The present study examined the hypothesis that hostile and defensive personality characteristics contribute to conflict and withdrawal within an important social relationship, marriage. A total of 90 newly wed couples participated in a videotaped discussion concerning areas of disagreement in their marriage. Couples' interactions were coded using the Marital Interaction Coding System (MICS), and codes were aggregated to assess conflict engagement and withdrawal. Among husbands, the combination of high levels of hostility and low levels of defensiveness was associated with a greater percentage of conflict. Among wives, this same personality pattern was associated with a greater percentage of withdrawal Both of these findings held after controlling for marital satisfaction, highlighting the importance of personality for social interactions. Moreover, the results support the tenability of Smith's psychosocial vulnerability model of personality and health, which posits that certain personality characteristics are associated with negative interpersonal consequences that may heighten vulnerability to illness.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Aiken, L. S. , & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and inter-preting interactions. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
2.
Aneshensel, C. S. , & Yokopenic, P. A. (1985). Test for the comparability of a causal model of depression under two conditions of interviewing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 1337-1348.
3.
Barefoot, J. C. , Dodge, K. A., Peterson, B. L., Dahlstrom, W. G., & Williams, R. B. (1989). The Cook-Medley Hostility Scale: Item content and ability to predict survival. Psychosomatic Medicine, 51, 46-57.
4.
Barefoot, J. C. , Peterson, B. L., Dahlstrom, W. G., Siegler, I. C., Anderson, N. B., & Williams, R. B. (1991). Hostility patterns and health implications: Correlates of Cook-Medley Hostility Scale scores in a national survey. Health Psychology, 10, 18-24.
5.
Bradbury, T. N. , & Fincham, F. D. (1988). Individual difference variables in close relationships: A contextual model of marriage as an integrative framework. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 713-721.
6.
Bradbury, T. N. , & Karney, B. R. (1993). Longitudinal study of marital interaction and dysfunction: Review and analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 13, 15-27.
7.
Brandstatter, H. (1983). Emotional responses to other persons in everyday life situations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 871-883.
8.
Buck, R. (1984). The communication of emotion. New York: Guilford.
9.
Burman, B. , & Margolin, G. (1992). Analysis of the association between marital relationships and health problems: An interactional perspective. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 39-63.
10.
Buss, D. M. (1991). Conflict in married couples: Personality predictors of anger and upset. Journal of Personality, 59, 663-688.
11.
Cohen, J. , & Cohen, P. (1983). Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
12.
Cook, W. W. , & Medley, D. M. (1954). Proposed Hostility and Pharisaic-Virtue scales for the MMPI. Journal of Applied Psychology, 38, 414-418.
13.
Crowne, D. P. , & Marlowe, D. (1964). The approval motive: Studies in evaluative dependence. New York: Wiley.
14.
Dimsdale, J. E. , Pierce, C., Schoenfeld, D., Brown, A., Zusman, R., & Graham, R. (1986). Suppressed anger and blood pressure: The effects of race, sex, social class, obesity, and age. Psychosomatic Medicine, 48, 430-436.
15.
Hamilton, M. (1967). Development of a rating scale for primary depressive illness. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 6, 278-296.
16.
Hardy, J. D. , & Smith, T. W. (1988). Cynical hostility and vulnerability to disease: Social support, life stress, and physiological response to conflict. Health Psychology, 7, 447-459.
17.
Heavey, C. L. , Layne, C., & Christensen, A. (1993). Gender and conflict structure in marital interaction: A replication and extension. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 61, 16-27.
18.
Hooley, J. M. (1986). Expressed emotion and depression: Interactions between patients and high-versus low-expressed-emotion spouses. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 95, 237-246.
19.
House, J. S. , Landis, K R., & Umberson, D. (1988, July). Social relationships and health. Science, 241, 540-545.
20.
Huston, T. L. , McHale, S. M., & Crouter, A. C. (1986). When the honeymoon's over: Changes in the marriage relationship over the first year. In R. Gilmour & S. Duck (Eds.), The emerging field of personal relationships (pp. 109-131). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
21.
Izard, C. E. (1991). The psychology of emotions. New York: Plenum.
22.
Jacob, T. , & Krahn, G. (1987). The classification of behavioral observation codes in studies of family interaction. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 49, 677-687.
23.
