An essay on the psychological theories of why relationships end, or the dissolution of relationships.

There are various theories concerning the dissolution of relationships. Firstly, Lee argued that there are five stages involved in the process of a relationship coming to an end. The stages consist of dissatisfaction (one or both of the partners realise there are problems), exposure (the problems are brought out into the open), negotiation, resolution attempts and then finally termination, if the resolution attempts are unsuccessful. These stages were identified through a long term study of …

…a certain amount of face-to-face contact is needed for the processes involved to occur, for example in Duck's phase model, the dyadic phase involves confronting your partner, as does the negotiation stage in Lee's stage model. Finally, homosexual relationships are on the increase, and there is no psychological research at all on their relationships which are different to heterosexual ones, as they will find different things satisfying and will in general approach their relationship differently.