| This qualitative study investigates miscommunication as contained in transcripts of one week of the at-home conversations of eight "satisfied" married couples. The study analyzes the frequency of miscommunication, how speech acts relate to miscommunication, and identifies verbal cues associated with miscommunication. In past studies "miscommunication" and "misunderstanding" represent both specific cases and broader categories. This study identifies miscommunication as the umbrella term and suggests that understanding, misunderstanding and nonunderstanding represent a continuum, rather than a binary process. A typology of 5 types of miscommunication is developed: process-centered, sender-centered, receiver-centered, cognition-centered, and the "nons" (noncommunication). All interactions are assessed to identify conflict and miscommunication. A grounded theory approach is then applied using the typology to help determine actual miscommunication, which accounts for an average 4.2% of the couples' total turns (range: 2.2% to 7.8%). Analysis also identified 123 phrases that serve as cues of potential miscommunication, and these were reduced to 8 categories: Meant, Said, Known, Mixed, Nonunderstanding, Understood, Heard, and Yes but. Sex differences in the use of cues are statistically significant across the total categories but not within the individual categories.; The role of speech acts in miscommunication is studied using the Birmingham School Discourse Analysis (BSA) method of conversational analysis. Differences across couples are demonstrated in the proportion of conversation that involved miscommunication, the use of certain speech acts such as "loops," differences in the frequency and nature of nonunderstandings, and types of miscommunication cues. Some sex differences occur within couples but are not consistent across couples. This research demonstrates the importance and complexity of studying natural conversation over time, as well as the usefulness of the BSA and speech acts in studying communication. The miscommunication typology and the categories of miscommunication cues are potentially useful to scholars and to those who help couples improve their relationships. |
