College Students' Expectations of Conflict Intensity: A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy |
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| Authors: | Benjamin M DiPaola Michael E Roloff Kristopher M Peters |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Communication Studies , Northwestern University b-dipaola@northwestern.edu;3. Department of Communication Studies , Northwestern University |
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| Abstract: | Before becoming involved in an argument, actors often hold expectations regarding the intensity of the forthcoming conflict. This article examines how the interaction of initiator role and expecting a conflict to be intense is related to accounts of conflict processes and conflict aftermath. Undergraduate students' reports of a recent intense conflict they had initiated or another person had initiated revealed that expectations for conflict intensity were positively associated with the extent to which the conflicts reportedly were emotionally upsetting, involved personal attacks, and subsequently interfered with everyday life. These relationships were of greater magnitude when conflicts were self-initiated than other-initiated. |
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| Keywords: | Conflict Intensity Confrontation Expectations of Conflict Self-fulfilling Prophecies |
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