Literature suggests positive relationships with caregivers during childhood facilitate intimacy in young adulthood. The three hypotheses in this inquiry related to the students' relationship between parental intimacy and friend intimacy, gender differences in intimacy, and the perceived acceptance of parents. Subjects were 322 male and female university students, aged 17 through 25 years. Most were single, white, and middle class. During class the Children's Report of Parental Behavior, the Miller Social Intimacy Scale, and a demographic sheet were administered. ANOVA revealed that relationships between parental intimacy and friend intimacy were not significant. Females reported greater intimacy with friends than males. For both sexes, correlations between recalled parental intimacy and acceptance were higher for mothers than fathers.

There is extensive research on depression and interpersonal problems, but research has not addressed these concepts in relation to mutuality and human motivation. Therefore, the purpose of the current study is to consider the associations between intimacy motivation and mutuality of closest relationships and how, when combined, the two connect to depressive experiences and the occurrence of interpersonal problems. Of the 7 original hypotheses suggested, 2 were supported while 5 were not. Perhaps the most interesting finding, and certainly the one with the most practical application, came from the two supported hypotheses. The analyses show that interpersonal problem subtypes are associated with specific depressive subtypes by operationalizing the demand/withdraw pattern of conflict. The exploratory findings also suggest a possible mediation of gender and depression by mutuality.

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The purpose of this study was to better understand how virtues and values affect marital intimacy. Ten married couples were given a marital satisfaction assessment and participated as individuals in 1-1/2 hour interviews which were audiotaped and then transcribed. Using grounded theory and also the constant comparative method, researchers were able to generate a theory involving a core theme of showing love for self and other, which strongly contributes to increased intimacy. This process is connected to living virtues and to becoming other-oriented. Two different ways of "being" were found to be connected both with showing love, living virtues, increasing intimacy: other-orientation (a focus on the other including her well-being) and self-orientation (a primary concern with meeting one's own needs and desires above all else). These orientations were connected with secure attachment style and insecure attachment styles, respectively. Secure attachment was connected with sets of beliefs and thoughts, affect, and behavior characteristic of this way of being that increase security in the relationship. Orientation and attachment style, whether other-oriented and secure or self-oriented and insecure, seemed to be mutually determining. A Virtue Cycle connected with these processes was described, in which one who lives virtues genuinely towards their partner often experiences an increased love for their partner and closeness in the relationship. The receiver often perceives virtuous actions given by her partner to be a sign of his love for her, which leads to feeling loved and feeling closer, and wanting to give to partner which leads her to increase her living of virtues, increasing her other-oreintation. Living of virtues was generally associated with increased intimacy for both Other-oriented and Self-oriented couples, though increases were greater and more lasting in Other-oriented (OO) couples. Implications are discussed.

A literature review indicated that psychopathological symptomology must be considered within the social context of the patient. Recent research has suggested that the psychopathological symptoms of the psychotic patient function on a covert level of communication as a strategy to control the threat of interpersonal intimacy. The present investigation similarly examined the interpersonal function of another class of patient symptomology, somatic symptoms. It was hypothesized that somatic symptom verbalizations of psychiatric outpatients also can serve as covert messages to avoid the risk of interpersonal intimacy. Results indicated that only the high-somatic-symptom patients significantly increased their symptom verbalizations in response to demand. When the interviewer modeled impersonal self-disclosures, both groups showed a low rate of somatic verbalizations. The groups did not differ. When the interviewer modeled personal self-disclosures, both patient groups significantly increased their psychological symptom verbalizations compared to their counterparts in the impersonal condition. In addition, low somatic symptom patients under the demand for personal disclosure showed significantly less avoidance behavior than any other group. No differences were found among the experimental groups in terms of self-disclosure level. The results clearly lend support to Haley's (1963) intimacy-avoidance corollary; that is, symptoms of non-psychotic patients function as covert messages that avoid the formation of intimate interpersonal relationships by redefining the reciprocal role available to participants. In view of these findings, several cross-study comparisons were made. In addition, directions for future research were suggested.

Thesis (MA (Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Close relationships are essential to health and well-being. There is clear evidence that problems in intimate relationships contribute to both health and psychological problems (Cassidy, 2001). In order to understand and treat adult intimate relationships effectively, there needs to be a theory that describes and explain adult intimate relationships. A review of the literature shows that the field has lacked a framework or a broad theory. A theory that proposes to be a framework for the understanding of adult intimate relationship, is John Bowlby's attachment theory. A review of the literature on adult intimate relationships, shows that attachment theory has become prominent in the field. Research suggests that attachment theory offers clinicians a way to grasp and help clients shape their attachment bond, transforming their marriages and their families (Johnson, 2003). It is therefore researchers' view that attachment theory offers the clinician a guide to understand adult intimate relationships and to treat and transform them. The objective of this review is to explore the applicability of attachment theory as a theory of adult intimate relationships. This review focuses on: A brief review of theories used in the area of adult intimate relationships; the central concepts of attachment bond and attachment styles and how these are carried through to adulthood via internal working models; the application of the concepts of attachment theory to the understanding and treatment of adult intimate relationships; the evaluation of EFT as a treatment model; and finally, the evaluation of attachment theory as a model of adult intimate relationships. Although there are valid concerns about the extensions and applications of the theory, it is concluded that the use attachment theory contributes to clinicians' understanding of adult intimate relationships. It was also suggested that extensive research on the use of this theory in other countries and specifically South Africa is critically needed to make well-grounded conclusions about the usefulness of this theory.

