Discourse of de-escalating arousal: how couples interact during problem-solving discussions when heart rate is decreasing
Year: 2002
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Couples with high levels of aversive physiological arousal during marital \nconflict risk becoming divorced (Gottman, 1994). This study examined the \nfeatures of discourse characterizing episodes of decreasing heart rate. Twelve \nmarried couples engaged in a fifteen-minute videotaped marital problem-solving \ndiscussion while wearing a heart rate monitor. Their IBI data were used to \nidentify 120 episodes of decreasing heart rate of at least five-seconds duration, \nand 120 comparable episodes of increasing heart rate. All videotaped episodes \nwere coded for both husband’s and wife’s behaviors, and t-tests were conducted \nto compare features during increasing versus decreasing heart rate. \nThe characteristic features of discourse during decreasing heart rate were: \nspeaking with certainty, and being open to another perspective. Features that \noccurred significantly less often during both husband’s and wife’s decreasing \nheart rates were: eye gaze, head nods, deep breaths, self-adaptors, and illustrative \ngestures. Features that occurred less often only during husbands’ decreasing heart \nrate were humor, acknowledgement tokens, and responding neutrally to wife’s \nnegative remark. Humor occurred more often during increasing heart rate that \nwas followed immediately by decreasing heart rate. \nA discourse analysis of two exemplar episodes revealed that decreasing \nheart rate was demonstrated by gentleness, certainty, and openness to another \nperspective. Increasing heart rate was characterized by the cautious use of \nlanguage and illustrative gestures, by self-adaptors, and by careful listening \nbehavior, including acknowledgement tokens. \nAn understanding of discourse features characterizing changes in heart \nrate is a first step toward enabling people to manage their own physiological \narousal during problem-solving discussions, and to support their partners’ arousal \nmanagement. \nGottman, J. M. (1994). What predicts divorce? Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Author: Linda Frances Potter Crumley
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2153111039