Relationship attributions, how a spouse explains his or her partner's behavior, were examined using a sample of cohabiting gay males (N = 175) in relationships of at least 6 months. The psychometric properties of the most commonly used attribution measure were investigated with this new population and found to be adequate through confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses. Analyses from heterosexual married couples regarding the association between relationship satisfaction, attributions, and negative affectivity were replicated in this sample using structural equation modeling. The findings from the gay male sample differed from what has been found in previous research with heterosexual couples; neither relationship attributions of causality or responsibility were strongly linked to relationship satisfaction. Counseling implications and directions for future research are discussed.
Baucom, D. H., & Adams, A. N. (1987). Assessing communication in marital interaction. In K. D. O'Leary (Ed.), Assessment of marital discord (pp. 139-181). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
2.
Baucom, D.H., Sayers, S.L., & Sher, T.G. (1990). Supplementing behavioral marital therapy with cognitive restructuring and emotional expressiveness training: An outcome investigation. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology , 58, 636-645.
3.
Bernstein, H., & Teng, G. (1989). Factoring items and factoring scales are different: Spurious evidence for multidimensionality due to item categorization. Psychological Bulletin, 105, 467-477.
4.
Blumstein, P., & Schwartz, P. (1983). American couples: Money, work, sex. New York: William Morrow and Company Inc.
5.
Bowman, S.L. (2003). A call to action in lesbian, gay and bisexual theory building and research. The Counseling Psychologist , 31, 63-69.
6.
Bradbury, T.N., & Fincham, F.D. (1990). Attributions in marriage: Review and critique . Psychological Bulletin, 107, 3-33.
7.
Bradbury, T.N., Fincham, F.D., & Beach, S.R. (2000). Research on the nature and determinants of marital satisfaction: A decade in review. Journal of Marriage and Family, 62, 964-980.
8.
Browne, M.W., Cudeck, R., Tateneni, K., & Mels G. (2004). CEFA: Comprehensive Exploratory Factor Analysis, Version 2.00 [Computer software and manual]. Retrieved July 6, 2007, from http://quantrm2.psy.ohio-state.edu/browne/
9.
Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24, 385-396.
10.
Cohen, S., & Williamson, G. (1988). Perceived stress in a probability sample of the United States. In S. Spacapam & S. Oskamp (Eds.), The social psychology of health: Claremont Symposium on applied social psychology (pp. 31-67). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
11.
Falbo, T., & Peplau, L.A. (1980). Power strategies in intimate relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38, 618-628.
12.
Fincham, F.D., Beach, S.R.H., & Bradbury, T.N. (1989). Marital distress, depression, and attributions: Is the marital distress-attribution association an artifact of depression?Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology , 57, 768-771.
13.
Fincham, F.D., & Bradbury, T.N. (1991). Cognition in marriage: A program of research on attributions. In W. H. Jones & D. Perlman (Eds.), Advances in personal relationships: A research annual (Vol. 2, pp. 159-203). Oxford, UK: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
14.
Fincham, F.D., & Bradbury, T.N. (1992). Assessing attributions in marriage: The relationships attribution measure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 457-468.
15.
Fincham, F.D., Bradbury, T.N., Arias, I., Byrne, C.A., & Karney, B.R. (1997). Marital violence, marital distress and attributions . Journal of Family Psychology, 11, 367-372.
16.
Fincham, F.D., Harold, G.T., & Gano-Phillips, S. (2000). The longitudinal association between attributions and marital satisfaction: Direction of the effect and role of efficacy expectations. Journal of Family Psychology , 14, 267-285.
17.
Gosling, S.D., Vazire, S., Srivastava, S., & John, O.P. (2004). Should we trust Web-based studies? A comparative analysis of six preconceptions about Internet questionnaires. American Psychologist, 59, 93-104.
18.
Gottman, J.M. (1993). A theory of marital dissolution and stability . Journal of Family Psychology, 7, 57-75.
19.
Gottman, J.M., & Levenson, R.W. (2004). Gay and lesbian couples research: A case of similarities of same-sex and cross-sex couples, differences between gay and lesbian couples. Retrieved July 31, 2007, from http://www.gottman.com/research/gaylesbian/12yearstudy/
20.
