CONFLICT AND WITHDRAWAL DURING MARITAL INTERACTION - THE ROLES OF HOSTILITY AND DEFENSIVENESS

The present study examined the hypothesis that hostile and defensive p ersonality characteristics contribute to conflict and withdrawal withi n an important social relationship, marriage. A total of 90 newly wed couples participated in a videotaped discussion concerning areas of di sagreement in their marriage. Couples' interactions were coded using t he Marital Interaction Coding System (MICS), and codes were aggregated to assess conflict engagement and withdrawal. Among husbands, the com bination of high levels of hostility and low levels of defensiveness w as associated with a greater percentage of conflict. Among wives, this same personality pattern was associated with a greater percentage of withdrawal. Both of these findings held after controlling for marital satisfaction, highlighting the importance of personality for social in teractions. Moreover, the results support the tenability of Smith's ps ychosocial vulnerability model of personality and health, which posits that certain personality characteristics are associated with negative interpersonal consequences that may heighten vulnerability to illness .