Couples do not get married with the intent of eventually filing for divorce, yet it happens to approximately 2,000 couples per year. A psychologist at the University of Washington and founder of the Gottman Institute says he and a colleague at the University of California at Berkeley can predict which ones it might happen to with an accuracy of about 93 percent. They reportedly did so by identifying four behaviors commonly found in the relationships of divorcing couples.
Contempt
Deemed the "kiss of death" by the study authors, contempt is a mixture of anger and disgust that goes well beyond that of frustration or negativity; you literally see your partner as beneath you, rather than your equal, and this can lead to all kinds of problems. Instead of feeling compassion or empathy when your partner makes a mistake, you close yourself off and consider yourself smarter, more sensitive than, or just outright better than your partner. And, because you have already decided that your spouse's opinions and feelings are not valid, you are highly unlikely to even attempt to see matters from his or her point of view.
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