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We Can Make It Better: “We” Moderates the Relationship Between a Compromising Style in Interpersonal Conflict and Well-Being

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Abstract

Compromising is considered a useful strategy for solving interpersonal conflicts. However, compromising, which includes accommodating and sacrificing, may also lead to anxiety and depression. Therefore, the current study focused on a moderating mechanism between compromising and psychological health. Based on self-expansion theory, we hypothesized that the more individuals have a relational focus (i.e., a greater use of “we”) while narrating their compromising experiences, the better psychological health they will experience. Two hundred sixty-one participants from National Taiwan University (mean age = 20.40, 53.26 % male, 46.74 % female), wrote about an experience of conflict with their parents and completed a package of questionnaires to measure their conflict management style and psychological health. The frequency of the “we” pronoun was considered an index of relational focus. As predicted, the results from a hierarchical multiple regression demonstrated that “we” moderated the effect of compromising style on well-being. Specifically, the relationship between compromising and psychological well-being were strengthened for individuals who had more relational focus. Thus, although a compromising style helps solve interpersonal conflicts, it does not necessarily increase individuals’ well-being. How individuals anchor their experiences are more important.

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Notes

  1. The skewness of all variables was in the range of −1 to 1 except for “we,” which was 2.55. We have also used square root transformation to adjust the skewness of “we” and reanalysis regression models with adjusted “we.” All results maintained similar patterns. Despite the fact that skewness could be adjusted using statistical methods, it doesn’t completely answer why individuals used so differently frequency on “we” pronoun. Regarding the theoretical perspective, word use as a natural phenomenon to reflect one’s social and psychological worlds was rarely normally distributed (Tausczik and Pennebaker 2010). The skewness of “we” has its own meaning to demonstrate individual difference.

  2. We have also run the regression models without controlling for RAS. All interaction effects remain significant. We suggested that including RAS as a control variable makes the regression models become more statistically powerful.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported in part by National Science Council, Taiwan, NSC 99-2410-H-002-082 to Yi-Cheng Lin and NSC 100-2410-H-011-012 to Chin-Lan Huang. In addition, Lung Hung Chen was supported by Ministry of Education, Taiwan (2012 project of elastic salary for outstanding scholar).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University, Taipei City, Taiwan

    Wei-Fang Lin & Yi-Cheng Lin

  2. Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei City, Taiwan

    Chin-Lan Huang

  3. Department of Recreation and Leisure Industry Management, National Taiwan Sport University, Taoyuan County, Taiwan

    Lung Hung Chen

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  1. Wei-Fang Lin
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  2. Yi-Cheng Lin
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  3. Chin-Lan Huang
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  4. Lung Hung Chen
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Correspondence to Yi-Cheng Lin or Lung Hung Chen.

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Lin, WF., Lin, YC., Huang, CL. et al. We Can Make It Better: “We” Moderates the Relationship Between a Compromising Style in Interpersonal Conflict and Well-Being. J Happiness Stud 17, 41–57 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-014-9582-8

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