A new study suggests postformal thought may increase thoughts of blame and, as a result, decrease relationship satisfaction. This was contrary to the original hypothesis that those who have achieved the postformal stage of cognitive development would use this skill to understand the motivations of romantic partners.
Until recently, the stages of cognitive development were understood as Jean Piaget defined them in the late 1950s. Piaget identified four stages spanning birth to adolescence. The Piaget model identified the final stage as formal thought; at this stage, individuals were capable of hypothetical and abstract thinking.
Several studies published since the 1990s solidified the idea of a 5th stage, postformal thought. The postformal cognitive stage begins at emerging adulthood or the stage between adolescence and the career and family responsibilities of adulthood.
Postformal thought is defined by Kendall Jory and their research team as “a type of complex cognition involving recognition of paradoxes and multiple perspectives which research suggests benefits intrapersonal and interpersonal functioning.” The researchers believed these skills may be a benefit to relationships, stating that “postformal thinking is consistently related to enactment of consistent prosocial behaviors: flexibility to tolerate opposing views with ease, and without criticism or blame.”
Their research sought to confirm that postformal thought would reduce feelings of blame and consequently increase relationship satisfaction.
Participants were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk, a voluntary crowdsourcing platform. One hundred nine individuals met the criteria of being 18 and older, married, and having completed at least ten years of school. The participants completed a demographic questionnaire, a measure of postformal thought (Postformal Thought Scale), and a measure of marital satisfaction (Quality of Marriage Index).
The researchers also assessed how frequently people attribute negative aspects of their relationship to their spouse and had the participants complete a survey of marital attitudes.
Their unexpected findings indicate that those with higher scores on measures of postformal thought are more likely to believe their spouse is responsible for challenges in their relationship. Those who scored higher on the postformal thought measure agreed more strongly with statements such as “I can see the hidden logic in others’ solutions to problems, even if I do not agree with their solutions” and “I tend to look for several causes behind any event.”
When analyzing responses of marital satisfaction and attitude, it became clear that blaming your spouse for deficits in the marriage is correlated with decreased marital satisfaction and decreased positive attitude toward the relationship.
The research team identified a number of limitations, including the reliability and validity of the Postformal Thought Scale. First, the measure has been found to have weak internal consistency, and postformal thought as a construct is still being established. When more is known about postformal thought, it may be assessed differently.
Second, partner blame may be a more complex issue with components that were not assessed in the current study. For example, marital relationships often include child-rearing and financial collaborations that can cause challenges and were not measured or accounted for in the study.
Finally, all data was collected via self-report in an unmonitored setting. The data may be less reliable than it was assumed to be.
Jory and colleagues feel their work adds to the knowledge and questions about postformal thought’s role in romantic relationships. For example, future research could examine why postformal thought increased partner blame. For example, the research team suggests, “future research could examine whether the concept of conflict resolution within romantic relationships is associated with postformal thought.”
The study, “Marital satisfaction: The role of postformal thought and partner blame”, was authored by Kendal Jory, Janet Trammell, and Cindy Miller-Perrin.