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Coding procedures developed by Sillars (1980a) classified statements made during interpersonal conflict into “avoidance,”“integrative,” and “distributive” categories. In the present paper we present evidence that these distinctions provide an intuitively sound and theoretically meaningful basis for coding communication during conflict. Two studies are reported. In the first study, verbal tactics correlated in the expected ways with observer perceptions of the disclosiveness and competitiveness of conflict discussions. In the second study, several predicted relationships between verbal tactics and nonverbal behaviors were confirmed, although regression analysis indicated that most of these relationships could be accounted for by the high degree of talkativeness associated with integrative tactics. Overall support for the coding distinctions was obtained from the two studies.
Sillars et al. (Wed,) studied this question.