The Qualities of Romantic Relationships and Emotional Creativity of Hetero- and Homosexual Couples Representatives - Do They Love Differently in the Female Sexual Minority?

Abstract

Studies of the characteristics of hetero- and homosexual couples relationships are fragmentary. Modern Ukrainian society remains insufficiently aware of this issue, which leads to the stigmatization of a person because of his sexual orientation. The purpose of our study was to determine the relationship between emotional creativity and the quality of love relationships in hetero- and homosexual couples. The sample consisted of 20 heterosexual and 20 homosexual female couples (60 women and 20 men) aged 18-40. R. Sternberg's "Triangular Scale of Love", J. Avrill's questionnaire "Emotional Creativity", S. Khedrik's and K. Khedrik's "Psychological Types of Love" questionnaire, T. Rumyantseva's "Circle of Relationships" projective method (2006) were used for diagnosis. It was found out that regardless of sexual orientation, partners in romantic relationships are characterized by the same pronounced emotional creativity and have the similar quality of love relationships. It was determined that love-friendship prevails in all pairs, they also have partially symbiotic relationships, which are more pronounced in some heterosexual couples. Homosexual couples are characterized by more symmetrical relationships, although, as in heterosexual couples, there is a reaction of alienation in response to an attempt to build a symbiotic relationship by another partner. The revealed connections of emotions novelty with love obsession in lesbians and love pragmatism in heterosexual couples indicate the specificity of this emotional creativity component manifestation depending on the sexual orientation of the couples.