Goal & Concept
Goal
The goal of this exercise is to explore interpersonal power in dating, cohabiting, and married couples. Crosstabulation and comparison of means will be used.
Concept
Historically in the United States heterosexual relationships have followed a patriarchal model where men are the dominant partners. However over the past century changes to women's roles in the public and private spheres have altered gendered power dynamics, so much so that research shows that over 90% of both men and women now say they believe that partners should have an equal say in the relationship.
Interpersonal power in intimate relationships is multi-dimensional. It may mean one partner's ability to reward; coerce; have one's legitimate authority recognized; command reference (respect/love); claim expertise; or hold information. Partners may have different levels of power in different aspects of the relationship.
Perceived and real power dynamics in intimate relationships have important consequences ranging from relationship happiness to health and safety risks.
Examples of research questions about interpersonal power in intimate relationships:
- What are the different types of power at play in intimate relationships?
- Is power related to relationship satisfaction, and if so, how?
- Do men and women communicate power differently?
- Do men and women exercise power differently?
- How much power do women have compared to men?
- Does the type and locus of power vary based on the type and importance of decisions made?
- Does the nature of the relationship (dating, cohabitating, or married) affect power dynamics?
Dataset
This exercise uses the National Couples Survey (2005-2006), a study for which over 1,000 married and unmarried couples in four metropolitan areas (Baltimore, MD; Durham, NC; Seattle, WA; and St. Louis, MO) were interviewed. This study examines couples' contraceptive decision-making and contains parallel, separate partner reports about power relations, birth desires, method-related expectancies, values, perceptions, preferences, and behaviors of men and women making contraceptive and disease prevention choices within the context of an intimate heterosexual relationship.
This exercise will use the following variables from the Wave 1 data:
- Sex (SEX)
- Marital status (MARITALSTATUS)
- Has male partner harmed respondent (CR14)
- How often do you manipulate (MANIPULATE)
- How often do you bully (BULLY)
- How often do you distance (DISTANCE)
- How often do you beg (BEG)
- How often do you assert authority (ASSERT)
- How happy in relationship (CR28)
- Who makes the final decision about what car to get (CR18C)
- Who makes the final decision about where to go on vacation (CR18E)
- Who makes the final decision about what apartment to get (CR18F)
- Who makes the final decision about how much to spend on food (CR18H)
- Who makes the final decision about when to have sex (CR18I)
- Who makes the final decision about what sexual activities (CR18J)
- Who makes the final decision about when to use birth control (CR18K)
- Who makes the final decision about what kind of birth control (CR18L)
Application
Direct Use of Power
Respondents were asked to indicate, on a scale of 1 ("never") to 9 ("always"), how often they bully their partner (BULLY), and how often they assert their authority (ASSERT). We combined these two variables to create a measure of respondents' use of direct power (also rated on a scale of 1-9) and named the new variable "DIRECT".
Examine the results of the comparison of means between DIRECT and SEX, by MARITALSTATUS (as the column variable). On average, are males or females more likely to use direct forms of power in the relationship? Which group (married, living together, or dating) shows the most use of direct power?
Another measure of the use of direct power is the occurrence of violence in the relationship. Variable CR14 asked female respondents whether they have been harmed by their male partner. Consider the results of the crosstab between CR14 and marital status. What percentage of married women answered "yes" to this question? What percentage of women in dating relationships answered "yes"?
Indirect Use of Power
Respondents were asked to evaluate, on a scale of 1 ("never") to 9 ("always"), how often they manipulate (MANIPULATE), distance (DISTANCE), or beg their partner (BEG). We combined these variables to create a measure of respondents' use of indirect power, also rated on a scale of 1-9. The new variable is "INDIRECT".
Consider the results of the comparison of means between INDIRECT and SEX, by marital status. Are there substantial differences between men and women? Does the nature of the relationship appear to make a difference?
Who decides?
Respondents were asked who makes the final decision in a number of areas ranging from what car to get and how much money to spend on food, to various aspects of the couple's sex life. They were offered 5 response categories: "I always decide", "I decide more than s/he does", "We decide about equally", "S/he decides more than I do", and "S/he always decides". To simplify the analysis we recoded each variable, collapsing the categories from 5 to 3 and excluding missing data. The new variables are named CAR (who makes the final decision about what car to get?), VACATION (where to go on vacation?), APT (what apartment to get?), FOOD (how much to spend on food?), WHENSEX (when to have sex?), SEXACTIVS (what to do when couple has sex?), BRTHCTRL (whether to use birth control?), and BCTYPE (what kind of birth control to use?).
