Occurrent Social Cognition in Close Relationship Interaction: The Role of Proximal and Distal Variables

We examined the relations among ongoing social cognition, interactive behavior, and the distal variables of depression and relationship quality. Thirty-eight couples in long-term unmarried relationships each had 10-min discussions of important problems in their relationship. Ss then independently re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of personality and social psychology 1990-09, Vol.59 (3), p.464-474
Main Authors: Fletcher, Garth J. O, Fitness, Julie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavior
Biological and medical sciences
Cognitions
Cognitive Processes
Conversation
Couples
Depression (Emotion)
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Interpersonal Interaction
Interpersonal relations
Nonverbal Communication
Personal relationships
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Satisfaction
Social cognition
Social interactions. Communication. Group processes
Social psychology
Social research
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Summary:We examined the relations among ongoing social cognition, interactive behavior, and the distal variables of depression and relationship quality. Thirty-eight couples in long-term unmarried relationships each had 10-min discussions of important problems in their relationship. Ss then independently reviewed videotapes of these discussions and provided verbal descriptions of their thoughts and feelings as experienced during the conversation. Observers later coded the positivity of the behavior from the videotapes and the positivity of the material from transcripts of these thought/feeling protocols. The most important findings were that (a) higher relationship quality was significantly related to more positive cognitions, whereas increased depression was associated with significantly fewer positive emotions, (b) relationship quality was significantly related to facial expression and posture, but relationship quality was more weakly related to the verbal material, and (c) in contrast, when depression and relationship quality were controlled for, facial expression and posture were unrelated to the positivity of cognitions, whereas verbal material was significantly related to the occurrence of positive cognitions. The results are discussed in terms of the distinctions between automatic and controlled cognitive processing, and distal and proximal classes of variables.
ISSN:0022-3514
1939-1315
DOI:10.1037/0022-3514.59.3.464