Date of Award
5-2028
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Dr. Adam Stanaland
Abstract
Conflict is inevitable in romantic relationships, and men vary widely in the strategies they use to resolve such conflict. The present study tested the roles of sexual orientation, political orientation, and masculine norm conformity in predicting men’s endorsement of adverse conflict responses in romantic relationships. In this pre-registered experiment, 403 cisgender men (200 straight, 203 queer-identifying; 44% racial/ethnic minority) first indicated their conformity to stereotypical masculinity norms then were presented with four randomly-ordered vignettes of a couple in an argument—each depicting a target man engaging in one of four conflict responses (physical violence, psychological aggression, withdrawal, compromise). After each vignette, participants rated their endorsement of the target man’s response (e.g., “I could see myself acting like [target name] in this situation”). Results revealed that political conservatism positively predicted men’s endorsement of physical violence, psychological aggression, and withdrawal (but not compromise), regardless of participants’ sexual orientation. We then tested which subdomains of masculinity norms mediated this observed difference between conservative and liberal men. Of the 10 subdomains tested, we found that conservative men’s conformity to “hegemonic” masculinity norms (i.e., power over women, primacy of work) explained their endorsement of physical violence and psychological aggression—whereas their conformity to “homophobic” norms explained their endorsement of withdrawal. This research helps identify why certain men are especially likely to engage in harmful conflict resolution strategies as a pathway toward understanding and mitigating such adverse responding.
Recommended Citation
Smith, Abigail, "Hegemony and Homophobia Drive Conservative Men’s Heightened Endorsement of Adverse Relationship Conflict Responses" (2028). Honors Theses. 1856.
https://scholarship.richmond.edu/honors-theses/1856
