| Sumario: | The writers explore the demand-withdraw communication dynamic during which one spouse appeals for change and the other disengages from the topic. Employing both self-report questionnaires and microanalytic observational coding, they assessed two problem-solving discussions by each of 50 married couples. Working under the hypothesis that demand-withdraw is a product of disparity in the motivation to change, they requested each couple to discuss an issue about which the husband wanted the wife to change and an issue about which the wife wanted the husband to change. They revealed that wives demanded and husbands withdrew during talks on her issue, whereas husbands demanded and wives withdrew during discussions of his topic. They stated that time-series analyses of observational data confirmed that demand and withdraw behaviors are temporally associated during the course of discussion. Reasons why the findings revealed a total reversal in demand-withdraw roles, depending on whose issue was being discussed, are considered.
|
|---|