Monitoring Pronouns in Conflicts

Abstract

Conflict communication represents a basic process for the quality of intimate relationships, which is fundamental to well-being over the lifespan. This study investigates the temporal unfolding of different relational perspectives during a conflict situation by monitoring pronoun use in young, middleaged, and old couples within the theoretical framework of Gottman's phases of conflict. Our results reveal different trajectories of "I"-, "you"-, and "we"-talk over a conflict conversation in both partners. These trajectories differ between females and males. Furthermore, "you"-talk and "we"-talk differed among the age groups over time. Understanding the temporal dynamics of marital communi-cation as reflected by pronoun use seems promising for a better understanding of conflict related processes in couples over the lifespan. MONITORING PRONOUNS IN CONFLICTS 2 AbstractConflict communication represents a basic process for the quality of intimate relationships, which is fundamental for well-being over the lifespan. In this study the temporal unfolding of different relational perspectives during a conflict situation is investigated by monitoring pronoun use in young, middle-aged and old couples within the theoretical framework of Gottman's phases of conflict. Our results reveal different trajectories of "I"-, "you"-, and "we"-talk over a conflict conversation in both partners. These trajectories differ between females and males. Furthermore, "you"-talk and "we"-talk differed between age groups over time. Understanding the temporal dynamics of marital communication as reflected by pronoun use seems promising for a better understanding of conflict related processes in couples over the lifespan.

“LIWC auf Deutsch”: The Development, Psychometrics, and Introduction of DE- LIWC2015

“…Correlates of LIWC-variables go beyond psychological self-report measures and extend onto human coded social interaction and even biomarkers such as gene expression. Some recent examples of topics studied using LIWC include depression / negative emotionality (Tackman et al, 2018), dyadic processes and coping (Karan, Wright, & Robbins, 2017;Neysari et al, 2016;Robbins, Karan, Lopez, & Weihs, 2018), individual differences and personality (Carey et al, 2015), gender and translation (Meier et al, in prep), psychopathology / psychotherapy research (Friederich et al, 2017;Sonnenschein, Hofmann, Ziegelmayer, & Lutz, 2018;Wolf, Chung, & Kordy, 2010;Wolf, Sedway, Bulik, & Kordy, 2007;Wolf, Theis, & Kordy, 2013), pregnancy / prenatal stress (Schoch-Ruppen, Ehlert, Uggowitzer, Weymerskirch, & La Marca-Ghaemmaghami, 2018) and gene expression (Mehl, Raison, Pace, Arevalo, & Cole, 2017). A nice introduction to LIWC research is given by the following book chapters: Boyd and Pennebaker (2015); Boyd (2017b).…”

In Dialogue: How Writing to the Dead and the Living Can Increase Self-Awareness in Those Bereaved by Addiction

“…how often does the tense change in the response to a single prompt) and across the sample (for example, does tense change from mostly present to mostly past across the sample). The use of personal pronouns and tenses can reflect self-awareness about participants' relationships (Hedtke & Winslade, 2016;Neysari et al, 2016). In the case of this study, the changing use of personal pronouns and tenses across the samples served to highlight three key relationships that were written about by most participants-their relationship to the dead, to others and to themselves.…”

“…To do this every writing sample was read twice and all 'insight words' and 'Istatements' were color-coded. Previous research suggests that an increase in 'insight words' (Pennebaker & Francis, 1996) and/or an increase in 'I-statements' (Neysari et al, 2016) indicates an increase in self-awareness. Therefore, these were counted across the writing samples to assess whether there was an increase of one or both from prompt #1 to prompt #10.…”

Approach and avoidance relationship goals and couples’ nonverbal communication during conflict

“…Data from this multi-wave research project have been published elsewhere Denzinger, Backes, & Brandst€ atter, 2018;Denzinger, Backes, Job, & Brandst€ atter, 2016;Kuhn, Bradbury, Nussbeck, & Bodenmann, in press;Kuster et al, 2015;Kuster et al, 2017;Landis et al, 2014;Leuchtmann et al, 2018;Neysari et al, 2016). Data from this multi-wave research project have been published elsewhere Denzinger, Backes, & Brandst€ atter, 2018;Denzinger, Backes, Job, & Brandst€ atter, 2016;Kuhn, Bradbury, Nussbeck, & Bodenmann, in press;Kuster et al, 2015;Kuster et al, 2017;Landis et al, 2014;Leuchtmann et al, 2018;Neysari et al, 2016).…”

“…The study was conducted as part of a large-scale research project on the impact of stress on couples' relationship development across the lifespan. Data from this multi-wave research project have been published elsewhere Denzinger, Backes, & Brandst€ atter, 2018;Denzinger, Backes, Job, & Brandst€ atter, 2016;Kuhn, Bradbury, Nussbeck, & Bodenmann, in press;Kuster et al, 2015;Kuster et al, 2017;Landis et al, 2014;Leuchtmann et al, 2018;Neysari et al, 2016). 1…”