Mutual cyclical anger in romantic relationships: Moderation by agreeableness and commitment

Liu, Jie; Lemay, Edward P.; Neal, Angela M.

doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2018.09.002

Cited by 11 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…regard to their partner's behavior across the day (Overall & Sibley, 2009a, 2009b for examples of similar daily assessments see Lemay, Lin, & Muir, 2015;Liu et al, 2018;Timmons et al, 2017). The specific terms used were derived from established continuous scales and typologies capturing this category of behaviors during conflictual exchanges across relationship life, including unpleasant (Rusbult, Verette, Whitney, Slovik, & Lipkus, 1991), hurtful (Kerig, 1996), and critical (Canary, Cunningham, & Cody, 1988;Christensen & Heavey, 1990).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Each day, participants rated two items assessing how much their partner exhibited negative-direct behavior: “My partner was critical or unpleasant toward me” and “My partner acted in a way that was hurtful to me.” These items were intended to be general to capture the various ways that relevant negative-direct behaviors can be expressed in daily contexts and in a way that participants could easily reflect on with regard to their partner’s behavior across the day (Overall & Sibley, 2009a, 2009b; Overall & Sibley, 2010; Overall et al, 2010; for examples of similar daily assessments see Lemay, Lin, & Muir, 2015; Liu et al, 2018; Timmons et al, 2017). The specific terms used were derived from established continuous scales and typologies capturing this category of behaviors during conflictual exchanges across relationship life, including unpleasant (Rusbult, Verette, Whitney, Slovik, & Lipkus, 1991), hurtful (Kerig, 1996), and critical (Canary, Cunningham, & Cody, 1988; Christensen & Heavey, 1990).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Perceiving greater negative behavior from partners often leads people to feel they are not cared about, valued, or appreciated, which creates problems with intimacy, trust, and closeness and thus erodes relationship quality (e.g., LaMotte, Khalifian, & Barry, 2017; Overall & Fletcher, 2010; Wieselquist, Rusbult, Foster, & Agnew, 1999). Partners’ criticism and hostility also tend to trigger defensiveness and reciprocal negativity, which impedes problem solving and reduces relationship quality (Gottman, 1998; Lemay, Overall, & Clark, 2012; Liu, Lemay, & Neal, 2018). Similarly, people often respond to partners’ negative-direct behavior with withdrawal and disengagement, creating distance and exacerbating problems in relationships (Christensen & Heavey, 1990; Heavey, Layne, & Christensen, 1993).…”

Section: Variability In Partners’ Negative-direct Behavior and Relati...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Behavioral variability reduces the harmful longitudinal effects of partners’ negative-direct behavior on relationship problems.

Overall¹

2020

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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Based on growing evidence that negative-direct behavior that addresses important contextual and situational demands is less harmful than negative-direct behavior that occurs irrespective of current demands, the current investigation tests whether the longitudinal impact of partners' negative-direct behavior depends on whether that behavior is more variable versus stable across couples' daily life and conflict interactions. In Studies 1 and 2, participants rated how much their partner behaved in critical and unpleasant ways every day for 21 days. In Study 3, couples were video-recorded discussing an important area of conflict, and independent coders rated how much partners expressed criticism and hostility within every 30-s segment of the discussion. In each study, the repeated assessments were used to calculate average levels (within-person mean across days or couples' discussions) and variability (within-person SD across days or couples' discussions) of partners' negative-direct behavior. Participants also reported on the severity of their relationship problems and relationship satisfaction at the beginning of each study and then 9 months later (Studies 1 and 2) or repeatedly across the following year (Study 3). High mean levels of partners' criticism and hostility predicted greater relationship problems (Studies 1-3) and lower relationship satisfaction (Study 3) when partners' negative-direct behavior was stable across time (low within-person variability), but was less harmful when partners' negative-direct behavior varied across time (high within-person variability). These novel results illustrate that behavioral variability offers a valuable way to understand and examine behavioral patterns that will be more helpful versus harmful in navigating the challenges of social life.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Variability In Partners’ Negative-direct Behavior and Relati...mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Behavioral variability reduces the harmful longitudinal effects of partners’ negative-direct behavior on relationship problems.

Overall¹

2020

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…How romantic partners communicate and express angry feelings with one another is a common focus in theories of relationship distress and in interventions to improve couple relationships (e.g., Benson et al, 2012;Caughlin & Vangelisti, 2006). Most research, however, focuses on anger and its association with relationship aggression and violence (e.g., Burman et al, 1993;Liu et al, 2018). Little is known about more common everyday dimensions of anger (e.g., annoyance toward a romantic partner) and how such annoyance relates to angry word choice during conversations, a potential precursor to escalating arguments and aggression (Greenfield et al, 1998).…”

Section: Anger In Romantic Relationshipsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feelings of Annoyance and Spoken Anger Words in Couples’ Everyday Lives: The Role of Family-of-Origin Aggression

Han

Schacter

Timmons

et al. 2020

Social Psychological and Personality Science

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Little is known about the words that romantic couples use during emotionally heightened moments such as when feeling annoyed with their partner. In the present study, young adult couples received mobile phones that audio-recorded 50% of their day and prompted hourly self-reports of partner-related annoyance. Actor–partner models tested within-person (hourly) and between-person (across the day) associations between feelings of annoyance and spoken anger words; furthermore, exposure to retrospectively assessed parent-to-child aggression (PCA) was examined as a moderator of these links. Men reporting more annoyance across the day as well as greater PCA used more overall anger words. For women, hourly anger words fluctuated in relation to men’s annoyance; moreover, greater PCA strengthened the link between women’s own hourly reported annoyance and anger words. Our findings highlight nuances in couples’ communication of everyday relationship distress and point to the role of PCA in next-generation romantic relationships.

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“…The expression of anger can lead to a conflict, result from a conflict, or be expressed during the course of a discussion that is not conflict-laden (Guerrero, 1994). In a study by Lie Liu et al (Liu, J., Lemay, E. P., & Neal, 2018) it was found that when partners were fighting with each other; they indulged in more destructive behaviors towards each other which in turn elicited anger from the partner. In conclusion, expression of anger in any form is considered to be threatening and can cause significant troubles in a relationship if not managed well.…”

Section: Relationship Satisfaction and Angermentioning

confidence: 99%

The Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence, Relationship Satisfaction And Anger

Pritamani¹

2021

Preprint

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The relationship between emotional intelligence, relationship satisfaction and anger was examined among couples who were in a relationship. There were 150 participants (Males = 34; Females = 116) between the ages of 25 and 60. All the participants completed The Assessing Emotions Scale, The Relationship Satisfaction Scale and The Anger Discomfort Scale. To calculate the correlation between the variables, Spearman’s rho was deployed. The results indicated a positive correlation between emotional intelligence and relationship satisfaction and a negative correlation between emotional intelligence and anger and relationship satisfaction and anger. Correlations between the four aspects of emotional intelligence with relationship satisfaction were also drawn; and once again the results showed a positive correlation between the variables.

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Mutual cyclical anger in romantic relationships: Moderation by agreeableness and commitment

Cited by 11 publications

References 68 publications

Behavioral variability reduces the harmful longitudinal effects of partners’ negative-direct behavior on relationship problems.

Behavioral variability reduces the harmful longitudinal effects of partners’ negative-direct behavior on relationship problems.

Feelings of Annoyance and Spoken Anger Words in Couples’ Everyday Lives: The Role of Family-of-Origin Aggression

The Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence, Relationship Satisfaction And Anger

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