TY - JOUR
T1 - Containment versus escalation
T2 - The trajectory of couples’ conversational complaints
AU - Alberts, Janet
AU - Driscoll, Gillian
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2016 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 1992/12
Y1 - 1992/12
N2 - This study was designed to analyze couples’ complaint episodes. Rather than focusing on single act‐to‐act sequences, this analysis focused on lengthier interactions of four to approximately 70 turns. This microanalysis revealed that during conflict couples typically enact one of six complaint episodes: passed (ignoring the complaint), refocused (changing the focus of the complaint), mitigated (downgrading the severity of the complaint), responsive (validating the partner's complaint), unresponsive (denying the validity of the partner's complaint), or escalated (expanding the topic and hostility level of the complaint interaction). It was also determined that satisfied couples were three times more likely to engage in passed, refocused, mitigated and responsive episodes while dissatisfied and mixed couples were twice as likely to engage in unresponsive or escalated episodes.
AB - This study was designed to analyze couples’ complaint episodes. Rather than focusing on single act‐to‐act sequences, this analysis focused on lengthier interactions of four to approximately 70 turns. This microanalysis revealed that during conflict couples typically enact one of six complaint episodes: passed (ignoring the complaint), refocused (changing the focus of the complaint), mitigated (downgrading the severity of the complaint), responsive (validating the partner's complaint), unresponsive (denying the validity of the partner's complaint), or escalated (expanding the topic and hostility level of the complaint interaction). It was also determined that satisfied couples were three times more likely to engage in passed, refocused, mitigated and responsive episodes while dissatisfied and mixed couples were twice as likely to engage in unresponsive or escalated episodes.
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U2 - 10.1080/10570319209374425
DO - 10.1080/10570319209374425
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0000600693
SN - 1057-0314
VL - 56
SP - 394
EP - 412
JO - Western Journal of Communication
JF - Western Journal of Communication
IS - 4
ER -