Responding to Roommate Troubles: Reconsidering Informal Dyadic Control

Abstract

Existing analyses of informal control within dyadic relations neglect the nonpenal responses that characterize many such control efforts, and they give minimal attention to the interactional and interpretive processes that characterize such responses. And while dispute transformation provides a welldeveloped model of the development of dyadic disputes, this model is limited in prespecifying ''injury'' as the starting point for these processes and in neglecting informal reactions other than ''claiming.'' Integrating theories of informal control and dispute transformation, this article provides a case study analyzing the nature and processes of informal reactions to troubles involving college roommates, identifying three general categories of such response: managerial reactions, which involve unilateral, nonconfrontational efforts to manage the consequences or implications of the trouble or to change indirectly the troubling behavior; complaint-making reactions, where the troubled party attempts to get the other to change the disturbing behavior; and distancing and punitive reactions, which are relationally despairing responses marked by open confrontation and hostility.

Crossing the Line: How Women in the Building Trades Interpret and Respond to Sexual Conduct at Work

“…Formal responses are often viewed skeptically by others and are treated as a "last resort" that is justified only by the seriousness of the offense or a lack of alternative ways to respond (R. M. Emerson 1981). The distinction between informal and formal responses allows for greater appreciation of social relationships: informal responses are designed to produce order and maintain relationships while formal responses typically indicate a failure or giving-up on the relationship (R. M. Emerson 2008). For example, Macaulay (1963) found that businesses rarely go to court to enforce contracts because such an action ends the business partnership.…”

“…First, it explicitly theorizes the processual character of interpretations and responses as "response cycles." These consist of persistent troubles that are subject to multiple frustrated attempts to remedy the situation leading to a possible escalation of the response (R. M. Emerson 2008). Emerson also improves on Fitzgerald and colleagues' (1995) externally focused coping category by distinguishing formal responses that seek to enforce rules or sanction offenders by involving official third parties (such as filing a sexual harassment complaint) from informal responses that seek to remedy and restore order to a troubling situation (R. M. Emerson 2008).…”

“…These consist of persistent troubles that are subject to multiple frustrated attempts to remedy the situation leading to a possible escalation of the response (R. M. Emerson 2008). Emerson also improves on Fitzgerald and colleagues' (1995) externally focused coping category by distinguishing formal responses that seek to enforce rules or sanction offenders by involving official third parties (such as filing a sexual harassment complaint) from informal responses that seek to remedy and restore order to a troubling situation (R. M. Emerson 2008). Formal responses are often viewed skeptically by others and are treated as a "last resort" that is justified only by the seriousness of the offense or a lack of alternative ways to respond (R. M. Emerson 1981).…”

“…This is caused, in part, by not including workers' responses to sexual behavior in the analysis or by not following women's experiences over time. Interpretations are inextricably linked to responses so that the outcome of a response (cessation, resolution, persistence, escalation) often leads to reinterpretations of the sexual conduct (R. M. Emerson 2008;Fitzgerald et al 1995). "Harassment is generally not a onetime event but rather unfolds across time, as do victims' responses" (Fitzgerald et al 1995, 124).…”

The Dynamics of Family Trouble

“…C. Wright Mills (1959) makes the distinction between "personal troubles" and "public issues" to convey how ostensibly personal problems are linked to larger social and historical circumstances. Robert Emerson (2008Emerson ( , 2009Emerson ( , 2011, in his research on the micro-politics of trouble, explores the interpersonal processes by which people recognize, respond to, contest, and construct problems in everyday life (see also Emerson and Messinger 1977). Scholars who conduct conversation analysis sometimes study "troubles-talk," or conversations that touch on problematic events or situations (Jefferson 1980).…”