ABSTRACT
Serial arguments are ongoing, unresolved confl icts about a specifi c topic that take place over time, are associated with a variety of goals (Bevan, Hale, & Williams, 2004), and occur in multiple contexts and relationships (e.g., Bevan, 2010; Hample & Kruger, 2011; Trapp & Hoff, 1985). Though serial argumentation research has been expanding knowledge in this research area, little systematic attention has been paid to how cognitive and communicative components of these ongoing arguments could be associated with disturbances to the romantic
relationships in which they occur. Such an approach would be valuable, as it would align serial argument research with more general confl ict scholarship, where relationship satisfaction (or dissatisfaction, which represents a specifi c form of relational disturbance) is a frequent and primary indicator of how much relational disturbance can be attributed to interpersonal confl ict processes (e.g., Caughlin, Vangelisti, & Mikucki-Enyart, 2013; Segrin, Hanzal, & Domschke, 2009). Further, as relationship satisfaction often predicts dissolution and divorce (Caughlin et al., 2013), determining which thoughts and behaviors in serial arguments are related to relationship satisfaction could improve the long-term outlook of the romantic relationship. As such, this study examines the associations between relationship satisfaction, defi ned as the “positivity of affect or attraction to one’s relationship” (Rusbult, 1983, p. 102), and the confl ict strategies, goals, and rumination that emerge in serial arguments.
