Conflict and Dialectics: Perceptions of Dialectical Contradictions in Marital Conflict

This study examined the perceived importance of six basic dialectical contradictions to conflict episodes for 25 marital couples. Using a revised version of the Retrospective Interview Technique (RIT) and questionnaire data, marital couples were asked to recall important conflict episodes, coded for issue type, over a 1-year period. Following in-depth questions about the conflicts, a questionnaire was administered that asked participants to rate 6 basic dialectical contradictions according to their importance for each conflict episode. A second questionnaire was also administered that asked participants to determine whether conflicts were dialectical (antagonistic and non-antagonistic) and/or non-dialectical, relative to each conflict episode. Results reveal that the dialectical contradictions of autonomy-connection and openness-closed-ness were perceived as more important than the other contradictions. Two other contradictions (integration-separation, predictability-novelty) were perceived as important for particular conflict issue types. Results from the second questionnaire revealed that 20% of conflicts were perceived as antagonistic, 16% as non-antagonistic, and 63% as non-dialectical.