1) How has the nature of marriage changed in the United States?

            As far as marriage is concerned, its primary purpose is something that has been noted to have shifted from assisting spouses in realizing their basic political and economic requirements to assisting them in meeting their passion and intimacy desires. Furthermore, in the United States, in has been realized that the basic function of marriage nowadays entail assisting spouses to realize their personal development and autonomy requirements. From the perspectives of the suffocation model, it means that such changes have both positive and negative implication to the quality of marriage. The positive consequence regarding such marriages is that they are more fulfilling as compared to previous marriages. The negative part of it is that as much as Americans have the desire of using marriage as a means of assisting them to realize individual expression desires, the number of marriages that end up falling short of their expectations have continued to increase (Eli et al., 2015). It is this scenario that in return has been noted to increase the rate of marital discontentment.

2) What did you learn from reading this article?

            The two consequences have ended up pushing marriage to a scenario that does not meet its original purpose. As compared to past marriages, the general tendency of the modern American marriage has been perceived to be a channel that people use in meeting their goals and needs. During the institutional period, the main purpose of marriage entailed enabling a person to fulfill his or her economic, safety and physiological needs. With the shift to the companionate period, the essence of marriage entailed assisting the spouse to fulfill his or her romantic needs. But, when the self-expression shifted in, the current significance of marriage amongst American involve fulfilling their belonging and love needs (Eli et al., 2015). Such needs also take into account things like individual growth, self actualization, and self-esteem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                           

 

                                                            Reference

Eli, J.F, Elaine, O.C, Lydia, F.E, Kathleen, L.C, & Grace, M.L. (2015). The Suffocation Model: Why Marriage in America Is Becoming an All-or-Nothing Institution. SAGE Press.