ABSTRACT
Scholars have long held that conflict is a ubiquitous feature of social interaction (e.g., Dahrendorf, 1958), yet individuals report that verbal conflict or arguing is relatively rare. College student diaries indicate that they average about seven arguments per week, typically with peers, that on average only last 3 minutes (Benoit & Benoit, 1987). Generally, spouses report having one argument per month (Bolger, DeLongis, Kessler, & Wethington, 1989) and about half of spouses report having less than one argument per month (McGonagle, Kessler, & Schilling, 1992). Finally, transcripts of the daily conversations of romantic partners indicate that less than 1% of interactions involve conflict, whereas 75% are focused on descriptions of daily activities, random observations about the current environment, the activities of other people, and television programs (Alberts, Yoshimura, Rabby, & Loschiavo, 2005).
