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Chapter 13

Olson’s Five Types of Marriage and Top Ten

Dimensions.

David Olson and his colleagues have

been studying marriage since the 1980s.

They came up with five different types of

marriages based on dimensions important

for marital happiness (Olson & Fowers,

1993)

They concluded the most common

type of marriage was thedevitalized

marriage. In this marriage type, a couple

expresses dissatisfaction in all dimensions

and has usually considered divorce.

Couples inconflicted marriageswere

dissatisfied with marital communication,

conflict resolution, their partner’s

personality, and their sex lives. They were

satisfied with their children, their

religious lives, and the use of leisure time.

In other words, dissatisfaction stemmed

from things within the relationship, and

satisfaction stemmed from things outside

the relationship.

Couples in what Olson and Fowers

termed atraditional marriagewere

dissatisfied with communication, conflict

resolution, and sex, but were satisfied

with family and friends, religion, and

leisure time. These traditional couples

were one of the most satisfied of all types

in how they handled their children and

parenting duties. Like conflicted couples,

traditional couples found satisfaction in

things outside their marriage.

Couples inharmonious marriages

reported relatively high relationship

quality. Couples invitalized marriages

reported the highest levels of satisfaction

across all nine dimensions (Olson &

Fowers, 1993).

In a later study, Olson and Olson,

using previous research, came up with 10

specific issues, or dimensions, important

for happiness in married couples:

Conflicted couples find satisfaction from things outside the

relationship such as children, religion, and leisure time,

but are dissatisfied with things within the marriage.

Image from BigstockPhoto.com / marylooo

1. Devitalized


2. Conflicted


3. Traditional


4. Harmonious


5. Vitalized