| dc.description.abstract | A noted feature of distressed couples is that
their conflict discussions begin normally but soon
escalate into negative exchanges. They tend to
attribute their conflict to the negative personality
traits of their partner, and view their own negative
actions as justified reactions to their partner's
behavior. In the present study ten couples discussed
high conflict issues and received video and verbal
feedback about their attributional discrepancies on
three occasions over one month. Videotapes of the
discussions and self-report measures were analyzed to
determine whether the feedback was effective in
reducing negative conversational behavior. It was
found that couples: (1) accepted more responsibility
for the conflict across sessions; (2) exhibited less
negative reciprocity on session 3 than on session 2,
and more positive reciprocity in session 3 than in the
earlier sessions; and (3) reported feeling that they
were more successful in resolving sessions 2 and 3 than
session 1 However, the results were generally quite
weak and it was concluded that there was only tentative
support for the use of video and attributional feedback
in assisting distressed couples. | |
