The Temporal Level

The analysis offered by Brown et al. (2006) suggests that historical periods indirectly affect the way couples communicate by influencing the physical environment. Historical periods also affect social interaction in more direct ways.

Within any given historical period, conflict is further shaped by the temporal rhythms of couples’ day-to-day activities. Several stud­ies have demonstrated that the experiences spouses have at work predict the tone of subse­quent marital interactions (Doumas, Margolin, & John, 2003). Bolger et al. (1989), for instance, found that when husbands or their wives reported having an argument at work, husbands were more likely to report having an argument with their spouse at home the following day. Similarly, Schulz et al. (2004) found that women were more likely to express anger and men were more likely to withdraw if they had negatively arousing workdays.

In sum, as Huston’s (2000) social eco­logical model indicates, the impact of the environment on dating and married couples’ conflict is complex. It is also more pervasive than would be implied by most of the extant literature on this topic. As we have argued, the environmental influence on couples’ conflict operates at various levels, including the cultural, social, dyadic, physical, and tem­poral levels. Although we discussed these lev­els separately, they are also interconnected in their influence on conflict; for example, con­sider the changes that have occurred in North American homes since the colonial period (Brown et al., 2006).

Conclusion

The literature on conflict in romantic couples is enormous and, in many respects, impres­sive. Considerable advances have been made in identifying conflict behaviors and patterns that are associated with outcomes like dissat­isfaction and dissolution. Scholars have also made important progress in understanding why conflict develops in particular ways and why relational partners enact some conflict behaviors rather than others. Although rela­tional conflict researchers have made great strides, our review and the social ecological conceptual framework suggest that greater attention to the environment of relational conflict is warranted. To illustrate the poten­tial of such a focus, we note two particularly important areas for future study.

First, the impact of conflict on close rela­tionships probably depends on a number of temporal issues that have received scant attention. Although there have been many studies on sequences within particular conflict episodes, understanding the impact of con­flict on relationships likely will require more attention to issues involving broader time frames (e.g., the daily rhythms of conflict, how serial arguments develop over time, and how changes in conflict over time affect relation­ships). Moreover, as depicted in our adapted social ecological model (Figure 6.1), there are undoubtedly historical and cultural changes that influence couples’ conflict, but we know little about how such changes operate. There is, for example, evidence that financial difficul­ties affect couples’ conflicts at a given point in time (Papp et al., 2009), but what happens to relationships and relational conflict when there is widespread economic hardship occurring over a period of years, such as during the so- called Great Recession? It is possible that such widespread financial difficulties could lead to an increase in difficult conflicts and a decrease in the constructiveness with which such con­flicts are handled.

Second, there are sound conceptual reasons— and some empirical ones—to believe that the impact of environmental factors on conflict in romantic relationships is greater than that implied by a typical laboratory study. The ideol­ogy that a particular culture holds concerning conflict, the social milieu in which conflict occurs, and the physical environment all influ­ence the conflict behaviors enacted by relational partners as well as the effects those behaviors have on their relationship. Taking a more contextual perspective on conflict in romantic dyads is likely to offer many potentially impor­tant insights.