Attributions, Accounts, and Close Relationships

ATTRIBUTIONS, ACCOUNTS AND CLOSE RELATIONSHPIS documents attributional and accounts approaches to the study of close relationships. Issues of focus include communication pro- blems in marriage and their relationship with causal attri- butions; marital violence and its relationship with early learning experience; ego-defensive attribution and excuse- making in couples and with respect to medical problems; and attributions about transitions in relationships.

1 Introduction: Convergence of the Attribution and Accounts Concepts in the Study of Close Relationships.- 2 What Is a “Personal” Relationship? A Rhetorical-Responsive Account of “Unfinished Business”.- 3 Interactions of Process and Moderator Variables in Account Episodes.- 4 Autobiographical Accounts, Situational Roles, and Motivated Biases: When Stories Don’t Match Up.- 5 The Role of Account-Making in the Growth and Deterioration of Close Relationships.- 6 Coping with Relational Dissolutions: Attributions, Account Credibility, and Plans for Resolving Conflicts.- 7 Accounting for Relationships: A Knowledge Structure Approach.- 8 Communication Problems in Committed Relationships: An Attributional Analysis.- 9 Attributions and Maritally Violent Men: The Role of Cognitions in Marital Violence.- 10 Attribution Processes in Victims of Marital Violence: Who Do Women Blame and Why?.- 11 Attribution and Emotion in Patients’ Families.- 12 Attributions and Apologies in Letters of Complaint to Hospitals and Letters of Response.- 13 Accounts of Intimate Support Relationships in the Early Months of Mothering.- Commentaries.- 14 Richness and Rigor: Advancing the Study of Attributions and Accounts in Close Relationships.- 15 Toward a Deeper Understanding of Close Relationships.- 16 Attributions, Accounts, and Close Relationships: Close Calls and Relational Resolutions.- 17 A Meta-Account.- Author Index.