Korobov2023

Korobov2023
BibType	ARTICLE
Key	Korobov2020
Author(s)	Neil Korobov
Title	A discursive psychological approach to deflection in romantic couples’ everyday arguments
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Tag(s)	EMCA, In press, Couples, Arguments, Discursive psychology, Blame, Assessments
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Year	2020
Language	English
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Journal	Qualitative Psychology
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DOI	https://doi.org/10.1037/qup0000161
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Howpublished
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Abstract

This study uses a discursive psychological approach to examine how romantic couples use their feelings as conversational resources to manage blame and accountability in spontaneously recorded everyday arguments. More specifically, the study focuses on the role that subjective and objective assessments play in argumentative moments where speakers deflect (or flip) blame. Although traditional psychological literature might conceptualize moments of deflection as a form of gaslighting (or as a “narcissistic flip”), the current study uses a qualitatively discursive psychological orientation to focus on the interactional structure of the deflection/flipping process, analyzing it as a rhetorical move designed to accomplish relational business. One of the central findings is that because arguments can be delicate interactional events for couples, the initial critiques or complaints that tend to set off arguments are often built with subjective assessments where the feelings of the speaker are clearly marked. Further, these subjective assessments were often preliminaries for objective assessments that deflected blame. This study suggests exciting possibilities for discursive analyses that map out the rhetorical patterns through which couples manage everyday conflict. (APA PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

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