How Christian Married Couples Detect Deception in Marriages

Detection has been the focus of research over the years on deceptive communication (Park, Levine, McCornack, Morrison, Ferrara, 2002, p.144). Other research has been done on detection of deception in relationships. Studies have shown that people in romantic relationships are just as bad at judging their mates then people in general are at judging a stranger (Boon & McLeod, 2001, p. 464). Research has shown “deception by self and partner was correlated with believing that each type of deception was preferable to having an argument, supporting the suggestion from previous research that couples elect dishonesty as a method of conflict avoidance” (Peterson, 1996, p.279). In a secular world learning to detect deception in any relationship can keep from causing a negative outcome (Ekman, 2001, p.162). This paper will suggest a research problem on how Christian married couples detect deception in marriages. 

A vast amount of research has been done by researchers regarding deception detection. The research has primarily focused on topics such as interrogators and observers and their ability to decipher between truth tellers and liars (Granhag & Stromwall, 2001, p.603), exploring the use of deception in romantic relationships and relating that to the relational outcomes (Cole, 2001, p.107), and people’s ability to detect deception (Park, et al., 2002, p.144). 

Another way to look at deception in a romantic relationship would be within a marriage. Going even deeper in researching deceptive communication could involve researching on how Christian married couples detect deception in marriages. By learning how to detect deception in their marriages Christian couples would be able to be more open, honest, and Christ like. With this in mind research to detect deception in Christian marriages would further the research in deceptive communication. Based on this research the following problem is offered for research: How do Christian married couples detect deception in marriages?