William R. Cupach

Relational and Episodic Characteristics Associated with Conflict Tactics

This study sought to discover how select episodic and relational variables are functionally related to communication tactics in situations of interpersonal conflict. More precisely, this study examined how communication satisfaction and perceived communication competence of partner might mediate the link between partners conflict messages and developing relationship features. Partners use of integrative tactics produced communication satisfaction and the perception of partners competence. Communication satisfaction and partner competence, in turn, contributed to the definition of the interpersonal relationship in terms of greater control mutuality, trust, intimacy and relational satisfaction. Distributive tactics of partner were inversely related to communication satisfaction and perceived partner competence, and directly affected the relational characteristics of trust, control mutuality and satisfaction. Avoidance was not associated with episodic or relational features when referencing the partners behavior. However, in tests that involved ones own conflict behavior, avoidance directly and negatively affected relational satisfaction.

Satisfaction with Sexual Communication in Marriage: Links to Sexual Satisfaction and Dyadic Adjustment

This study explored the relationships among sexual communication satisfaction, sexual satisfaction and dyadic adjustment in marital relationships. A total of 402 married individuals responded to a mail survey. Results indicated that satisfaction with sexual communication was significantly and positively associated with sexual satisfaction, dyadic adjustment, dyadic satisfaction, dyadic cohesion, affectional expression and dyadic consensus. Based upon an examination of partial correlations it is proposed that sexual satisfaction mediates the relationship between sexual communication satisfaction and marital adjustment.

Obsessive relational intrusion: incidence, perceived severity, and coping.

Two studies investigated the phenomenon of obsessive relational intrusion (ORI), defined as repeated and unwanted pursuit and invasion of one’s sense of physical or symbolic privacy by another person, either stranger or acquaintance, who desires and/or presumes an intimate relationship. In Study 1, we sought to identify the incidence of a broad range of relationally intrusive behaviors, to identify the coping responses employed by victims of ORI, and to assess the associations between coping responses and ORI behaviors. Study 2 assessed the perceived degree of severity of ORI behaviors. Results revealed that each of 63 ORI behaviors was experienced by 3-78% of respondents in three different samples. Factor analysis revealed four types of ORI behavior: pursuit, violation, threat, and hyper-intimacy. Responses for coping with ORI consisted of interaction, protection, retaliation, and evasion. Virtually all intrusive behaviors were perceived to be annoying. Some types of ORI behaviors were perceived to be relatively more threatening, upsetting and privacy-invading than others. Although sex differences were not observed for the incidence of ORI or coping, women consistently perceived ORI behaviors to be more annoying, upsetting, threatening, and privacy-invading than did men.

Situational influence on the use of remedial strategies in embarrassing predicaments

The present study investigated how the use of remedial strategies for coping with embarrassment is affected by various types of embarrassing predicaments. Respondents completed surveys in which they described a significant embarrassing event, what they did to reduce their felt embarrassment, and what other social actors present did to reduce the respondents embarrassment. Log‐linear analysis of frequency distributions indicated that for embarrassed persons, excuses were more likely to be used in mistake situations and less likely in recipient situations, justification was more likely in a faux pas situation, humor and remediation were more likely in accident situations, and aggression was used exclusively in recipient situations.

Trait versus state: A comparison of dispositional and situational measures of interpersonal communication competence

This investigation explored the relationship between situational and dispositional measures of interpersonal communication competence. Five propositions were derived and empirically supported. It was found that situational competence measures (i.e., self‐rated competence, rating of alter‐competence, and rating of alters anxiety) were significantly associated with one another; and dispositional measures (i.e., communicative adaptability, communicative competence, trait self‐rated competence, and social self‐esteem) were significantly related to one another. However, situational measures were not found to be substantially related to dispositional measures. Furthermore, situational measures of competence were better predictors of the outcome state of feeling good. Interpersonal attraction did not confound the relationship between measures of competent interaction and the state of feeling‐good criterion. Contrary to expectations, dogmatism was generally unrelated to measures of competence.

