If you’ve golfed, it’s likely you’ve taken a “mulligan.” Mulligan’s aren’t only for the fairway — they can also be useful in managing conflict in marriage.

Consider Devon and Becca Jones (not their real names) — they tend to be at odds over Devon’s habit of arriving to appointments early, and Becca’s habit of arriving on time or a few minutes late.

Devon has the car warming up in the driveway. He calls to Becca from their home’s front door, “Becca, we need to go! We’re going to be late.”

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He hears Becca call back from the bathroom, “We have plenty of time. I need to finish getting ready.”

Devon detects a tone of frustration in his wife’s voice but disregards it. He calls back, “If you had put your phone away and quit texting we would’ve been out of here 10 minutes ago.”

“Our daughter needed to know what our plans are for this weekend. Just cool off! We won’t miss anything,” she says, the tension rising in her voice.

A moment later, Becca stomps out of the bathroom, grabs her purse off the kitchen counter and gives Devon a stern look. “I’m ready!”

Devon realizes he’s on the verge of igniting a fight. “I’m sorry,” he says. “You’re right. I need to cool off. I need to take a mulligan. Can we start over?”

You won’t see a mulligan called in professional golf, but it allows casual golfers to recover from embarrassing strokes and keep the game moving. When a golfer hits a ball off the fairway, lands it in a sand trap, or sinks it in a water hazard, calling a mulligan allows the player to replay a bad stroke as if it hadn’t occurred. With a second chance to get things right, the player attempts to avoid repeating the mistakes that caused their first stroke to get them in trouble.

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Harsh startups. When couples face off over issues on which they have differing opinions, the discussion can get derailed by what Dr. John Gottman calls a harsh startup. A harsh startup occurs when a discussion begins with criticism or contempt.

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Devon’s comment to Becca that implied she was texting too much was criticism. That was a harsh startup. Devon would have stepped into the domain of contempt had he said something like, “You have no concept of time. You’d never arrive anywhere on time without me keeping you on track.”

Criticism and the sarcastic remarks that imply contempt trigger a chain reaction that often leads to a bitter end. A common reaction to a harsh startup is to become defensive or stonewall. Together, these four reactions to conflict represent what Gottman calls the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. When one or more of the horsemen are on the field, couples become locked in fierce battles that drive the relationship toward catastrophe.

Becca’s initial defense against Devon’s criticism was light. She explained her reasons for texting and told Devon to “cool off,” hoping it would be enough to cause him to back off. Her body language sent another signal that let him know he was stepping into a minefield.

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Flooding occurs when a spouse feels psychologically and physically overwhelmed by the other’s negativity. Flooding activates a fight-or-flight response for protection against a verbal attack. The attacked may rebuff the attacker with critical and contemptuous remarks of her own or retreat behind an emotional or physical stonewall.

Using repair attempts in marriage conflict. Devon did well to call a mulligan when he realized he had started a conflict off on the wrong foot. Calling a mulligan is one of many repair attempts that couples can use to stop the emotional landslide triggered by a harsh startup.

Marital conflict is unavoidable. But many couples manage to build happy marriages, even when unresolvable conflicts keep popping up like gophers on a golf course.

In Gottman’s decades of observing couples in conflict, he and his team of researchers have discovered that successful marriages use repair attempts like golfers use mulligans. A successful repair attempt enables a couple to start over or reset a discussion when one of the Four Horsemen introduces a negative tone to a conflict. The repair prevents negativity from spiraling out of control.

If harsh startups too often spoil your efforts to talk through a sensitive subject with your partner, taking a mulligan and other repair attempts can be used like a secret weapon — not to take down your spouse, but to turn back the Four Horsemen. Repair attempts are most effective when used by couples who have high levels of emotional intelligence and well-developed “Love Maps,” discussed a bit later.

Improving emotional intelligence. Persons with high levels of emotional intelligence (EI) have developed their ability to perceive emotions in themselves and others. They use this emotional awareness to enhance their thinking and reasoning. They are also effective in regulating their emotions. They use these skills to manage their relationships and advance their personal and professional growth.

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Devon’s recognition of rising emotional tension in Becca’s tone and body language in response to his criticism shows EI in action. EI gives couples an advantage in effectively using repair attempts to prevent conflict from overwhelming their marriage.

EI isn’t something we’re born with. It’s developed. While emotionally intelligent parents tend to develop emotionally intelligent children, adults who didn’t have the benefit of emotionally intelligent parents still have an opportunity to grow this aspect of their personality.

A married man can improve his EI by accepting influence from his wife. Gottman’s couples research shows most men need help in this regard. In his studies, only 35 percent of men are emotionally intelligent. Women tend to be better attuned to their emotions. Husbands can learn from their wives how to better connect emotionally with their spouse, their children, and other people in their lives.

The marriage relationship provides a perfect setting for couples to strengthen their EI by practicing emotional connection.

Building Love Maps. Gottman’s research has discovered that repair attempts succeed or fail on the basis of whether or not a couple’s marriage is bound together by a strong friendship. Friendship between a husband and wife increases the frequency with which they detect each other’s repair attempts and use them to prevent negative interactions from overwhelming their marriage.

Love Maps create a strong foundation for friendship. Love Maps represent the deep knowledge that partners have of each other’s world including their likes, dislikes, hopes, and dreams. Couples in successful marriages are constantly constructing Love Maps. They do this by cultivating and feeding their curiosity about their spouse. They ask open-ended questions, listening intently to their spouse’s responses, observing their emotions, and paying attention to how they interact with the world.

Jon Beaty, life coach and father of two, lives near Portland, Oregon. He’s the author of the book, “If You’re Not Growing, You’re Dying: 7 Habits for Thriving in Your Faith, Relationships and Work.” This article was originally published on The Gottman Relationship Blog