Gender differences in intimate-conflict initiation and escalation tendencies

According to gender motivation theory, men are driven by a desire to enhance their status; whereas, women are motivated by a desire to reduce risk, and the behavioral expressions of those motivations are context-dependent. In order to test this theory in the context of intimate relationships, this study compared men's and women's escalatory tendencies in the initial development of intimate conflict. These tendencies were conceptualized in terms...