Attributions, Accounts, and Close Relationships

ATTRIBUTIONS, ACCOUNTS AND CLOSE RELATIONSHPIS documentsattributional and accounts approaches to the study of closerelationships. Issues of focus include communication pro-blems in marriage and their relationship with causal attri-butions; marital violence and its relationship with earlylearning experience; ego-defensive attribution and excuse-making in couples and with respect to medical problems; andattributions 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.