ABSTRACT
Imagine that a married couple is sitting in a university laboratory engaged in a conversation about their relationship and that the way each spouse feels about the other spouse is generated by an attribution set-a cognitive structure that evolved during the couple's history, that is maintained by current events and is reflected in the ongoing discussion. Further, assume that each verbal statement and nonverbal behavior is a manifestation of internal feelings generated by the attribution set. It could be argued that such overt behaviors accurately and fully reflect the internal states or that, at minimum, they reflect some leakage of those emotions, or finally, it is possible that the overt behaviors are masking the internal states.
