Attributions, Accounts, and Close Relationships

ATTRIBUTIONS, ACCOUNTS AND CLOSE RELATIONSHPIS documents attributional and accounts approaches to the study of close relationships. Issues of focus include communication pro- blems in marriage and their relationship with causal attri- butions; marital violence and its relationship with early learning experience; ego-defensive attribution and excuse- making in couples and with respect to medical problems; and attributions about transitions in relationships. Front Matter....Pages i-xiii Introduction: Convergence of the Attribution and Accounts Concepts in the Study of Close Relationships....Pages 1-18 What Is a “Personal” Relationship? A Rhetorical-Responsive Account of “Unfinished Business”....Pages 19-39 Interactions of Process and Moderator Variables in Account Episodes....Pages 40-51 Autobiographical Accounts, Situational Roles, and Motivated Biases: When Stories Don’t Match Up....Pages 52-70 The Role of Account-Making in the Growth and Deterioration of Close Relationships....Pages 71-92 Coping with Relational Dissolutions: Attributions, Account Credibility, and Plans for Resolving Conflicts....Pages 93-115 Accounting for Relationships: A Knowledge Structure Approach....Pages 116-143 Communication Problems in Committed Relationships: An Attributional Analysis....Pages 144-164 Attributions and Maritally Violent Men: The Role of Cognitions in Marital Violence....Pages 165-175 Attribution Processes in Victims of Marital Violence: Who Do Women Blame and Why?....Pages 176-193 Attribution and Emotion in Patients’ Families....Pages 194-208 Attributions and Apologies in Letters of Complaint to Hospitals and Letters of Response....Pages 209-220 Accounts of Intimate Support Relationships in the Early Months of Mothering....Pages 221-243 Front Matter....Pages 245-245 Richness and Rigor: Advancing the Study of Attributions and Accounts in Close Relationships....Pages 247-256 Toward a Deeper Understanding of Close Relationships....Pages 257-268 Attributions, Accounts, and Close Relationships: Close Calls and Relational Resolutions....Pages 269-279 A Meta-Account....Pages 280-287 Back Matter....Pages 289-303 John H. Harvey, Terri L. Orbuch, Ann L. Weber, Editors. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.