ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a discussion of methods for eliciting ordinarily private dyadic interactions in contexts that are amenable to videotaped observation. It describes the procedures that are designed to optimize, to the greatest degree possible, the naturalness and ecological validity of elicited interactions between intimates. The Assessment of Current Disagreements (ACD) research protocol provides instructions for the elicitation of couple conflict interactions that optimize these task characteristics. The procedures in this protocol are designed to help the investigator systematically elicit specific, current, and unresolved disagreements between partners, thus optimizing the extent to which lab-based conflict interactions are an analog to naturally occurring interactions. Although the conflict paradigm is still the most widely used interaction task in couple's research, procedures for eliciting naturalistic conversations about topics other than disagreements are gradually being developed. The standard couple's interaction task is structured for the participants, but the topic of discussion is a real-life issue for the couple.
