Relationship breakdown

• Duck (2007) suggests 3 reasons for relationship breakdown; pre-existing doom, mechanical failure, and sudden death
• Duck (2007) suggests pre-existing doom is when individuals are incompatible from the start of a relationship
• Duck (2007) suggests that mechanical failure is when compatible people can no longer function as a couple
• Duck (2007) says sudden death is when a relationship ends due to a catastrophic event such as cheating
• Duck's stages of relationship breakdown (2007) intra-psychic, dyadic, social, and grave dressing
• Duck (2007) phase 1; intra-psychic - one or both partners recognise and consider there are issues in the relationship and plans are made to either confront the other person, save the relationship, or consider alternatives
• Duck (2007) phase 2; Dyadic - the couple discusses their issues to see if there is a way to salvage the relationship
• Duck (2007) phase 3 - Social Phase - the relationship ends and individuals go to their circle of friends to criticise, and blame the other with the aim of seeking reassurance
• Duck (2007) phase 4 - grave dressing - aftermath of the relationship in which each individual attempts to save face and maintain "Social Credit" (La Gaipa 1982) by reframing their own side of the story to be in a more positive light
• Duck (2007) strength; the model has been developed to include a fifth phase of turning attention to future relationships using experiences gained from the last one showing the model can be developed further increasing its explanatory power
• Duck (2007) strength; real world application as Duck (1997) claims the intra-psychic phase can be used in preventing relationship breakdown by having the individual focus on the positive aspects of the relationship
• Duck (2007) weakness; Moghaddam (1993) argues relationship breakdowns apply more to individualist cultures in which breakdowns are more common than in collectivist cultures that prioritise the needs of the group through arranged marriages for example
• Duck (2007) weakness; difficult to research as it would have to be carried out post-breakdown meaning it would rely on retrospective data in which participants are unlikely to be honest as the grave dressing phase effects are still present making the individuals try to frame their relationship in a positive light creating social desirability bias