Religious beliefs and practices and Catholic couples' management of anger and conflict

Abstract

Grounded theory techniques and Repertory Grids were used in a qualitative study to generate and analyse material from 20 Catholics each interviewed twice. Religious practices increased the amount of intrapersonal ‘space’ available by acting physiologically, cognitively and affectively to reduce the intensity of anger experienced and to support couples in taking responsibility for their own part in a conflict. Couples could also regulate the interpersonal space between them by detouring their anger to God, and by finding support for both the avoidance and confrontation of conflict through religious beliefs. The relationship with God had an interactive and compensatory role in relation to the marital relationship. Changes in religious beliefs or marital relationship dynamics were not always neatly integrated and ambivalence over anger and conflict sometimes resulted and manifested in discordance between the spousal and God relationships. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.