2012 Volume 26 Issue 1 Pages 54-68
The purpose of this study is to show qualitative differences in the conflict management process between American husband-Japanese wife couples and Japanese husband-Japanese wife couples. In depth interviews and questionnaires were administered to ten wives of American husband-Japanese wife couples and ten wives of Japanese husband-Japanese wife couples. These informants had at least one child, living in the metropolitan area of Japan. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed using “The Modified Grounded Theory Approach” (Kinoshita, 2003). This study found a difference in the conflict management process between these two groups. The American husband-Japanese wife couples had changed their conflict management strategies from non-verbalization to verbalization. This process was facilitated by an attitude of attentive listening present among American husbands. Their conflict management strategies ended with constructive discussions. The Japanese husband-Japanese wife couples changed from verbalization to non-verbalization. This process was of two different types: 1. Both the Japanesewife and the Japanese husband understood each other non-verbally, or 2. Because of the attitude of non-attentive listening of the Japanese-husband, the Japanese wife had given up verbalizing her opinion in order to avoid destructive arguments.
The conflict management process of American husband-Japanese wife couples has a Low-Context Verbal Style and that of Japanese husband-Japanese wife couples has a High-Context Verbal Style (Hall, E.T. 1992 ; Ting-Toomey ＆ Chung, 2005).
