The role of interpersonal cognitive complexity in marital communication
Abstract
The present study examined the role of a social cognitive variable, interpersonal cognitive complexity, on marital communication skill. It was proposed that persons who were more cognitively complex would be more skillful marital communicators. Interpersonal cognitive complexity was measured by the Role Category Questionnaire (RCQ) (Crockett, 1965). Marital communication skill was measured by the communication box (Markman & Poltrock, 1982) and was operationalized as the ability to effectively produce a message which would have the intended impact on the listening spouse, accurately perceive intentions of the speaking spouse and the ability to accurately predict the impact of one's message on the listening spouse. Sixty married couples completed the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) (Spanier, 1976), the Positive Feelings Questionnaire (PFQ) (O'Leary, Fincham, & Turkewitz, 1983), and provided demographic information. Each couple discussed a problem from their own marriage and a vignette from the Inventory of Marital Conflicts (Olson & Ryder, 1970) while using the communication box. It was found that cognitive complexity was positively associated with effectiveness of message production. This relationship was also significant for wives, maritally distressed subjects, maritally distressed husbands and wives in nondistressed marriages. It was found that for men in a nondistressed marriage, the more cognitively complex they were the better predictors of impact they were. Subjects who were more cognitively complex were better able to perceive the intentions of their spouses. The correlation between cognitive complexity and predictive ability was significantly stronger for the maritally nondistressed subjects than for the maritally distressed subjects. Men who were more cognitively complex felt more positive towards their wives, as measured by the PFQ. In distressed marriages, the more complex wives were, the more negatively their husbands felt about them. The cognitive complexity of the husbands had no relationship to the wives' feelings about them. In the nondistressed marriages, the more complex their wives were, the more positive the husbands felt about them. Again, the cognitive complexity of the husbands had no relationship to the feelings their wives had towards them.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Sprenkle, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Social psychology|Communication|Families & family life|Personal relationships|Sociology
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