Psychological intimacy in the lasting relationships of heterosexual and same sex women

Psychological intimacy in the lasting relationships of heterosexual and same sex women Research suggests that psychological intimacy, defined as the sense that one can be open and honest in talking with a partner about personal thoughts and feelings not usually expressed in other relationships, is important to individual well-being and overall mental health. Studies of gender differences dating back to the 1970’s suggest further that the relational orientations of males and females differ; women compared to men tend to value and be more comfortable with psychologically intimate communication in loving relationships. Relatively little attention has been paid to the meaning of intimacy to gay and straight women in lasting relationships, however. In this paper, the meaning of psychologically intimate communication to women in homosexual and heterosexual relationships that have lasted an average of 30 years is explored. The paper is based on data from a larger study of couples, which employed in-depth interviews to explore how partners adapted over the years in their relationships. A sub-sample of 24 lesbian and 24 straight partners (N=48) with similar social characteristic was selected from the larger database. Qualitative and quantitative procedures were employed in the data analysis. The meaning of psychological intimacy among women in these same sex relationships differed from women in heterosexual relationships. The two factors that contributed significantly to that finding were the understanding and sensitivity of the partners of respondents. Compared to lesbians, heterosexual women in these relationships viewed their male partners as less understanding and sensitive. The data suggest that understanding and sensitivity of partners may have enhanced the quality of psychological intimacy to respondents in lesbian relationships, a finding that needs further exploration and testing in future research.