COLLEGE-STUDENTS COGNITIVE AND EMOTIONAL-REACTIONS TO SIMULATED MARITAL AND FAMILY CONFLICT

This study examined cognitive and emotional reactions to simulated mar ital and family conflicts as experienced by college students from home s with physically aggressive (PA) and nonphysically aggressive (NPA) m arital relationships. Individuals from PA homes reported experiencing more physiological arousal and negative affect in response to simulate d marital and family conflict than did individuals from NPA homes. In addition, PA respondents were less likely to provide spontaneous sugge stions regarding how marital conflict could proceed more constructivel y than were NPA respondents. These results suggest that marital confli ct witnessed in the home may influence young adults' thoughts and feel ings regarding marital conflict in novel situations and present the po ssibility that marital conflict witnessed between one's parents leads to the development of a marital conflict representation which guides s ocial information processing of newly encountered marital interactions .