Psychology

Article Aronson, Joyce Merle. 1996. Relationship stability A qualitative psychological study of long-term gay male couples. Boston College Dissertation. URL httpescholarship.bc.edudissertationsAAI9706646

The article investigated factors associated with stable relationships among twelve gay male couples who had been together for at least fifteen years and had not reared children together. The level of analysis is microscopic in orientation. The author viewed gay couples as active participants in the study. Each partner of the participating couples was interviewed separately. The interview was a semi-structured retrospective procedure that evaluated the effect of selected factors during the initial phase (first 5 years), the middle phase (5-10 years), and the present phase (more than 10 years) of the relationship.

The aim of the author was to explore the interpersonal dynamics between the partners, and of course the infleuences of several sociocultural factors. Each interview was transcribed. The data derived from the interviews were coded and analyzed separately by two raters for themes relevant to relationship stability and quality. There was no attempt to aggregate the data for prediction purposes because the study was essentially qualitative in perspective.

In all cases, the raters reached consensus. The interrater reliability was 0.87 for 96 core items that were common and about 0.85 for 30 items developed for this study. These numbers should not be confused with quantitative method because they are common indicators of items. Quantitative methods use heavy measurements like regression, ANOVA, t-test, and non-parametric tests (the aim is prediction and data consistency). The aim of these raters is the level of realiability.

Because the purpose of the study is data generation (distinct characteristic of grounded theory)  not verification  theoretical relevant issues are derived from the data. The findings of the study were as follows 1) early relationship themes were initial attraction, strong commitment, and stable relationship expectations, 2) interpersonal themes were communication, role definitions, satisfaction, and stability, 3) many of the long-term gay male relationships were marked by significant conflicts and poor communication. In a sense, the design is relatively appropriate because of its ability to generate rich data from experiences. Indeed, this ability was useful in creating categories and frameworks.