Practically Perfect in Every Way: Communication Strategies of Ideal Relational Partners

This study utilized social exchange constructs to examine communication strategies used by self-defined ideal relational partners when initiating dating relationships. Two hundred forty-four participants generated 1183 communication strategies they would use to initiate relationships if they believed themselves to be ideal partners. A content analysis revealed 15 categories of communication strategies enacted by ideal relational partners. These categories included initiation, emotional disclosure, direct inquiry, impression management, shared activities, supportive behaviors, information gathering, gift giving, compliments, other-initiated behaviors, assistance from others, self-acceptance, pickup lines, bragging, and use of humor. Implications for interpersonal communication research are discussed.     

Crisis Communication Best Practices: Some Quibbles and Additions

The researchers adopted relational dialectics theory (Baxter &; Montgomery, 1996 Baxter, L. A. and Montgomery, B. M. 1996. Relating: Dialogues and dialectics, New York: Guilford Press.  [Google Scholar]) to examine the discourse of 37 bereaved parents. Research questions guiding the study were what dialectical contradictions do bereaved parents experience when communicating with their marital partner after their child's death and how do bereaved parents and their marital partners communicatively negotiate the dialectical contradictions they experience? Our analysis revealed that bereaved parents experienced a dialectical contradiction between trying to grieve their child's death together as a couple and apart as individuals. Likewise, parents experienced a contradiction between being both open and closed when talking with one another about their child's death. Results describe how parents negotiated these contradictions, and implications for professionals are discussed.     

Relational Uncertainty and Relationship Talk within Courtship: A Longitudinal Actor–Partner Interdependence Model

This study investigated the interplay between relational uncertainty and relationship talk for actors and partners over time. Participants were 135 romantic couples who completed an online survey once per week for six weeks. Between-person and within-person results indicated that people experiencing relational uncertainty appraised relationship talk as more threatening to themselves and to their courtship; they also reported avoiding more and enacting less relationship talk. Lagged analyses demonstrated that individuals who reported avoiding more and enacting less relationship talk in one week experienced more relational uncertainty in the following week. Partner effects, although not as prominent as actor effects, implied mutual influence within couples. The paper concludes by discussing how the findings advance scholarship on relational uncertainty and relationship talk.     

Examining the Bidirectional Nature of Topic Avoidance and Relationship Dissatisfaction: The Moderating Role of Communication Skills

This study examined the bidirectional nature of the association between one's own topic avoidance and relationship dissatisfaction. It also explored how perceptions of a dating partner's communication competence and one's own communication efficacy affect this association. Three hundred undergraduates tracked their topic avoidance with their dating partner over a two week period. The results provided modest support for the idea that the association between topic avoidance and dissatisfaction is bidirectional for women, but not men. In addition, for men and women, global dissatisfaction with their dating relationship was a stronger predictor of daily topic avoidance (than daily topic avoidance was of daily dissatisfaction). Initial global levels of relationship dissatisfaction predicted greater levels of topic avoidance and this effect was quite stable over time, particularly for women. The results also revealed that the perception of a partner's communication incompetence was indirectly associated with increases in topic avoidance over time only because it affected one's communication efficacy. Finally, the results indicated that women who were highly efficacious were particularly dissatisfied by their topic avoidance over time.