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Abstract

This study examines reactions to others’ conflict. We examined the effects of taking conflict personally (TCP), sex, conflict initiation (husband vs. wife initiation), and past victimization from domestic abuse on predicting conciliation in response to escalating aggression over four time periods. We examined both the prediction of escalation and imagined interaction conflict-linkage in terms of persons ruminating about the escalating disagreement as it unfolded as well as blood pressure and heart rate. Latent growth curve modeling, controlling for first-order autocorrelation among the residuals, revealed that being male predicted a rise in aggression as conflict escalated. Victims predicted more conciliation as conflict escalated. Male-initiated conflict was associated with more imagined interaction rumination as the conflict intensified. Interestingly, people who take conflict personally did not show a rise in either aggression or conciliation. TCP did not predict conciliatory or aggressive reactions or conflict-linkage rumination, but it did predict changes in diastolic blood pressure as conflict increased. Results are discussed in terms of the stress associated with TCP.

Keywords

conflict-linkage blood pressure taking conflict personally

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A Latent Growth Curve Analysis of Taking Conflict Personally as a Consequence of Sex,Conflict Initiation,Victimization,Conflict-Linkage,and Cardiovascular Reactivity

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