The dyadic interaction of persons with violent and nonviolent histories

• Published in: Aggressive behavior Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 13 - 20
• Main Authors: Gully, Kevin J., Dengerink, Harold A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company 1983
• Subjects: coercive; conflict; family; interpersonal; marital; traits; violence
• ISSN: 0096-140X; 1098-2337
• DOI: 10.1002/1098-2337(1983)9:1<13::AID-AB2480090103>3.0.CO;2-F

College students were classified as having violent or nonviolent histories on the basis of their responses to the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS). Four groups of heterosexual pairs were then recalled for further testing: violent males paired with violent females, violent males with nonviolent females, nonviolent males with violent females, and nonviolent males with nonviolent females. These pairs were asked to role play their attempt to resolve an hypothetical conflict while being videotaped. Subsequently, their behavior was recorded into the three summary categories that emcompass the Marital Interaction Coding System. Persons with violent histories were more frequently negative than those with nonviolent histories while interacting with an individual having a similar history. This result supports the validity of the CTS by demonstrating that it is capable of predicting behavior during the verbal resolution of a conflict. However, the results suggested that the nature of the contribution to the aversiveness of the interaction may be different for males and females. Overall, these results offer some support for the notion that some individuals learn aversive behavior as a general behavioral style for controlling their environments with the probability of performing coercive behavior partially a function of other individuals.