Sequencing and Social Structure in Family Conflict

This study shows how linguistic and sequential organization display features of social structure in the domain of verbalfamily conflict. Video and audio field recordings of naturally occurring verbal conflict in families are used as data for a microsociological analysis of conversational sequencing. Through a sequential social control process, interpersonal boundary information and hostility are asymmetrically distributed among generation and gender statuses of the family. The sequential organization of verbal conflict is modeled as a Markov process. The data is used to test the model. Sequential patterns articulating generation and gender status are quantitatively described. The equilibrium state of the Markov process describes the stable, asymmetric distribution of important social commodities in generation and gender statuses. The model also accurately predicts the distribution of conflict durations in the data. The stable and asymmetric properties which emerge from the sequential process demonstrate a link between the dynamics of social interaction and the stability of social structure. The imporiance of the microsociological analysis of informal social control for understanding verbal family conflict is emphasized.