FUNCTIONAL COMMUNICATION PATTERNS AND RELATIONAL CONCERN IN INTERPERSONAL CONFLIC

This study investigated the relationship between the function of communication behaviors and post interaction levels of relational concern in interpersonal conflict. A review of literature suggested that communication behavior acts to transmit both content and relational information in interpersonal exchanges. The particular communication function of a behavior acts as the vehicle of transmission of relational information in dyads. Within this paradigm pragmatic relational messages are carried by the secondary communication function of the messages exchanged within dyads. A modified category system devised by Skinner was used to classify Functional Communication behaviors. This ten category system allowed each discrete communication act performed by members of a dyad to be coded by its function within the exchange.;This study further assumed that participants in dyadic communication episodes make judgments concerning each other's level of concern for their relationship based upon the functional communication behaviors used during an exchange. In testing this assumption it was first necessary to develop a measure of perceived relational concern in interpersonal communication situations. Such a measure was developed using the interpersonal conflict situation. Subjects were asked to rate a range of behaviors suggested by the literature as to their representativeness of eight levels of relational concern. A Guttman scale of relational concern was developed and used as the co-dependant variable in the study of the relationship between Functional Communication behaviors and perceived relational concern.;The main research hypothesis was addressed by placing subjects in a 'mixed-motive' conflict situation and videotaping their behavior. Coders then viewed the videotaped interactions and coded the communication behaviors of the subjects into the ten categories of Functional Communication behaviors. Five seconds was the unit of analysis for this coding. This data was analyzed using a Chi-Square Test for Independant Samples. This data was then compared to the perceived level of relational concern of the participants using Freeman's Coefficient of Differentiation.;It was found that at least a fifty percent association exists between a person's use of selected Functional Communication behaviors and their apparent level of relational concern. At each level of perceived relational concern at least two categories of Functional Communication behaviors were found to be reliable predictors of perceived relational concern.;The results of this study suggested that investigations of the specific communication acts which influence post interaction impressions of interactants is productive. Examination of the post interaction impressions of communicators' perceived level of relational concern is possible using a level-by-level Guttman type scale. This study further supported the notion that pragmatic relational information within a dyad is conveyed through the use of communication function. This line of investigation was shown to be a viable area for future research.