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

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

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Baumeister

R. F.

(2005) The cultural animal, New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Bollen

K. A.

Curran

P. J.

(2004) Autoregressive latent trajectory (ALT) models: A synthesis of two traditions. Sociological Methods & Research 32: 336–383. doi:10:1177/0049124103260222.

Breiding

M. J.

Black

M. C.

Ryan

G. W.

(2008) Prevalence and risk factors of intimate partner violence in 18 U.S. states/territories, 2005. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 34: 112–118.

Child, N., Hanson, B., Bishop, M., Rinaldi, C. A., Bostock, J., Western, D., … Taggart, P. (2014). Effect of mental challenge induced by movie clips on action potential duration in normal human subjects independent of heart rate. Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology, 7, 518–523. doi:10.1161/CIRCEP.113.000909 CIRCEP-113.

Cohen

Nisbett

R. E.

Bowdle

B. F.

Schwarz

(1996) Insult, aggression, and the southern culture of honor: An “experimental ethnography. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 70: 945–960. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.70.5.945.

Craig

Tran

Hermens

Williams

Kemp

Morris

Gordon

(2009) Psychological and neural correlates of emotional intelligence in a large sample of adult males and females. Personality and Individual Differences 46: 111–115. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2008.09.011.

Duncan

T. E.

Duncan

S. C.

Strycker

L. A.

(2006) An introduction to latent variable growth curve modeling: Concepts, issues, and applications, Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Engbert

Plessow

Miller

Kirschbaum

Singer

(2014) Cortisol increase in empathic stress is modulated by emotional closeness and observation modality. Psychoneuroendocrinology 45: 192–201. doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2014.04.005.

Folger

J. P.

Poole

M. S.

Stutman

R. K.

(2012) Working through conflict: Strategies for relationships, groups, and organizations, 7th ed. Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

10.

Fuentes

(2008) Evolution of human behavior, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

11.

Gottman

J. M.

(1994) What predicts divorce?, Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

12.

Gottman

J. M.

(2011) The science of trust: Emotional attunement for couples, New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.

13.

Gottman

Silver

(2012) What makes love last, New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

14.

Hample

(1999) The life space of personalized conflicts. Communication Yearbook 22: 171–208.

15.

Hample

Cionea

I. A.

(2010) Taking conflict personally and its connections with aggressiveness. In: Avtgis

T. A.

Rancer

A. S.

(eds) Arguments, aggression, and conflict: New directions in theory and research, New York, NY: Routledge, Taylor and Francis, pp. 372–387.

16.

Hample

Dallinger

J. M.

(1995) A Lewinian perspective on taking conflict personally: Revision, refinement, and validation of the instrument. Communication Quarterly 43: 297–319. doi:10.1080/01463379509369978.

17.

Hample

Dallinger

J. M.

Fofana

(1995) Perceiving and predicting the tendency to personalize arguments. In: Jackson

(ed.) Argumentation and values, Annandale, VA: Speech Communication Association, pp. 434–438.

18.

Hample

Richards

A. S.

(2012) A test of the conflict linkage model in the context of serial arguments. Western Journal of Communication 76: 459–479. doi:10.1080/10570314.2012.703361.

19.

Harris

L. M.

Gergen

K. J.

Lannamann

J. W.

(1986) Aggression rituals. Communication Monographs 53: 252–265. doi:10.1080/03637758609376140.

20.

Honeycutt

J. M.

(2003) Imagined interactions: Daydreaming about communication, Cresskill, NJ: Hampton.

21.

Honeycutt

J. M.

(2004) Imagined interaction conflict-linkage theory: Explaining the persistence and resolution of interpersonal conflict in everyday life. Imagination, Cognition, and Personality 23: 3–25. doi 10.2190/240J-1VPK-K86D-1JL8.

22.

Honeycutt

J. M.

(2010) Forgive but don’t forget: Correlates of rumination about conflict. In: Honeycutt

J. M.

(ed.) Imagine that: Studies in imagined interaction, Cresskill, NJ: Hampton, pp. 17–29.

23.

Honeycutt

J. M.

(2015) Imagined interaction theory: Mental representations of interpersonal communication. In: Braithwaite

D. O.

Schrodt

(eds) Engaging theories in interpersonal communication, 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 75–87.

24.

Honeycutt

J. M.

Eldredge

J. H.

(2015, in press) Applying game theory and signal detection theory to conflict escalation: A case study of a police investigator viewing a domestic argument. In: Baek

(ed.) Game theory: Perspectives, applications and challenges, New York, NY: Nova Science.

