Abstract
Causal attributions made by distressed and nondistressed spouses for negative partner behavior were manipulated experimentally to examine their impact on spouse's subsequent cognitive and behavioral responses. Thirty-two spouses read a negative description of themselves written by their partners for which a plausible external cause (experimenter request) for the description was either present or absent. Spouses then listed the thoughts prompted by the description and engaged in a 5-minute discussion with their partners. For observational measures of behavior, an interaction was obtained between the attribution manipulation and marital distress: distressed spouses exhibited more negative and more positive behavior toward their partners when no external cause for the description was present. Marginally fewer thoughts were listed by both groups when an external cause was available, but no difference was found in the proportion of thoughts reflecting attributional activity. However, distressed spouses listed more blaming statements than did nondistressed spouses. After ruling out possible artifacts, the results are discussed in terms of existing research on the relationship between emotional arousal, overt behavior, and marital satisfaction.
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