Baxter and Montgomery's relational dialectics:
Relationships are always in flux. Both parties experience conflicting pulls toward (1) connectedness-separateness, (2) openness-closedness, and (3) certainty-uncertainty-within their relationship and vis-à-vis their social networks. Couples cope with dialectical tension through strategies of denial, disorientation, spiraling alteration, segmentation, balance, integration, recalibration, and reaffirmation. (Phenomenological tradition)