Current Theories and Epistemologies of Couple Communication Center White American Modes of Interaction

ABSTRACT The way that partners communicate with each other has been strongly linked with relationship outcomes, and communication therefore occupies a prominent place in key theories of relationship functioning. Direct observation is considered the gold standard methodology for studying couple communication, and this method has been widely used in relationship science over the past 5 decades. Although direct observation of partners' interactional exchanges has yielded insight into the functioning of relationships, it is a tool that is the product of research conducted in the Global North, primarily using samples of White American couples. White American modes of communication and interaction prioritize openly and directly confronting problems, but there is evidence to indicate that this paradigm would not adequately capture the various ways that couples from other cultural backgrounds deal with relationship problems or communicate love and support. By upholding this rigid epistemological definition of “good science,” relationship scholars are limiting our ability to accurately understand relationship functioning among couples from cultural backgrounds that are not aligned with White American ideals, and perpetuating the White American mode of interaction as the “correct” way to behave in a relationship. The current manuscript highlights the ways in which the current observational paradigm is problematic for diversifying relationship science and discusses adjustments that must be made to this methodology, as well as alternative methodological approaches for studying couple communication, that should be adopted in order to move toward an inclusive, global science of close relationships.