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Expectancies and Communication Behavior in Marriage: Distinguishing Proximal-Level Effects from Distal-Level Effects

Baylor University

This study investigates the relationship between married couples' communication behavior during problem-solving conversations and their pre-conversation expectancies. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to distinguish between proximal-level and distal-level effects. A proximal-level effect is when fluctuations in a person's expectancies are followed by immediate changes in communication behavior. A distal-level effect is when a person's average expectancies across multiple conversations correlate with average communication behavior across multiple conversations. Married couples completed measures of pre-conversation expectancies and engaged in a sequence of four, videotaped problem-solving discussions. At the proximal level, wives' expectancies predicted communication behavior for both wives and husbands. Husbands' expectancies were largely nonsignificant at the proximal level. At the distal level, both wives' and husbands' expectancies predicted communication behavior.

Key Words: communication • expectancies • marriage • multi-level analysis

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