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An explication of dialectical tensions and their negotiation in same-sex committed relationships
Abstract
Dialectical tensions have been explored and identified in a number of recent studies. Some dialectical tensions include the "pull" between the simultaneous need for integration-separation, stability-change, and expression-privacy. Past research on dialectics has focused on the existence of internal tensions, recorded the experience of tensions from an individual perspective, failed to consider the interplay between tensions, and presupposed a linear, developmental trajectory of relationships. The present study identified and explicated the experience and negotiation of dialectical contradictions in homosexual accounts of relationships. By specifically examining these relationships, new insight was provided not only about the assumptions of less marginalized relationships, but about dialectical tensions in same-sex committed couples as well. Four research questions were specifically addressed: (1) How do gay and lesbian couples communicate and work through their experiences of the core dialectical tension of expression-privacy?; (2) How do gay and lesbian couples communicate and work through their experiences of expression-privacy within the homosexual community?; (3) How do gay and lesbian couples communicate and work through their experiences of expression-privacy within the heterosexual community?; and (4) What, if any, interplay exists between the experience of the internal dialectical tension of openness-closedness and the external dialectical tension of revelation-concealment for the gay and lesbian couples in this study? Ten couples were interviewed about their relationships. Transcripted data were analyzed using the phenomenological steps of description, reduction, and interpretation. Over 3,000 meaning units were horizonalized into 190 variant themes. Three invariant themes, and two interpretive thematics emerged during this study. One key finding was that same-sex committed couples used disorientation--a nonfunctional negotiation strategy--to manage external dialectical tensions. Furthermore, participants also described the tendency to use a new negotiation strategy--target compartmentalization--to work through the tension between the need to reveal and/or conceal information to/from others. Results also indicated that couples negotiate the tensions according to the interpretive thematics of power and understanding. Overall, the findings suggested that dialectical tensions were prevalent in same-sex committed relationships, and illuminated new ways of experiencing and negotiating the tensions.
Subject Area
Communication|Families & family life|Personal relationships|Sociology|Social psychology
Recommended Citation
Perlich, John R, "An explication of dialectical tensions and their negotiation in same-sex committed relationships" (1997). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9804336.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9804336