The global
nature of our measurement procedure surely limits the extent
of this finding. How to best operationalize positive
behaviors at the dyadic level in a way that goes beyond the
sum of—or the association between—partners’ individual
behaviors is an empirical question to be pursued.
Behaviors in the support domain. In line with predictions,
positive behaviors in the support task accounted for
unique variance in relationship quality beyond that afforded
by negative and positive behaviors in the conflict task. Our
findings suggest that positive individual behaviors in the
social support domain not only are relevant to relationship
quality but also convey information not already captured by
the assessment of communication in the conflict domain.