on ‘How to have a better Relationship.’ The author has explored some issues pertinent in every relationship and explicated the common pitfalls and how to avoid them. She has also suggested how to improve the relationship and build a long-lasting relationship. Using various research findings, she has also cemented some assertions she has made on issues like conflict, money, sex, fidelity among others. Throughout the article, she has demonstrated that problems are common in any relationship but they are solvable with the right attitude, tools and mutual understanding of each other’s weaknesses and strengths. The author has derived her arguments from various sources and brought them together to give relationship advice and how romantic partners or spouses ought to live with each other. She has also used research findings to support her arguments. She has tackled the subject in several sections detailing the indicators of problems and how to address them.
Love and romance
She asserts that ‘Understanding what makes your partner feel loved can help you navigate conflict and put romance back into your relationship.’ She explicates that love and romance are very key in sustaining a marriage and or long relationship and needs to be rekindled by often doing new things and revisiting the early days of their relationship. The efficacy of the rekindling ways and approaches largely lies in the way a person knows his/her partner. In an example she features in the article shows how the different expectations can be missed when a couple does not understand each other, ‘The waiter flirts with the woman, but the husband doesn’t seem to notice and talks about changing the oil in her car. The wife is upset her husband isn’t jealous. The husband feels his extra work isn’t appreciated.’ For the man love is practical, and expects appreciation for doing car maintenance and for the woman love is possessive and she expects her husband to feel jealous. The very sentiments are shared by CITATION Oro15 \l 1033 (Orosz, Szekeres, Kiss, Farkas, & Roland-Lévy, 2015) and assert that partners in a relationship need to understand their partner's definition of love and how they prefer to be treated is key to a lasting relationship.
The article also asserts that ‘partners who regularly share new experiences report greater boosts in marital happiness.’ Doing things together however simple improves communication and intimacy between partners and that is why they report higher levels of happiness. This is true as it is supported by CITATION Mar76 \l 1033 (Marini, 1976) who argues that ‘marital companionship is strongly related to marital happiness.’ The author echoes the CITATION Mar76 \l 1033 (Marini, 1976) sentiments on the importance of companionship. It is an overlooked critical element in building relationships especially by busy partners but it is instrumental in building a happy relationship or marriage.
Sex
The author has described as an important part of building long-lasting relationships. She attributes long lasting relationships to a higher frequency of sex. Drawing from data from the General Social Survey, she points out that the frequency of sex can be an indicator of how long a relationship can last. She argues that relationships that start off with fewer sexual frequencies are likely to end up in divorce that for the couples who reported higher sexual frequencies in their early days. She also pointed out that ‘committed couples have higher sexual frequencies than everyone else.’ She links the sexual pleasure and intimacy to higher levels of commitment and love and such partners are less likely to divorce. She also acknowledges that research has also shown that ‘Americans who are not having sex are just as happy as their sexually-active counterparts’ but the majority of those who are in a sexless relationship or single are less happy compared to those in sexual relationships. The opinions of the author in the article have been echoed by CITATION Loe15 \l 1033 (Loewenstein, Krishnamurti, Kopsic, & McDonald, 2015) who have found out that ‘there is a positive correlation between sexual frequency and happiness.’ Thus, as the author advice, for the couples who want to have better relationships, they ought to engage in more sex even when one does not necessarily want.
She also points out that ‘the longer a couple is married, the less often they have sex, but that the decline appears to be relative to how much sex they were having when they first coupled.’ This phenomenon indicates a less exciting relationship and an indicator of divorce. She advised that since naturally, sex drive reduces, it is advisable that the couple continues to find new ways to make their sex life more interesting. Her assertions on the reason for declined sexual activity in marriage are backed by CITATION Twe17 \l 1033 (Twenge, Sherman, & Wells, 2017) who observed that ‘Americans are having sex less frequently due to two primary factors: An increasing number of individuals without a steady or marital partner and a decline in sexual frequency among those with partners.’ These findings show that everyone in a relationship ought to be ready for the decline in sexual enjoyment, indulgence and activity, and the best way is to preempt its occurrence and find ways to avoid it early enough.
The author has also described how sexless marriages impact relationships. Though she notes there are few sexless marriages and relationship, in most cases sexless marriage is a danger signal which is likely to lead divorces or break-ups. They start off with very little sex which is either caused by childbirth or an affair which slows sexual activity. However, there are people who are happy in sexless marriages. For clarity, CITATION Sus11 \l 1033 (Suszynski, 2011) defines sexless marriage as when a ‘couple has sex less than once a month or less than 10 times a year.’ Using the aforementioned definition of sexless marriage, then it is plausible that there are sexless marriages which are happy.
Staying Faithful
When it comes to staying faithful, the Tara writes that “me...