Symposia
Couples / Close Relationships
Alexandra K. Wojda-Burlij, M.A.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Durham, North Carolina
Donald Baucom, Ph.D.
Richard Lee Simpson Distinguished Professor of Psychology
UNC Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC
Danielle M. Weber, M.A.
Graduate Student
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC
Andrew Christensen, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor
University of California Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Extensive research has shown that couples who engage in intimate partner violence (IPV) tend to experience high levels of conflict characterized by quick escalation of negative emotions. However, previous research has primarily focused on examining these communication patterns in couples with either unidirectional IPV (husband-to-wife), reports of physical violence only, or by combining both partners’ IPV into a single summary score. Thus, depending upon different levels of psychological and/or physical violence perpetrated by men and women, much remains to be understood about IPV couples’ nuanced patterns of emotional expression over the course of a conversation.
The present study examined the unique and combined influence of men’s and women’s physical and psychological IPV on patterns of emotional arousal during the conversations of distressed different-gender couples seeking couple therapy (N=105; Christensen et al., 2004). At pre-treatment, relationship functioning measures and video-taped problem-solving conversations were collected. Emotional arousal was measured continuously during conversations using vocal fundamental frequency. Growth curve models examined each partner’s overall emotional arousal trajectories as a function of men’s and women’s physical and psychological IPV in the relationship.
Results demonstrate that women escalate emotionally across the conversation in relationships in which men engage in frequent physical and psychological violence. Similarly, men demonstrate emotional escalation in relationships where either partner engages in frequent psychological violence. However, men also show very different patterns of arousal, remaining emotionally stable across the conversation in relationships including women who engage in frequent physical violence. Thus, although there may be similarities in the way women and men express emotion in psychologically violent relationships, these findings suggest clear gender differences in the way men and women experience physical IPV in relationships. In particular, given that men are less likely to suffer negative outcomes as a result of women’s physical IPV (e.g., injury), men may feel less threatened in these relational contexts and are, therefore, less likely to find interactions with their partner emotionally provoking.