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Article 1: Houser, M. L., Horan, S. M., & Furler, L. A. (2008). Dating in the fast lane: How communication predicts speed-dating success. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 25(5), 749-768.

Summary: Speed-dating has become a popular way to initiate relationships; however, little scholarly research has focused on these events. The research presented in this article investigates positive and negative predictors of possible relationships by focusing on decisions to engage in future dates.

Article 2: Canary, D. J., Cunningham, E. M., & Cody, M. J. (1988). Goal types, gender, and locus of control in managing interpersonal conflict. Communication Research, 15(4), 426-446.

Summary:  This article examines how actors' goals, gender, and locus of control affect conflict strategy behaviors. Extending a research program that investigates influence goals, conflict episodes were categorized into subsets of proactive and reactive goal types. Moreover, a measure of conflict locus of control (CLOC) was developed to assess actors' internal and external control orientations toward their interpersonal conflicts.

Results revealed that distributive strategies were used more when defending oneself, whereas integrative tactics were used more to change one's relationship. Females were more likely than males to use personal criticism and anger strategies, whereas males were more likely to use denial tactics. In addition, CLOC internality was positively associated with integrative tactics, whereas CLOC externality was positively associated with avoidance and sarcasm strategies.

Article 3: Behrendt, H., & Ben-Ari, R. (2012). The Positive Side of Negative Emotion The Role of Guilt and Shame in Coping with Interpersonal Conflict. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 56(6), 1116-1138.

Summary: Two studies examined the effects of guilt and shame on coping with situations of interpersonal conflict. The first study used quantitative self-report measures to evaluate the relationship between guilt-proneness and shame-proneness and conflict coping style. The second study content-analyzed participants’ narrative reports of interpersonal conflicts to evaluate the distinguishing characteristics of guilt versus shame, and the causal relationship between state guilt and shame and styles of coping with conflict. Findings highlight the characteristics of guilt and shame that may explain their differential influence on coping. Theoretical contributions and applications for conflict resolution and mediation are discussed.