rather than individual approaches to conflict, for the purpose of this investigation

partners' scores were averaged to provide a "couple" score indicating the couple's

general perception of how often each particular conflict style is used in their relationship.

Thus each couple had an averaged score for each of the four conflict types. A

"discrepancy" score was also calculated to determine the variability across partners'

perceptions of how often each conflict style is used; discrepancies between partners'

ratings for each of the four types were calculated and summed to provide a total

discrepancy score.

 This measure of couple conflict type was initially tested with two nonrandom

samples who learned of the survey through a college class, relationship enrichment

programs, or who found an Internet version of the survey on their own (Holman & Jarvis,

2003). The first sample included 376 married couples (N= 752), who had been in a

relationship for an average of 4.9 years. The male participants' average age was 27.5 and

the female participants' average age was 25.9. Approximately 97% of the sample was

White. The majority of the sample identified as Mormon (77%), with approximately 10%

of the sample identifying as Protestant and about 12% identifying as Catholic. Most of

the participants (81%) had graduated from college. The second sample included 903

unmarried couples (N= 1806) who had been dating for at least 7 months; the couples had

been in their relationship for an average of 1 to 2 years. The male participants' average

age was 23.9 and the female participants' average age was 22.8. Approximately 84% of

the sample was White while approximately 7% of the sample was Latino/Latina. About

41% of the sample identified as Protestant, 37% as Catholic, 12% as identifying with no

religion, and 11% identifying with a religion not listed. Forty-six percent of the men were