Interpersonal distances in lesbian couples
Description
The aim of this study was to explore how identification, acceptance and similarity between two lesbian partners and their mutual understanding were associated with the couple's satisfaction. Forty Italian women involved in same-sex relationships aged between 18 and 51 years completed the Partnership Questionnaire (PQ) and repertory grids (RG) involving the exchange grid method to create a total of 160 grids. The Italian version (Donato, Canzi, Parise, & Ferrari, 2014) of the Partnership Questionnaire (PQ) was administrated to evaluate couple satisfaction. This scale is divided into three subscales: the Quarreling subscale, the Tenderness subscale and the Sexuality subscale. The Repertory Grid Technique (Fransella, Bell, & Bannister, 2004) consists of elements and constructs. Every partner was asked to complete four grids: two grids by referring to her own elements and constructs, one by adopting her own perspective (how she sees others) and one by taking the perspective of her partner (how she thinks that the partner sees others). Subsequently, grids were exchanged and every partner was asked to complete grids by referring to elements and constructs elicited by the partner, one by adopting her own perspective and one by taking the perspective of her partner. The analysis of exchange grids was mainly focused on Euclidean distances between elements calculated on different grids that allows a range of measures (Cipolletta, 2011) to be calculated, namely: - Commonality: distance between how each partner construes her own elements and how the other partner construes her elements; - Sociality: distance between how each partner thinks that the other evaluates elements and how the other actually construes them; - Perceived similarity: distance between how each partner construes her elements and how she thinks that the other sees them; - Identification: distance between how each partner construes herself and the other partner on her own and the partner’s grid; - Self-acceptance: distance between how each partner construes herself and her ideal self; - Partner’s acceptance: distance between how each partner construes her partner and her ideal partner. References Cipolletta, S. (2011). Self-construction and interpersonal distances of juveniles living in residential communities. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 24, 122-143. Donato, S., Canzi, E., Parise, M., & Ferrari, L. (2014). Partnership questionnaire: factorial structure, gender invariance, and concurrent validity. Partnership, 21, 161-180. Fransella, F., Bell, R., & Bannister, D. (2004). A manual for repertory grid technique. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.