Take a look at the results of the respective crosstabs of SEX and: CAR, VACATION, APT, FOOD, WHENSEX, SEXACTIVS, BRTHCTRL, and BCTYPE. In which of these areas do men tend to make the final decision? In which areas do women tend to make the final decision? Do the results surprise you?
Do men and women's perceptions of the decision-making dynamics match?
Relationship Happiness
Respondents were asked to rate on a scale of 1-9, where 1 means "extremely unhappy" and 9 means "extremely happy", how happy they are in their relationship. We used this variable to run a comparison of means with SEX, by marital status. Take a look at the results. What is the average happiness score for women? For men? Which of the three groups (married, cohabiting, dating) reports the highest levels of relationship happiness? Which has the lowest?
Interpretation & Summary
Think about your answers to the application questions before you click through to the interpretation guide for help in answering them.
Direct Use of Power
On average, are males or females more likely to use direct forms of power in the relationship? Which group (married, living together, or dating) shows the most use of direct power?
What percentage of married women reported being harmed by their male partner? What percentage of women in dating relationships were harmed?
Indirect Use of Power
Are there substantial differences between men and women in the use of indirect power? Does the nature of the relationship appear to make a difference?
Who Decides?
In which areas do men tend to make the final decision? In which areas do women tend to make the final decision? Do the results surprise you?
Do men and women's perceptions of decision-making dynamics match?
Relationship Happiness
What is the average happiness score for women? For men? Which of the three groups (married, cohabiting, dating) reports the highest levels of relationship happiness? Which has the lowest?
Interpretation
Reading the results:
- The numbers in each cell of the crosstabulation tables show the percent of the people who fall into the overlapping categories, followed by the actual number of people that represents in this sample. The coloring in the tables demonstrates how the observed numbers in each cell compares to the expected number if there were no association between the two variables. The accompanying bar charts display the patterns visually as well.
- In the comparison of means tables, the top number in each cell represents the mean of the dependent variable for each category of the independent variable(s) and the bottom number is the actual number of people in that category in the sample.
- The results show the following:
- On average, men appear to use direct power more often than women (2.78 vs. 2.39), and the use of this type of power is most frequent (for both men and women) in dating couples. Married couples have the lowest scores of all three groups.
- Women in dating relationships appear to be about 3 times as likely to have been harmed by their male partner as married women (15.7% versus 5.6%).
- Men and women's use of indirect power appears to be about the same, regardless of the nature of the relationship, except for married couples, where women seem to use this form of power a bit more so than men (3.45 vs. 3.25).
- Men are more likely than women to say they make the final decision about what car to get (27.5%, vs. 10.2%), and what sexual activities the couple engages in (24% vs. 14.7%). Women, on the other hand, are more likely than men to say they decide where to go on vacation (15.4% vs. 10%), what apartment to take (16.7% vs. 12.9%), how much to spend on food (37.8% vs. 16.8%), when the couple has sex (22.8% vs. 17.1%), whether to use birth control (32.6% vs. 10.8) and what kind to use (48.3% vs. 10.5%).
- Men and women's perceptions of the decision-making dynamics match, indicating that when power operates along clear gender lines both partners recognize easily where the power lies. However, with the exception of a few decision areas (food and birth control), it seems that women perceive the decision-making process to be more egalitarian than men do.
- At 6.83 and 6.90 respectively, men and women exhibit similar levels of happiness in their relationship. Married couples in the sample are the happiest with scores of 7.32 for men and 7.46 for women, while dating couples report the lowest scores: 6.21 for the men, and 6.17 for the women.
Summary
The goal of this exercise was to explore interpersonal power in dating, cohabiting, and married couples. Taken together, the results show that while men and women use a range of power dimensions, men are more likely than women to use forceful forms of power such as bullying and asserting authority. The majority of couples report making most decisions together, but (perhaps surprisingly) when this is not the case women appear to be the ones making final decisions in many areas. Further research might explore how much of this reflects a true reversal in gender power dynamics, and how much is an extension of traditional gender roles whereby women are viewed as caretakers. Finally it appears that power may be more problematic for cohabiting and dating couples than for married ones. It would be interesting to explore why this may be the case, and whether it could explain differences in reported relationship happiness.
Interpersonal Power in Intimate Relationships
Bibliography
We have compiled a list of references (http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cgi/CITATIONS/search?study={id}&method=study&path=OLC) that might be useful to instructors and students wishing to further explore this topic. All were chosen because they relate to the topic of study, whether or not they use the specific dataset that was used in this exercise. Some relate directly to the concepts as defined by the exercise, others explore the topic more broadly either conceptually or empirically. For even more resources, try a key word search in the ICPSR Bibliography (http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/ICPSR/citations/)!
