Negative Communications in Marriage

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Abstract
This article examines data obtained from the coding of 10-minute videotapes of married couples dicussing their relationships. Each speaker turn was coded as positive, neutral or negative separately for each of the communication channels - verbal, visual, vocal or total. Three different types of negative messages were then isolated: (a) direct negative messages or those that are negative on all channels (verbal, visual and vocal), (b) negative messages with neutral or ambiguous words but negative visual and vocal cues, and (c) negative messages accompanied by smiles. The findings indicated that the preferred mode for sending negative messages was with a smile, irrespective of sex or marital adjustment level. The negative communication of unhappy couples proved to be more direct or intense (i.e. negative on more channels) than those of happy couples, and perhaps more negative than required for conveying the desired message. The vocal channel was found to be the most important channel in negative messages between spouses, since negative messages were coded negative in the vocal channel more frequently than in any other.

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