Gottman, J.M., Levenson, R.W., Gross, J., Frederickson, B.L., McCoy, K., Rosenthal, L., et al. (2003). Correlates of gay and lesbian couples' relationship satisfaction and relationship dissolution. Journal of Homosexuality, 45, 23-43.
21.
Gottman, J.M., Levenson, R.W., Swanson, C., Swanson, K., Tyson, R., & Yoshimoto, D. (2003). Observing gay, lesbian, and heterosexual couples' relationship: Mathematical modeling of conflict interaction. Journal of Homosexuality, 45, 65-91.
22.
Haas, S.M. (2002). Social support as relationship maintenance in gay couples coping with HIV and AIDS. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 19, 87-112.
23.
Igartua, K.J., Gill, K., & Montoro, R. (2003). Internalized homophobia: A factor in depression, anxiety, and suicide in the gay and lesbian population. Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health, 22, 15-30.
24.
Jöreskog, K.G., & Sörbom, D. (1993). LISREL 8: Structural equation modeling with the SIMPLIS command language. Chicago, IL: Scientific Software International, Inc.
25.
Karney, B.R., Bradbury, T.N., Fincham, F.D., & Sullivan, K.T. (1994). The role of negative affectivity in the association between attributions and marital satisfaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 413-424.
26.
Kishton, J.M., & Widaman, K.F. (1994). Unidimensional versus domain representative parceling of questionnaire items: An empirical example. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 54, 757-765.
27.
Kurdek, L.A. (1991) Correlates of relationship satisfaction in cohabitating gay and lesbian couples: Integration of contextual, investment, and problem-solving models. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 910-922.
28.
Kurdek, L.A. (1992). Relationship stability and relationships satisfaction in cohabitating gay and lesbian couples: A prospective longitudinal test of the contextual and interdependence models. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 9, 125-142.
29.
Kurdek, L.A. (1994). The nature and correlates of relationships quality in gay, lesbian, and heterosexual cohabitating couples: A test if the contextual, investment, and discrepancy models. In B. Greene & G. M. Herek (Eds.), Lesbian and gay psychology: Theory, research, and clinical applications (pp. 133-155). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
30.
Kurdek, L.A. (2001). Differences between heterosexual-nonparent couples and gay, lesbian, and heterosexual-parent couples. Journal of Family Issues, 22(6), 728-755.
31.
Kurdek, L.A. (2004). Are gay and lesbian cohabiting couples really different from heterosexual married couples? Journal of Marriage and Family, 66, 880-900.
32.
Kurdek, L.A. (2005). What do we know about gay and lesbian couples ? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14(5), 251-254.
33.
LaSala, M.C. (2000). Gay male couples: The importance of coming out and being out to parents. Journal of Homosexuality, 39, 47-71.
34.
Locke, H.J., & Wallace, K.M. (1959). Short marital-adjustment and prediction tests: Their reliability and validity. Journal of Marriage and Family Living, 21, 251-255.
35.
McWhirter, D.P., & Mattison, A.M. (1984). The male couple: How relationships develop. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
36.
Meyer, I.H. (2003). Prejudice, social stress, and mental health in lesbian, gay and bisexual populations: Conceptual issues and research evidence . Psychological Bulletin, 129, 674-697.
37.
Nasser, F., & Wisenbaker, J. (2003). A Monte Carlo study investigating the impact of item parceling on measures of fit in confirmatory factor analysis . Educational and Psychological Measurement, 63, 729-757.
38.
Peplau, L.A., Veniegas, R.C., & Campbell, S.M. (1996). Gay and lesbian relationships . In R. C. Savin-Williams & K. M. Cohen (Eds.), The lives of lesbians, gays, and bisexuals: Children to adults (pp. 250-273). Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace.
39.
Radloff, L.S. (1977). The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 385-401.
40.
Ross, M.W., & Rosser, B.R.S. (1996). Measurement and correlates of internalized homophobia: A factor analytic study. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 52, 15-21.
41.
Shidlo, A. (1994). Internalized homophobia: Conceptual and empirical issues in measurement. In B. Greene & G. M. Herek (Eds.), Lesbian and gay psychology: Theory, research, and clinical application (pp. 176-205). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
42.
Sweeney, P.D., Anderson, K., & Bailey, S. (1986). Attributional style in depression: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 974-991.
43.
Watson, D., & Clark, L.A. (1984). Negative affectivity: The disposition to experience aversive emotional states. Psychological Bulletin, 96, 465-490.
