Romantic/Sexual Target Group Effects of Gender and Sexual Orientation on Sense of Being Understood by One’s Romantic/Sexual Target Group Jaqlyn Colangelo & Saphire Jones SUNY Fredonia

Perception of sexual/romantic Other something something (Perry et al., 2016) Perceived similarities between target group and self are a reliable predictor of romantic attraction (Tidwell et al., 2013) EXPAND THIS. each point should be: assertion (citation)

Abstract Unknowability: a lack of understanding, or perceived mystery  OMG do not put a dictionary definition here. Target Group: those that an individual is sexually and/or romantically interested in  OK but probably unnecessary Exploration of how an individual feels their target group perceives them  ?? not following the sequence of thoughts, here Exploration of how this perceptions affects their interactions, and relational pursuits and behaviors

Methods Semi-structured interviews – White Picket Fence project "How do you think your target group perceives you as an individual? How easy do you think it might be for your target group to make sense of motivations, thoughts, feelings or behavior you?" "How does this perception affect the way your behavior around your target group?" "How does this perception affect the way you pursue relationships and act in relationships?"

Categories How do you think your target group perceives you as an individual? How easy is it for them to understand you? Belief that others perceive personality traits first or primarily “People think I’m really shy or introverted, people often don’t often see the personality traits, that I value in myself” Perception of themselves as easy to understand “I would think it would be very easy for my target group to understand my motivations and thoughts because all they have to do is ask”

Categories Being perceived in stereotypical manner “They (target group) perceive me as any other woman when I am out and about because I dress more feminine”

Categories How does this perception affect the way you behave around your target group? Hyper-awareness “I’m just really weird, and when I’m first interested in someone, I definitely have to level out the weirdeness, I must not be so weird.” Image management “I may highlight my femininity if I perceive that’s what they are attracted to.” “When people of a certain identity or orientation act a certain way I will mirror it.”

Categories How does this perception affect the way you pursue and act in relationships? Expression of feelings in safe locations only “I would go somewhere where I knew other gay and lesbians would be, that way I can be myself” Strategically managing unknowability for personal needs/goals “I put myself in a position where I am acting unnatural, because I want this person to noitce my motivations.”

Categories Taking extra care in relationship behaviors “I don’t want to make anyone else uncomfortable and I don’t want to make myself look stupid. I also want to respect what other people think and believe in. I’m just cautious about what I do.” Strategic Reciprocity “With someone who is different than you, it’s a lot more mirroring if you’re pursuing them.” Unknowability has little effect after relationship is established “Once I’m in the relationship, hopefully that unknowability will disappear and they will know who I am so I don’t have to fake it.”

Themes How do you think your target group perceives you as an individual? How easy is it for them to understand you? Individuals responded with personality traits  put these counts on the slides where the categories occurred. This is going to stretch out too long. Occurred 9 times People present themselves sympathetically, lacking insight of outsider perspective Occurred 13 times

Themes How does this perception affect the way you act around your target group? Knowing how target group perceives you causes you to change your overall presentations (behaviors/ emotions) to line up with one’s goals and needs Occurred 14 times

Themes How does this perception affect the way you pursue relationships and act in relationships? Hyper vigilance if safe space is not found in relationship Occured 7 times (out of how many interviews? Might be best to put all counts as count and also %) To ensure emotional protection, individuals will wait until they are in a safe space, to let their guard down. Experiencing vulnerability and anxiety toward expressing true feelings in unsafe situations Occurred 22 times

Analysis How do you think your target group perceives you as an individual? How easy is it for them to understand you? People who identified as part of the LGBTQ community (homosexual, demisexual and pansexual) were more likely to discuss personality traits first People who identified as heterosexual were equally likely to discuss stereotypical perceptions and ease of understandability

Analysis How does this perception affect the way you act around your target group? Those identifying in LGBTQ community were most likely to discuss both themes of hyper-awareness and image management Individuals identifying as heterosexual were more likely to only discuss hyperawareness

Analysis How does this perception affect the way you pursue relationships and act in relationships? Individuals in LGBTQ community discussed mostly strategic reciprocity, strategic management of unknowability, and having unknowability having little effect after relationship was established Those identifying as heterosexual also often discussed strategic management of unknowability and unknowability having little effect after relatiionship was established, but showed varying codes across the board outside of that

Discussion Summarize your findings (unless you think that's done already) Implications of this? for people? for institutions? for public health? for other researchers? Limitations!!! This study is ongoing, and more data will have potentially changed results The questions were very open to interpretation, and due to that offered us varying data  don't say this; I think it's obvious from the method. Also: don't use a theme where black text ends up over a dark shape.

References Perry, N. S., Huebner, D. M., Baucom, B. W., & Hoff, C. C. (2016). The complex contribution of sociodemographics to decision-making power in gay male couples. Journal Of Family Psychology, 30(8), 977-986. Tidwell, N. D., Eastwick, P. W. and Finkel, E. J. (2013), Perceived, not actual, similarity predicts initial attraction in a live romantic context: Evidence from the speed-dating paradigm. Personal Relationships, 20: 199–215.