Gender and marital adjustment level differences in decoding messages from spouses and strangers.

Abstract

48 married couples (mean age 33.5 yrs) who, in an earlier study by the present author (see record 1981-25650-001), had received a score indicating how accurately they decoded ambiguous messages from their spouses, were shown a videotape of strangers of both sexes sending similar messages in the present study. In the earlier study, low-marital-adjustment (determined by the Short Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Test) Ss had obtained lower scores when decoding their spouses than had other Ss; such differences were not found when these Ss were decoding opposite-sex strangers. Findings suggest the possibility that the communication problems found in low-marital-adjustment couples are a consequence of the unhappy relationship rather than the cause of it. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).