ABSTRACT
Even though researchers have been calling for the use of multimethod approaches to studying communication in families, the majority of family communication studies still rely almost exclusively on self-report data without any attempt to reconcile the differing perspectives of the couple or the perceptions of additional family members. As Chamberlain and Bank (1989) pointed out, “The most generalizable models of family process should include data from both insiders and outsiders who make ratings at both macro and micro levels” (p. 199). Their position is based on the assumption that “each measurement strategy and reporting agent brings with it a certain bias or error that detracts from the ‘true’ or core construct being examined” (p. 199).
