ABSTRACT
Research has recently yielded much information about the macroscopic strategies people use to maintain their relationships. There was no significant difference between husbands and wives regarding talk time. In short, support was found for differential use of back channels, with husbands enacting more than their wives. However, husbands did engage in significantly more back channels and wives enaged in significantly more nonhostile questions. Contrary to stereotypic beliefs, husbands engaged in significantly more back channels than did wives. Neither husbands nor wives engaged in significantly more hostile question asking. An alternative interpretation of similar findings for husbands and wives derives from the dual cultures approach. The similarities in conversational maintenance behaviors used by husbands and wives clearly outweigh the differences and defy a dominance model of interaction. Although the variables examined in the present study represent several conversational maintenance behaviors, they are not necessarily exhaustive.
