1. For a healthy romantic relationship, there must be more positive emotional experiences than negative emotional experiences. Discuss some strategies to ensure this outcome.

2. One of Gottman’s Four Horseman of the Apocalypse is stonewalling. Stonewalling is often done out of fear of making the situation worse, not from trying to aggravate the partner. If you encountered someone stonewalling you, what strategies could you utilize to try to lower the fear and open the lines of communication?

3. Review the myths of a good marriage discussed in the textbook. Discuss which ones you believed prior to reading this chapter. Why do you feel these myths are so widespread?

4. Intimate partner violence is far too prevalent in our society. Reflecting back on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model introduced in the beginning of class, what features in the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem may facilitate IPV?

5. If married in the future, discuss which relationship maintenance behaviors you will employ daily to keep the relationship happy and to avoid divorce.