| Room 518 | Sexuality and Relationships Thursday, July 14, 2005 Time: 2:30 PM-4:30 PM |
The role of intimate identities and communication styles in couple functioning.
Offman, Alia W*,1, Matheson, Kimberly , 1 Carleton University department: Psychology, Ottawa, ON, Canada
ABSTRACT- Alia Offman and Kimberly Matheson, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada Introduction: The research examined sexual and general dilemmas within intimate relationships in order to assess how the relative importance of these domains to the individual interacted with styles of communication to determine satisfaction in the relationship. How individuals communicate in conflicts within an intimate relationship were expected to be unique when the conflict involved sexual issues. However, the extent to which different communication styles were linked to relationship functioning were expected to vary depending on the relative importance of individuals′ sexual-self relative to how much they valued their self-in-relationship. We suggested that the relative commitment an individual has to their intimate and sexual selves would ultimately affect the level of satisfaction in the relationship by influencing the responses chosen in response to sexual versus general dilemmas. Method: Couples volunteered for the study in response to newspaper advertisements, list-serve postings and posters placed in community agencies. Those who were interested were mailed questionnaire packages with return envelopes enclosed. Participants (N=96) responded to measures of identity, communication styles (i.e., accommodation styles), and satisfaction both in terms of their sexual selves and their relationship as a whole. Results: A 2 (sexual vs. non-sexual dilemmas) X 4 (communication styles) repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that lower levels of destructive responses were used in sexual dilemmas than in general relationship dilemmas. Additionally, two sets of hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the relative placement of the sexual and intimate selves qualified the relation between communication styles and satisfaction in the relationship. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrated that individuals used different patterns of communication when dealing with sexual versus non-sexual areas of the relationship. Additionally, we found that the levels of commitment to the self-in-relationship relative to the sexual-self played a role in how communication styles affected sexual and relationship satisfaction. The research suggests that satisfaction in the sexual and general domains of the intimate relationship are associated with an interrelated system of communication styles and identities that determine the success with which couples negotiate dilemmas in the intimate relationship.
Key words: sexual communication, accommodation styles, sexual satisfaction, identities, relationship satisfaction