Reciprocity of Marital Communication

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Abstract
The discussions of seventy-three married couples were analysed for sequential and distributional patterns of paralinguistic affect and verbal conflict. The paralinguistic analyses supported behavioural skills approaches to marital communication: on highly salient topics, less satisfied couples had greater negative reciprocity than more satisfied couples. However, the verbal communication results were inconsistent with prevailing assumptions about effective communication: more satisfied couples had a higher rate of conflict avoidance. Subsequent analyses indicated that the relationship between verbal communication patterns and marital satisfaction depends on a couple's implicit expectations and standards of communication. Non-verbal affective patterns appear to have more general meaning than verbal disclosure and conflict avoidance.

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