The present study assessed the interaction and cognitive styles that were associated with different levels of negative affect for husbands and wives. Without an observer present, 28 couples audiotaped problem-solving discussions in the home. Each spouse also filled out questionnaires measuring the extent to which they viewed their relationship as a resource for helping them with problems. The audiotapes were coded using the Couple's Interaction Scoring System (CISS) and then subjected to a series of proportional, sequential, and bivariate time-series analyses dyad by dyad. The results indicated that wives' negative affect was directly related to their attempts to confront the problem and enforce their own views (e.g., metacommunication, counterproposals, appeals), and was inversely related to their attempts to be conciliatory (e.g., agreement, mind reading with neutral voice tone). Husbands' negative affect was inversely related to both spouses' attempts to be conciliatory (agreement, proposals, contracting), and to the wives' viewing the relationship as a resource for helping them with their problems.
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