Accounts of relational dissolution: A comparison of marital and non‐marital relationships

Verbal accounts are the principal means by which individuals personally cope with spoiled relationships and socially manage relationship dissolution. The aims of this study are to illuminate the process of relational dissolution through analysis of personal accounts and to identify similarities and differences in the disengaging process for marriages versus dating relationships. Personal accounts of the dissolution of 50 marital and 50 pre‐marital relationships were analyzed in terms of four key features: (1) the problems and relational stresses that motivate one or both members to dissolve the relationship, (2) the attributions of responsibility for these problems, (3) the attempts to repair or manage the dissolving relationship, and (4) the factors that impede termination of the relationship. Findings indicate that the structural and affective enmeshment of marital couples lend to their disengagement accounts a characteristic complexity not paralleled in the accounts of couples who dissolved their relat...

A Competence-Based Approach to Examining Interpersonal Conflict Test of a Longitudinal Model

This article reports a test of a longitudinal model linking interpersonal conflict communication and relationship quality. The model stresses episodic factors that function to mediate the conflict-relationship link. In particular, the competence-based model specifies that assessments of competence and ones own communication satisfaction filter the effects of conflict on relational quality when measured concurrently at Time 1 (T1). In addition, the competence-based model includes the hypothesized impact of relational features at T1 on conflict strategies weeks later at Time 2 (T2), which indicates a reciprocal causal connection between message behavior and relational features. Structural equation modeling analyses support the mediational role of episodic assessments, which constitutes the heart of the model. However, relational quality at T1 did not predict conflict behavior at T2. Instead, analyses revealed that conflict behavior at T1 and partner conflict at T2 predict conflict behavior at T2.

Fueling the flames of the green‐eyed monster: The role of ruminative thought in reaction to romantic jealousy

This study examines factors predicted to influence individuals’ responses to romantic jealousy. Participants completed scales measuring relationship‐specific linking (i.e., believing that a specific relationship is essential to ones happiness), relationship‐specific rumination, possessiveness, trust, and communicative responses to jealousy. Contrary to expectations, relationship‐specific linking and relationship‐specific rumination were not correlated. Relationship‐specific linking was weakly associated with possessiveness, compensatory restoration, negative affect expression, and violence toward objects, but not associated any of the other variables. As predicted, relationship‐specific rumination was negatively associated with trust, and positively associated with possessiveness, surveillance/restriction, manipulation, relationship threat, rival contact, compensatory restoration, negative affect expression, signs of possession, derogation of competitors, distributive communication, violent communication, violence toward objects, active distancing, and avoidance/denial. The hypothesis that relationship‐specific rumination associates with integrative communication was not supported. The findings suggest that jealous rumination is an important cognitive mechanism that motivates some individuals to enact counterproductive communicative responses to jealousy.

Coping with Embarrassing Predicaments: Remedial Strategies and Their Perceived Utility

Two studies into the use and perceived utility of remedial strategies for coping with embarrassing predicaments are reported. In both studies, subjects were presented with two scenarios depicting embarrassing situations: one representing a loss of poise, and the other representing an inappropriate indentity display. In the first study, subjects rated four researcher-supplied strategies in terms of appropriateness, effectiveness, and satisfaction to others. In study two, subjects generated their own strategies for remediating embarrassment and rated them on the same criteria. Excuse and justification were not common or preferred strategies while apology and remediation were highly preferred. Females regarded more deferential strategies (e.g. excuse, apology) as more appropriate than did males. Males and females did not differ, however, in their reported use of strategies. In addition, the perceived appropriateness and effectiveness of strategies was found to vary as a function of the type of embarrassment.

Sex Differences in Stalking and Obsessive Relational Intrusion: Two Meta-Analyses

Two data sets (21 studies of college students; N = 6,820; 274 studies of stalking, N = 331,121) are meta-analyzed to identify the extent to which (a) stalking is experienced differently by women and men and (b) stalking and unwanted pursuit vary by sample type (clinical/forensic, general population, college). Women are significantly more likely to experience persistent unwanted pursuit, more likely to view such pursuit as threatening, and are two to three times as likely as men to be victims of stalking, but men report longer durations of unwanted pursuit. Most of these gender differences were small in effect size. Stalking labeling and perceived severity of unwanted pursuit and stalking depended in part on the type of sample from which the data were drawn and the locus of perception, whether victim or perpetrator. The type of sample revealed a number of differences, including in the relationship between threats and violence, which caution against generalizing results from one set of studies to another. Implications for progress in stalking theory and research are discussed.