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Lindsey Aloia (Rollins College) and Denise Solomon (The Pennsylvania State University) published their findings in the journal Human Communication Research. Aloia and Solomon studied 50 romantically involved couples and found that the more intense the conflict interaction was rated between the couples the stronger the physiological stress response to the conflict. This relationship, however, was weakened for individuals who reported a higher level of childhood exposure to verbal aggression. For the experiment the couples provided saliva samples to determine their baseline cortisol levels. They were then interviewed separately about the most stressful areas of conflict in their relationship and filled out a questionnaire that asked about their childhood experiences with verbal aggression. Following the interview, partners were asked to sit together and discuss an area of conflict alone for 10 minutes. The sessions were videotaped. After the discussion the couples were separated again and provided two additional saliva samples over a period of 20 minutes after the conflict. Trained judges then watched video recordings of the couples and rated the intensity of the conflict communication of each couple. Finally, cortisol levels were calculated to evaluate experiences of stress using the collected saliva samples.

Previous research has examined the experience of conflict within a multitude of relationships. These studies make it clear that conflict can produce a number of negative outcomes. For example, exposure to conflict has been linked to depression, distress, and anxiety; feelings of hurt and anger; relationship dissatisfaction; and subsequent physical violence. Recent efforts point to the role of physiological processes in understanding the variation in individuals' experiences of interpersonal conflict. Considering the physiological implications for stress and viewing interpersonal conflict interactions as potential stressors highlights how experiences of conflict are shaped by both the demands of the interaction and people's adaptive capacity to handle that stressor.

  1. Could you simplify this part saying ** ... and viewing interpersonal conflict interactions as potential stressors** , in simple English. Please do not ammit some words, because I have to translate the original text in Farsi, later.

  2. Could you simplify demands of interaction in simple English.

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    "... and viewing conflicts between people as possible sources of stress highlights how experiences of conflict are shaped both by the requirements/intensity of the conflict and ..." The final "interaction" means the exchange that the people had with one another that was stressful. The word demands has a bit of ambiguity here it likely means both the requirements of the interaction and the intensity of the interaction.
    – Jason Patterson
    Jan 23, 2015 at 20:21
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is about reading comprehension and creative writing, not about learning English.
    – user3169
    Jan 23, 2015 at 22:41

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When we bring to the study of stressful interpersonal conflict the knowledge that stress produces physiological effects, we can see that a person's response to stressful interpersonal interactions is shaped not only by the nature of the interaction but by their adaptive ability to handle stress.

P.S. The original only alludes to exposure to childhood verbal aggression in that concluding sentence. There was probably no need to remind people that interpersonal conflict can be stressful, and they would have done better to remind the reader of the exposure to verbal aggression in childhood.

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