Theoretical Frameworks for Studying Conflict and Emotion
Researchers have examined how some of the specific emotions mentioned above work together during conflict situations to predict outcomes such as relational satisfaction. Two theories, in particular, have also centered on communication patterns relevant to conflict interaction. Of these, Gottman’s (1994) cascade model is the premier relational theory linking emotion to conflict outcomes. Although less well developed than the cascade model in relation to the associations between conflict and emotion, Burgoon’s EVT (Burgoon & Hale, 1988) has been applied to situations involving emotion (Burgoon, 1993) and relationship transgressions (Bachman & Guerrero, 2006a), and therefore it appears promising for illuminating how emotion functions in conflict interaction.