Abstract
As confirmed by many studies, domineering in romantic relationships - the ways romantic partners impose their will - is an integral and fundamental part of relationship functioning. This study explores the variability of behavioral domineering strategies leading to situational dominance.
Thirty five long term couples living together for a minimum of 1 year, whose average age is 25 years were observed. In a laboratory setting, the couples were asked to act out their typical conflict situation and were videotaped.
The verbal and nonverbal behavior of partners was coded using open codes and the character and outcome of the conflict was determined. Consequently, we selected codes that contributed the!most to final dominance of one of the partners(influenced the other partner the most) and categorized them into one or a few domineering strategies for each scene.
Finally, particular domineering strategies from individual scenes were categorized into more general domineering strategies. Weidentified three motivational areas leading to conflicts!in studied couples: an attempt to influence partner's behavior (50% of all cases), a conflict over a joint plan (35%) or injustice by partner (15%).
Two forms of domineering were found. A offensive (partner who had started the conflict won) and defensive domineering (partner who had started the conflict lost), both appearing with similar frequency.
We identified 8 domineering strategies: Argumentative, Coercive/Unyielding, Aggrieved, Blaming, Sabotage, Demonstration of Emotion, Insidious (Communication Fouls and Deceit) and Appealing. We concluded that in real life disputes of romantic couples,we can find several frequent and influential domineering strategies, unexpected according to the traditional socio- psychological literature, e.g.
Grievance, Sabotage or Demonstration of Emotion, for which the common characteristic!is, that they are indirect and do not require possession of power sources to be employed.