This study compares independent films from different countries (Turkey, Denmark, Iran and Spain) in a transnational context. Making use of schizoanalytic concepts, it presents an analysis of filmic space in relation to character construction in the internationally acclaimed contemporary films: Ten (Abbas Kiarostami, 2002), Talk to Her (Pedro Almodóvar, 2002), Two Girls (Kutluğ Ataman, 2005), Allegro (Christoffer Boe, 2005), The Others (Alejandro Amenábar, 2001), Destiny (Zeki Demirkubuz, 2006), Offside (Jafar Panahi, 2006), Dogville (Lars von Trier, 2003) and Climates (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2006). I argue that these films are feminist texts, in which becoming-woman of the female character deterritorializes the patriarchal ideal of home(land) as a political statement. In the above listed films filmic space is never configured as a harmonious unity of a righteous woman and a peaceful home. Despite the pervading homelessness, the female characters turn the male dominated public space into a habitable place through the filmic assemblages with space, objects and other characters. I also argue that the homelessness and the problematic connection between the female character and the storyworld posits a metaphor for the disconnection between the auteur-filmmakers and their home(land)s.

A Mediated Intimacy; Art, Technology and Exchange in the Digital Age examines the role of intimacy in the technologically extended work of art. The text posits that there are three strategies that the technologically extended work of art uses to create mediated intimacy. These strategies are technological completion, where the viewer/participant completes the work; technological exchange, where the viewer/participant enters into an exchange with the work; and technological displacement, where the viewer is displaced from their time and place and occupies a new co-constructed space. The strategies are analyzed through the theories of subjectivities of the self, and Foucault’s approach to inter-subjective exchanges is employed to understand how they function. The strategies are further demonstrated through analysis of works by Gary Hill, Janet Cardiff and Martine Neddam. A concrete example of the three strategies is presented in an original mobile media based project, Cite, Site, Sight: Richmond.

Testing a model that explains the ways in which interparental conflict shapes later intimate relationships was the goal of the present study. Participants were 94 college students at Virginia Commonwealth University, a large state university with a diverse student body. The study found that violence occurs with alarming frequency in the dating relationships of university students. Analyses also revealed an intergenerational pattern of violence in which individuals from high conflict homes were more likely to use violent conflict resolution strategies in their own adult romantic relationships. Specifically, young adults from homes characterized by high levels of verbal conflict and minor physical aggression were more likely to be both the perpetrator and the victim of physical violence than young adults from adaptive/low conflict homes. These young adults were also more likely to instigate verbal conflict within their own romantic relationships than individuals from adaptive/low conflict homes. Contrary to study hypotheses, young adults who witnessed severe physical violence between their parents were not more likely to be in a relationship characterized by physical or psychological aggression than other participants. Finally, the analyses support the hypothesis that dysfunctional relationship beliefs is a partial mediator through which childhood exposure to interparental conflict influences psychological aggression toward a romantic partner. No evidence of other cognitive and memory biases was found. These findings have important implications for research and intervention efforts.

Resumé This diplom work is devoted to the ritual purification of the Hebrew in mikva. Mikva is a Hebrew ritual bath which must fulfull certain religious regulations to be understood as properly religious. All the regulations and order regarding the functioning, construction and water, which is allowed to be used, are stated in Misna in the tractate Mikwa'ot. The basis for the ritual adequacy of mikva is water which should have inflow and outflow. Mikva serves to renew ritual cleanliness of a person who became ritually unclean. This ritual dates back to the times when Desater made a commandment to Sinaji. The first people who practiced the ritual were supposedly priests. Those were impurified after the contact with a dead body, carrion of an animal or a snake; after emission of semen or spermatorrhoea. During the times of the first Church the whole population including children cleaned themselves from different impurities. After the deconstruction of the Church the law regualting cleanliness and impurities changed. Today mikva is visited by women firstly before wedding, then after each menstruation period and after giving birth. Men are no longer obliged to practise the ritual after the deconstruction of the Church however even today orhodox Hebrew and chasids clean themselves before important Hebrew...