Co-creating shared realities with couples

We are presenting a unique approach to understanding couples and relationships based on social constructionist principles. It is our belief that individuals possess constructions of reality with regard to relationships and must co-create a reality in which both partners participate. The implication of this theoretical principle is that differences between partners are not as important as the negotiation of such differences. One thousand premarital couples were examined to determine the effect of levels of flexibility and perceived differences on the quality of their relationships. Data analysis revealed that levels of flexibility were a significant factor in couples' abilities to cocreate a successful shared reality.Portions of this paper were presented at the annual conference of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, October 1992, Miami Beach, FL.Both authors were primary contributors to this paper.