Explication of interspousal criticality bias

Abstract

Although bias towards perceiving spousal criticism is related to dysphoria and marital discord (Smith & Peterson, 2008), the bias construct has received insufficient elaboration. We explicated the criticality bias construct by exploring its correlates and incremental validity relative to perceived criticism, marital attributions, and negative affect. 118 couples completed self-report measures and undertook a videotaped discussion task. Signal detection analyses of both spouses' and outside observers' ratings of discussions produced bias indices. Criticality bias evidenced a pattern of convergent and discriminant validity mirroring perceived criticism's (Renshaw, 2008). Bias also provided incremental validity beyond perceived criticism, marital attributions, and negative affect to the prediction of behavior. Bias may be a dysfunctional way to view marital events and a stress generation process.Keywords criticality bias; criticism; depression; marital adjustment; stress generation Explication of Interspousal Criticality BiasCriticism from close relatives predicts poor treatment response and higher rates of relapse across a wide variety of psychiatric disorders and physical illnesses, including depression (Wearden, Tarrier, Barrowclough, Zastowny, & Rahill, 2000). Criticism is also linked to marital distress (Hooley & Teasdale, 1989;Lynch, Robins, Morse, 2001). Furthermore, relations between criticism and both depression and marital distress hold across several types of criticism, namely, perceived criticism as self-reported by spouses and expressed criticism, as coded by outside observers (Hooley & Teasdale, 1989). Those who are depressed or maritally discordant also over-perceive spousal criticism by a process that we refer to as "criticality bias" (Smith & Peterson, 2008).Given the associations among depression, marital discord, and various types of criticism, and the potentially broad range of applications of this research given criticism's status as a generalized stressor across physical and emotional disorders (Hooley & Gotlib, 2000;Wearden et al., 2000), it is important to clearly explicate the nature of central criticism constructs, such as perceived criticism, expressed criticism, and criticality bias. The perceived criticism construct has already been explicated to a substantial degree by studies that demonstrate a compelling pattern of convergent and discriminant validity associations (Chambless & Blake, *Corresponding author. Tel.: +574 631 9640; fax: +574 631 8883., E-mail addresses: E-mail: kpeters1@nd.edu (K. M. Peterson), Email: dsmith11@nd.edu (D. A. Smith), E-mail: cwindle@nd.edu (C. R. Windle). Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discover...

Marital quality and health: A meta-analytic review.

“…For example, people in unhappy marriages often attribute responsibility for negative behaviors to their partner (e.g., “Don came home late because he doesn’t care about his family”), while not attributing responsibility for positive behaviors to the partner (e.g., “Don came home early because his boss told him to do so”) (Bradbury, Beach, Fincham, & Nelson, 1996; Durtschi, Fincham, Cui, Lorenz, & Conger, 2011). Similarly, a “criticality bias” to misattribute a partner’s verbal and nonverbal communication as criticism (Smith & Peterson, 2008) is also associated with expressing criticism towards partners, using a negative tone in conversations, and greater “demanding” behaviors (Peterson, Smith, & Windle, 2009). While the specific role of social-cognitive processes in physical health remains understudied, attributing responsibility to the partner for negative behaviors predicted slower cortisol recovery following a conflict discussion in dating couples (Laurent & Powers, 2006).…”

Attributions for Relatives' Behavior and Perceived Criticism: Studies With Community Participants and Patients With Anxiety Disorders

“…The patient who tends to draw more negative attributions about the relative’s behavior or events in the relative’s life (e.g., that the relative intended to be hurtful or that the event stems from a negative and stable character trait of the relative) may be more likely to interpret the relative’s behavior toward himself or herself as destructive criticism. Indeed, Peterson, Smith, and Windle (2009) found a self-report questionnaire assessing spouses’ attributions for their partners’ negative behaviors in general was correlated to criticality bias scores obtained from a subsequent laboratory interaction between spouses. Moreover, perceived criticism is significantly and negatively correlated with marital adjustment (Chambless & Blake, 2009; Smith & Peterson, 2008) and marital adjustment is predicted both concurrently and longitudinally by negative attributions (Bradbury & Fincham, 1990; Fincham, Bradbury, Arias, Byrne, & Karney, 1997).…”

“…We hypothesized that participants who more strongly (Study 1) or more frequently (Study 2) endorsed negative attributions about their relatives’ behavior during a problem-solving interaction would be more likely to perceive their relatives as critical of them than would those who made fewer negative attributions or endorsed a weaker belief in these attributions. In addition, drawing from Peterson et al (2009), we expected attributions would uniquely contribute to the prediction of perceived criticism above and beyond the contribution of criticism as rated by observers.…”

Depressive Symptoms, Criticism, and Counter‐Criticism in Marital Interactions

“…Study procedures have previously been described (Peterson, Smith, & Windle, ). Both members of the couple independently completed self‐report measures, a structured clinical interview, and an audiotaped FMSS that prompted them to independently talk about “what kind of person [spouse's name] is, and how the two of you get along.” Participants then jointly completed a marital interaction task, for which one person was selected to be the “focus” of the conversation, that is, the person to whom the conversation topic pertained.…”