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THE EFFECT OF CONFLICT AWARENESS ON INTERSPOUSAL DECISION MAKING IN HIGHLY INVOLVING PURCHASES
Abstract
The literature tradition of interspousal decision making had dealt with dyadic buying as an act rather than a process. In an effort to extend recent work examining interspousal buying as a process, this study proposes to simulate a highly involving buying situation for the purpose of testing predictions about conflict awareness and resulting conflict reduction behaviors. Specifically, a relationship is predicted between no perceived conflict and conflict dissolution; one spouse only perceiving conflict and conflict resolution; and both spouses perceiving conflict and conflict solution, respectively. A fourth hypothesis predicted that alternatives which were perceived by either spouse as being a source of conflict would be selected for purchase less frequently. Cues for the simulated purchase were selected from houses in a single real estate market. Dyads selected from a small city in the Southwest were recruited to take part in the exercise. Couples took part in the exercise in their homes and, through the use of variable measures and audio recordings, the relevant variables were operationalized and measured. Audio tapes were content analyzed and conflict reduction strategies were categorized. Using a two sample test of proportions, three of the four hypotheses were supported at the .05 level or greater. While the findings of a single study are never adequate for broader generalization, the strength of support for the hypotheses suggest that future work in situational perceptions of conflict in interspousal decision making may be fruitful.
Subject Area
Business community
Recommended Citation
MADDEN, CHARLES STANLEY, "THE EFFECT OF CONFLICT AWARENESS ON INTERSPOUSAL DECISION MAKING IN HIGHLY INVOLVING PURCHASES" (1982). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8217543.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8217543