Romantic+love+and+communication

Back to Andy's EE =Formation= Explanation

Evidence

=Maintenance= Explanation ‘ **// Negative communication can cause relationship dissatisfaction and can lead to breakdown of relationships’ //**
 * // Key point 1: Importance of Communication ( //** Crane pages 278-279 ):
 * Connected to attributional style – Attribution theory **
 * Happy relationships
 * o attributions are positively biased towards partner
 * o Positive behaviors are dispositional
 * o Negative behaviors are situational
 * Unhappy relationships are the opposite
 * o Same pattern – positive is dispositional, negative is situational – established by use of language
 * “you always…”
 * “you never…”

So **- Communicating** attributions for negative events can lead to a breakdown
 * Is it the relationship that creates negative communication?
 * Or is it the negative communication that (attributional style) that leads to the breakdown of the relationship?

Evidence
 * __ Empirical evidence of the significance of negative communication __**
 * Fincham study (1990)
 * o Meta-analysis of research studies on attributions made by married couples on each other’s behavior
 * o Findings supported theory of the significance of negative communication
 * § Poor marital quality
 * Negative behaviors attributed to dispositional factors
 * Positive behaviors attributed to situational factors
 * Bradbury and Fincham (1992)
 * o If you make a dispositional attribution about your husband in a negative situation, you will most likely behave negatively towards your husband as well.
 * Bradbury and Fincham (1993) follow up study
 * o Longitudinal study over 12 months – followed married couple
 * o Attributions at start of study could be used to predict levels of marital satisfaction at end
 * o Marital satisfaction at start of study could not be used to predict attributions at end.
 * o Thus – concluded that attributions influence behavior, behavior does not influence attributions