Attributions of Martial Conflict Among College Students

A study of single college student attitudes toward conflict was conducted to determine the attributions (internal versus external) they make regarding marital conflict scenarios (of mild to moderate to extreme severity). Between group differences of persons from divorced versus non-divorced homes were predicted as I well as sex differences with men making more external and females making more internal attributions. As expected, female actors did score higher than male actors on internal attribution. And females from both groups did rate the scenarios as more serious than males from both groups, as indicated by their higher mean rating of seriousness. However, the between group difference hypothesis was not supported in that there were not significant differences between parental divorce actors and parental non-divorce actors' attribution of causality. Idealization within marriage was discussed as serving a positive or negative end depending on the degree of idealization. Ability to discriminate the severity of the conflict in the scenarios is seen as related to the degree of idealization. Attributions regarding interpersonal attraction are discussed in terms of liking versus loving.