25.

Honeycutt, J. M., & Keaton, S. A. (2015). A note on testing autoregressive time-series latent trajectory models for physiological behaviors that vary in stationarity. Communication Research Reports, 32, 353–359.

26.

Honeycutt

J. M.

Keaton

S. A.

Hatcher

L. C.

Hample

(2014) Effects of rumination and observing martial conflict on observers’ heart rates as they advise and predict the use of conflict tactics. In: Honeycutt

J. M.

Sawyer

C. R.

Keaton

S. A.

(eds) The influence of communication on physiology and health, New York, NY: Peter Lang, pp. 73–92.

27.

Honeycutt

J. M.

Sheldon

Pence

M. E.

Hatcher

L. C.

(2015) Predicting aggression, conciliation, and concurrent rumination in escalating conflict. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 30: 133–151. doi:10.1177/0886260514532717.

28.

Jacobson

Gottman

(2007) When men batter women, New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.

29.

Johnson

K. L.

Roloff

M. E.

(1998) Serial arguing and relational quality: Determinants and consequences of perceived resolvability. Communication Research 25: 327–343. doi:10.1177/009365098025003004.

30.

Kiecolt-Glaser

J. K.

Malarkey

W. B.

Chee

M. A.

Newton

Cacioppo

J. T.

Mao

H. Y.

Glaser

(1993) Negative behavior during marital conflict is associated with immunological down-regulation. Psychosomatic Medicine 55: 395–409. doi:10.1097/00006842-199309000-00001.

31.

Malis

R. S.

Roloff

M. E.

(2006) Demand/withdraw patterns in serial arguments: Implications for well-being. Human Communication Research 32: 198–216. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2958.2006.00009.x.

32.

Matthews

K. A.

Woodall

K. L.

Allen

M. T.

(1993) Cardiovascular reactivity to stress predicts future blood pressure status. Hypertension 22: 479–485. doi:10.1161/01.HYP.22.4.479.

33.

Miller

C. W.

Roloff

M. E.

(2014) When hurt continues: Taking conflict personally leads to rumination, residual hurt and negative motivations toward someone who hurt us. Communication Quarterly 62: 193–213. doi:10.1080/01463373.2014.890118.

34.

Nisbett

R. E.

Cohen

(1996) Culture of honor: The psychology of violence in the South, Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

35.

Roloff

M. E.

Reznik

R. M.

(2008) Communication during serial arguments: Connections with individuals’ mental and physical well-being. In: Motley

M. T.

(ed.) Studies in applied interpersonal communication, Los Angeles, CA: Sage, pp. 97–120.

36.

Sjöberg

Engelberg

(2010) Risk perception and movies: A study of availability as a factor in risk perception. Risk Analysis 30: 95–106. doi:10.1111/j.1539-6924.2009.01335.x. ISSN 0272-4332.

37.

Straus

M. A.

(1979) Measuring intrafamily conflict and violence: The conflict tactics scales. Journal of Marriage and the Family 41: 75–88. doi:10.2307/351733.

38.

Straus

M. A.

(2005) Women’s violence toward men is a serious social problem. In: Loseke

D. R.

Gelles

R. J.

Cavanaugh

M. M.

(eds) Current controversies on family violence, 2nd ed. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, pp. 55–77. Retrieved from http://pubpages.unh.edu/∼mas2/VB33R%20Women’s%20Violence%20Toward%20Men.pdf.

39.

Straus

M. A.

(2007) Conflict tactics scales. In: Jackson

N. A.

(ed.) Encyclopedia of domestic violence, New York, NY; London, England: Routledge, pp. 191.

40.

Vandello

J. A.

Cohen

Ransom

(2008) U.S. southern and northern differences in perceptions of norms about aggression: Mechanisms for the perpetuation of a culture of honor. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 39(2): 162–177. doi:10.1177/0022022107313862.

41.

Virtanen

Jula

Salminen

J. K.

Voipio-Pulkki

L. M.

Helenius

Kuusela

Airaksinen

(2003) Anxiety and hostility are associated with reduced baroreflex sensitivity and increased beat-to-beat blood pressure variability. Psychosomatic Medicine 65: 751–766. doi:10.1097/01.PSY.0000088760.65046.CF.

42.

Wallenfelsz

K. P.

Hample

(2010) The role of taking conflict personally in imagined interactions about conflict. Southern Communication Journal 75: 471–487. doi:10.1080/10417940903006057.