Defining Romantic Self-Sabotage: A Thematic Analysis of Interviews With Practising Psychologists

Summary & key facts

The researchers asked 15 practising psychologists in Australia — all who work with romantic relationships — to talk about what they mean by “romantic self-sabotage.” They used guided conversations and then looked for common themes in the answers. The main point was that “self-sabotage” is not clearly defined in the psychology literature and is often treated as the same thing as self-handicapping, but the psychologists interviewed described a wider set of behaviours that happen inside relationships. The authors say this matters because without a clear definition we can’t measure or study these behaviours well, and they recommend doing more research to build a questionnaire to test the idea.

Key facts:

• The study asked 15 practising psychologists in Australia who specialize in romantic relationships to take part in guided conversations about self-sabotage.
• The researchers used semi-structured interviews — meaning they followed a set of questions but allowed the conversations to flow — and then used thematic analysis to find common themes in what the psychologists said.
• The authors report that the term “self-sabotage” is not clearly defined in the existing research literature.
• In current research, self-sabotage is often treated as the same as self-handicapping (making excuses or creating obstacles), but the psychologists in this study described relationship behaviors that go beyond that simple idea.
• Because the study was exploratory and qualitative, the authors say future work should develop and test a formal questionnaire or scale to measure romantic self-sabotage.
• A limitation is that this study reflects the views of a small group of psychologists in one country, so more studies are needed before the findings can be applied widely.

Abstract

Abstract The term ‘self-sabotage’ is not well defined in the current literature. Self-sabotage is generally explained as a synonym of self-handicapping, which does not fully encompass intrinsic behaviours found in romantic relationships. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to explore the theme of self-sabotage as viewed by practising psychologists. A series of 15 semistructured interviews with psychologists specialising in romantic relationships around Australia identified the main issues contributing to self-sabotage in romantic relationships and the reason why it might happen. Future studies will need to be conducted to develop a scale to empirically test self-sabotage in romantic relationships.

Topics

Attachment and Relationship Dynamics Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development Family Dynamics and Relationships

Categories

Psychology Social Psychology Social Sciences

Tags

Computer science Operating system Physics Psychoanalysis Psychology Qualitative research Quantum mechanics Romance Scale (ratio) Self Social psychology Social science Sociology Thematic analysis Theme (computing)