Impact of attachment style on responses to accommodative dilemmas among same-sex couples

Abstract

Drawing upon Goffman (1963), we examined the impact of attachment style on responses to accommodative dilemmas among couples with "discredited" identities (i.e., lesbian and gay male couples). Specifically, we tested the hypothesis that individuals in same-sex romantic relationships involving two securely attached partners would be more likely to engage in accommodation (i.e., in response to a partner's anger or criticism, would behave constructively) than would individuals in same-sex romantic relationships involving at least one insecurely attached partner. As expected, results from 58 gay male couples yielded a significant main effect for attachment style pairing on responses to accommodative dilemmas. However, results from 53 lesbian couples yielded a marginal interaction effect involving partner (i.e., Partner 1 versus Partner 2) and attachment style pairing on responses to accommodative dilemmas. Implications for the study of personality characteristics and interpersonal behavior among lesbian and gay male couples are discussed.