Jamner, L. D. , Shapiro, D., Goldstein, I. B., & Hug, R. (1991). Ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate in paramedics: Effects of cynical hostility and defensiveness. Psychosomatic Medicine, 53, 393-406.
24.
Kelly, E. L. , & Conley, J. J. (1987). Personality and compatibility: A prospective analysis of marital stability and marital satisfaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 27-40.
25.
Kenny, D. X. (1988). The analysis of data from two-person relationships. In S. W. Duck, D. F. Hay, S. E. Hobfoll, W. Ickes, & B. Montgomery (Eds.), Handbook of personal relationships (pp. 57-77). London: Wiley.
26.
Kenrick, D. T. , & Funder, D. C. (1988). Profiting from controversy: Lessons from the person-situation debate. American Psychologist, 43, 23-34.
27.
Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K. , Malarkey, W. B., Chee, M., Newton, T. L., Cacioppo, J. T., Mao, H., & Glaser, R. (1993). Negative behavior during marital conflict is associated with immunological down-regulation. Psychosomatic Medicine, 55, 395-409.
28.
Knox, D. (1971). Marriage happiness. Champaign, IL: Research Press.
29.
Krokoff, L. J. (1989). Predictive validation of a telephone version of the Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Test. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 51, 767-775.
30.
Krokoff, L. J. , Gottman, J. M., & Roy, A. K. (1988). Blue-collar and white-collar marital interaction and communication orientation. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 5, 201-221.
31.
Locke, H. J. , & Wallace, K. M. (1959). Short marital adjustment and prediction tests: Their reliability and validity. Marriage and Family Living, 21, 251-255.
32.
Magnusson, D. (1990). Personality development from an interactional perspective. In L. A. Pervin (Ed.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (pp. 193-222). New York: Guilford.
33.
McNair, D. M. , Lorr, M., & Dropelman, L. F. (1981). Profile of mood states. San Diego, CA: Educational and Testing Service.
34.
Russell, G. W. (1981). A comparison of hostility measures. Journal of Social Psychology, 113, 45-55.
35.
Segraves, R. T. (1990). Theoretical orientations in the treatment of marital discord. In F. D. Fincham & T. N. Bradbury (Eds.), The psychology of marriage: Basic issues and applications (pp. 281-298). New York: Guilford.
36.
Smith, D. A. , Vivian, D., & O'Leary, K. D. (1990). Longitudinal prediction of marital discord from premarital expressions of affect. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 58, 790-798.
37.
Smith, T. W. (1992). Hostility and health: Current status of a psychosomatic hypothesis. Health Psychology, 11, 139-150.
38.
Smith, T. W. , & Frohm, K. D. (1985). What's so unhealthy about hostility? Construct validity and psychosocial correlates of the Cook and Medley Ho scale. Health Psychology, 4, 503-520.
39.
Smith, T. W. , Sanders, J. D., & Alexander, J. F. (1990). What does the Cook and Medley Hostility Scale measure? Affect, behavior and attributions in the marital context. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 699-708.
40.
Spitzer, R. L. , Williams, J. B. W., Endicott, M., & Gibbon, M. (1987). Structured clinical interview for DSM-III-R disorders non-patient version (SCID-NP). Unpublished report for the Biometrics Research Department, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York.
41.
Warner, R. M. (1992). Sequential analysis of social interaction: Assessing internal versus social determinants of behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 51-60.
42.
Weider, G. B. , & Weiss, R. L. (1980). Generalizability theory and the coding of marital interactions. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 48, 469-477.
43.
Weinberger, D. A. (1991). The construct validity of the repressive coping style. In J. L. Singer (Ed.), Repression and dissociation: Implications for personality theory, psychopathology, and health (pp. 337-386). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
44.
Weiss, R. L. (1992). MICS-IV marital interaction coding system: Training and reference manual for coders. Unpublished manuscript, Oregon Marital Studies Program, University of Oregon at Eugene.
45.
Weiss, R. L. , & Heyman, R. E. (1990). Observation in marital interaction. In F. D. Fincham & T. N. Bradbury (Eds.), Psychology of marriage (pp. 87-117). New York: Guilford.
46.
Weiss, R. L. , & Summers, K. (1983).The marital interaction coding system III. In E. E. Filsinger (Ed.), Marriage and family assessment (pp. 85-115). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
