Romantic Relationships 321Not surprisingly, couples are more
likely to engage in relationship maintenance
behaviors when they are in love with their
spouse, satisfied with the relationship, and
committed to the relationship. It turns out
that relationship feelings are a better predic-
tor of maintenance behaviors for wives than
husbands (Canary & Wahba, 2006). The
most maintenance behaviors occur in a rela-
tionship that the wife perceives as equitable,
and the least maintenance behaviors occur
in a relationship in which the wife feels un-
derbenefited—that she receives less from the
relationship than her partner. The husband’s
perception of relationship equity seems to be
less related to maintenance behavior.Relationship Satisfaction
What predicts how satisfied men and women
are with their romantic relationships? One
predictor is relationship talk—the extent to
which the couple talks about the state of the re-
lationship. Relationship talk is more strongly
related to women’s than men’s marital satis-
faction (Badr & Acitelli, 2005). The distribu-
tion of power within a couple is a predictor
of marital satisfaction. Overall, characteristics
of marriage seem to be more strongly linked
to women’s than men’s marital satisfaction
(Schmitt, Kliegel, & Shapiro, 2007). People
also speculate as to whether homosexual rela-
tionships are as satisfying as heterosexual rela-
tionships. Here I discuss each of these issues.Power Distribution. One determinant of
relationship satisfaction is in how power is
distributed between women and men. One
would expect that younger women and men
should have more equal power in relation-
ships because they are less likely to adhere to
traditional roles. College women and men, in
particular, have a similar status and similar
access to resources. Thus there is reason toRelationship maintenance behaviors
may differ somewhat in dating couples and
newly married couples. One study examined
both heterosexual and homosexual dating re-
lationships and asked couples what they did
to maintain their relationship. Heterosexual
women reported being more likely to en-
gage in a variety of strategies than their male
counterparts, including monopolizing the
mate’s time, derogating competition, provid-
ing sexual inducements, and enhancing one’s
appearance (VanderLann & Vasey, 2008).
By contrast, there was only one strategy in
which heterosexual men engaged more than
women—displaying resources. Homosexual
men generally behaved like heterosexual
men, with one exception. Homosexual men
were less likely to display resources than
heterosexual men. Homosexual women,
however, did not behave like heterosexual
women. Lesbians were less likely to use all
of the above-mentioned strategies than het-
erosexual women. In a study of newlywed
couples, all of these kinds of mate retention
strategies decreased over the first four years
of marriage (Kaighobadi, Shackelford, &
Buss, 2010). However, some sex differences
persisted. Men were more likely than women
to display resources, whereas women were
more likely than men to enhance their ap-
pearance. In addition, men were more likely
than women to use submissive behavior—
that is, state they were willing to change to
accommodate their partner.
It is not only women who maintain
relationships but partners of either sex who
score high on expressivity or psychological
femininity are likely to be concerned with re-
lationship maintenance. Both wives and hus-
bands who score higher on expressivity put
more effort into improving the relationship
and engage in more maintenance strategies
(Canary & Wahba, 2006).M09_HELG0185_04_SE_C09.indd 321 6/21/11 12:40 PM