The Vital Marriage: A Closer Look

Although most couples enter marriage expecting that theirs will be a vital relationship replete with intrinsic rewards, few achieve this lofty ideal. The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe the nature of those personality characteristics that enable couples to develop and sustain a vital relationship. The findings, taken from data gathered by a questionnaire, indicate that vital marital partners possess personality needs that promote: (a) sexual expressiveness; (b) otherness rather than selfness; (c) determination; and (d) high ego strength. These findings are discussed in terms of an individuation-mutuality paradigm.