Qualitative Analysis of Couple Decision-Making Tara Danielle Dekkers Iowa State University
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Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Graduate Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 2009 Qualitative analysis of couple decision-making Tara Danielle Dekkers Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd Part of the Family, Life Course, and Society Commons Recommended Citation Dekkers, Tara Danielle, "Qualitative analysis of couple decision-making" (2009). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 10724. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/10724 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Qualitative analysis of couple decision-making by Tara D. Dekkers A dissertation submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Major: Human Development and Family Studies Program of Study Committee: Megan J. Murphy, Major Professor Mary Jane Brotherson Sedahlia J. Crase Jennifer Margrett Janet Nieuwsma Melby Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2009 Copyright © Tara D. Dekkers, 2009. All rights reserved. ii Table of Contents Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………………........iii Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………….…iv Chapter 1: Introduction………………………………………………………………………..1 Chapter 2: Literature Review………………………………………………………………….3 Chapter 3: Method…………………………………………………………………………...48 Chapter 4: Results……………………………………………………………………………82 Chapter 5: Discussion………………………………………………………………………152 References…………………………………………………………………………………..173 Appendix A: Telephone Script…………....…..…………………………………………....190 Appendix B: Informed Consent Document……………..…………………………………191 Appendix C: IRB Approval Form……………………………..…………………………....194 Appendix D: Demographics Form……………………………………………………….....195 Appendix E: Semi-Structured Interview Questions…………………………………….......196 Appendix F: Debriefing Form...…………....……………………………………………....197 Appendix G: Interview Summary Form.………….….….………………………………....198 Appendix H: Master Coding Key.………….……………………………………………....199 iii Acknowledgments I would like to express gratitude to the participants of this study; thank-you for your time, feedback, and stories. I would also like to say offer gratitude to my Major Professor, Megan J. Murphy: thank-you for offering constant support, encouragement, feedback, and expertise in each step of my graduate career. You have inspired me to not give up and to have ambition even in the face of hardship. Genuine appreciation is also extended to the members of my Program of Study Committee: Mary Jane Brotherson, Sedahlia Crase, Jennifer Margrett, and Janet Nieuwsma Melby. To the committee members, thank-you for challenging me to do this work and create an improved final product. A special thanks to my dear friend and colleague, Teske Drake for her feedback and support. I also want to thank my family and friends for their continual words of encouragement throughout graduate school. There were times that I was exhausted and your words urged me forward. In many ways, we are all working toward something and even, you all deserve credit for your efforts as well. Heartfelt love and gratitude goes to my husband, Steve, for his love and unrelenting support not only in school but in all areas of life. It is through your support, prayers, words, and love that I come this far. I love you dearly and am grateful to you for encouraging me to take the time I needed to get things done even when it meant less time together as a family. I also thank my children, Kian and Marae for the love and laughter you bring to me. You have all brought me so much joy and I am truly blessed to have you in my life! iv Abstract Couple decision-making is a complex process which includes a variety of factors. Little research has been done that considers reflections after a decision has been made. The ways that couples make decisions varies but there are a number of underlying issues that are considered when making a family or couple decision. This qualitative study was a feminist grounded theory study in which the decision-making practices of nine couples were explored. These nine couples were interviewed together and separately about their decision-making practices. Themes indicate that outside influences such as one’s faith, family, and friends affect most aspects of decision-making. An overarching theme that emerged was that couples tend to think about what was best for the family when making decisions. Power strategies, perspectives, and personal beliefs also emerged and were explored as part of the decision- making process. Reflections on satisfaction and discontentment of how decisions were made with one’s spouse were explored. Implications for practitioners were made suggesting that family background, faith, power strategies, and personal beliefs and ideals be explored. Recommendations for future research were made. 1 Chapter 1: Introduction Statement of the Problem Couples make many decisions with each other on a regular basis. Few studies have been conducted in terms of couple decision-making. Even fewer studies are of a qualitative nature. Studies on decision-making and family power issues have been strongly criticized. The first criticism is that the measurement of decision-making is on the outcome or final say. This is one way to measure decision-making power, however it avoids examining the process (Becker, Fonseca-Becker, & Schenck-Yglesias, 2006) and affect (Ting-Toomey, 1984) which may be as or more important than the final outcome. The second major criticism is that the focus is on just one person’s point of view. In essence, there may be another perspective that is left out. Furthermore, one person’s perspective may not be an entirely accurate representation of reality. This relates to the third major criticism which is that self- report measures are heavily relied upon (Gray-Little, Baucom, & Hamby, 1996; Kingsbury & Scanzoni, 1989). A fourth criticism of studying decision-making among couples is that decision-making has been elusive and has had theoretical and definitional inconsistencies (Becker et al., 2006; Marks, Huston, Johnson, & MacDermid, 2001). Finally, there has been a failure of many studies involving decision-making have failed to consider the importance if the level of the decision being made to the individual (Szinovacz, 1979; Ting-Toomey, 1984). An additional problem in measuring couple decision-making is that decision-making can be a complex process that may not always be easily and accurately captured in quantitative measures. Qualitative research would be particularly helpful in studying decision-making because decision-making has been shown to be complicated and a difficult 2 concept to fully explain and comprehend (Russo, 1988). Very few qualitative studies have been conducted that examined what decision-making means to couples. Many studies have been conducted quantitatively that tried to explain the relationship of decision-making to relationship satisfaction and quality yet the explanations given are from the perspective of the researcher rather than the respondents being researched. 3 Chapter 2: Literature Review Introduction Blood and Wolfe (1960) were among the first to examine decision-making influence in couples. Their influential study provided support for resource theory—that the most powerful spouse or the spouse with the most resources has the most decision-making power within families. Couples who bring in relatively equal amounts of income or resources have been found to have more equity within decision-making (Godwin & Scanzoni, 1989). Kingsbury and Scanzoni (1989), however, suggested that resources alone cannot predict overall power within dyadic relationships. In more recent years a number of authors have examined decision-making between couples. Some of these studies were conducted with married and cohabiting couples (Antonides & Kroft, 2005; Bartley, Blanton, & Gilliard, 2005; Blair 1993; Gager & Sanchez, 2003; Marks et al., 2001; Mickelson, Claffey, & Williams, 2006) others have considered engaged (Burgoyne, Clarke, Reibstein, & Edmunds, 2006) or newly married couples (Pittman, Kerpelman, & Solheim, 2001; Quek & Knudson-Martin, 2006) and child-free couples (Ting-Toomey, 1984). Still others have considered couples at various transitions in the life cycle such as couples in the transition to parenthood (Grote & Clark, 2001), first married and remarried couples (Allen, Baucom, Burnett, Epstein, & Rankin-Esquer, 2001; Orleans et al., 1989), retired couples (Kulik, 2001), or older couples (Mackey, Diemer, & O’Brien, 2004). Other demographics have also been considered in relation to decision- making such as dual-earners (Antonides & Kroft, 2005; Bartley et al., 2005; Kingsbury & Scanzoni, 1989; Quek & Knudson-Martin, 2006;) and single earners (Godwin & Scanzoni, 1989). 4 The majority of the research devoted to decision-making among couples has been in quantitative terms while only a handful of studies have been conducted from a qualitative perspective. The issue of decision-making, despite being regularly studied, is a phenomenon that changes over the course of time and is difficult to fully understand through quantitative means. The present study will examine the process of decision-making from a qualitative perspective. The following is a review of the literature