The Physical Level

Conflict behavior and the interpretation of conflict behavior also are affected by vari­ous aspects of the physical environment. For instance, some studies show that aggressive acts are related positively to increases in tem­perature and humidity (Anderson, Bushman, & Groom, 1997).

The physical environment also includes architectural structures and movable objects. In their commentary on the influence of physi­cal environments on personal relationships, Brown, Werner, and Altman (2006) provided a very interesting comparison of people’s homes during different historical time periods. For example, they noted that middle-class colonial homes might have had only two lower rooms and an upper sleeping loft. As a consequence, families inhabiting these homes shared most of their daily experiences and had very little privacy. By contrast, Victorian homes had many separate spaces for family members. Clearly, the physical access that couples living in these two types of homes had to each other differed. It is very likely that the way couples conducted themselves during conflict episodes (e.g., the strategies they used to avoid conflict) was affected by the physical contexts in which they lived.