abstract: A sense of closeness (or intimacy) is important in nearly every relationship in life, whether it is within friendships, family, or romantic relationships. In the current thesis, intimacy is measured within four specific dimensions: emotional, physical, intellectual and spiritual. Research shows that intimate relationships have been linked to mental and physical health outcomes. In addition, there is a novel explanation for the link between intimacy and health through rumination and sleep quality. The current study examined 2 primary aims: 1) to examine the relationship between intimacy and depression ; 2) to assess the role of intimacy, rumination and sleep quality on mental and on physical health. Results for Aim 1 suggest that there is a link between intimacy and both depression and physical health; where the higher the intimacy the lower the depression and the better physical health. For Aim 2, results indicated that there was a significant serial relationship between intimacy, rumination, sleep quality and both depression and physical health; where in the first model, higher intimacy predicted less rumination, better sleep quality, and lower depression; and, in the second model higher intimacy predicted less rumination, better sleep quality and higher physical health. The current study suggests that intimacy does have its own distinct contributions to health outcomes and that rumination and sleep quality do have a implication on intimate relationships. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2020

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<p>  </p> <p>Interpersonal confrontations are a powerful prejudice reduction strategy. However, they often come with social costs, or negative interpersonal consequences, for the confronter (e.g., dislike; Czopp et al., 2006). Across three studies, the present research examines whether and how interpersonal trust reduces the social costs typically associated with confrontation. Study 1 showed that the more participants trusted their confronter, the less negative their evaluations of their partner. Negative other-directed affect mediated this effect. Study 2 provided causal evidence that trust buffered confrontation’s social costs: Participants who underwent a trust-building exercise with their confronter reported fewer social costs than participants who did not. Finally, Study 3 showed that the effect of trust on social costs extends to an ecologically valid context: Confrontees reported fewer social costs in dyads with greater pre-existing trust (i.e., friends) than dyads with less pre-existing trust (i.e., strangers). The effect of trust on social costs was again mediated by negative other-directed affect. Overall, the present research integrates the confrontation and close relationship literatures to provide theoretically-novel and practically-important insight on how to reduce confrontation-related social costs.</p>

Relatively little research has focused on the positive adjustment of emerging adult adoptees (Palacios & Brodzinsky, 2010). Given the developmental context of emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2000), it is important to select a measure of adjustment that reflects the increased ambiguity seen in this time period. The present study aims to develop and validate a measure of relational competence, or competence in one’s closest relationship regardless of relationship type (i.e., romantic vs. nonromantic). This measure will be created by adapting the Romantic Competence Interview, a measure of romantic competence previously used with emerging adults (Shulman, Davila, & Shachar-Shapira, 2011). Participants included 162 emerging adult adoptees who were recruited as part of a larger longitudinal study (Grotevant, McRoy, Wrobel, & Ayers-Lopez, 2013). Indicators of relational competence were selected from measures of intimacy maturity coded from interviews in which participants discussed their self-identified closest relationship (White, Speisman, Costos, Kelly, & Bartis, 1984). Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the proposed model of relational competence was a good fit to the data and that this model was invariant across relationship type and gender. No differences in relational competence scores were found by relationship type or by gender

This study developed and tested a new typology for use in Marriage and Family Therapy. The typology was created by integrating two already established typologies currently in use in MFT, the attachment style typology and the Enneagram typology. The attachment typology is based on attachment theory, a theory of human development that focuses on how infants and adults establish, monitor and repair attachment bonds. Differences in attachment style are associated with different kinds of relationship problems. The Enneagram typology categorizes people according to differences in attention processes. These differences in attention processes are also associated with different kinds of relationship problems, but also with different kinds of spiritual problems and talents. Support was found for both the internal and external validity of the integrated typology. The results were discussed in terms of relationship satisfaction and attachment based therapy. Implications for using the integrated typology to address spirituality in MFT were also discussed. / Ph. D.

Interdependence theory (Kelley & Thibaut, 1978), one of the most widely used theories in the literature on interpersonal relationships, posits that both partners in a romantic relationships play integral roles in maintaining their relationship. Based in interdependence theory, research on the investment model of commitment (Rusbult, 1980) has revealed that individuals’ greater satisfaction and investments and lower alternatives predict greater commitment to their relationships, and commitment in turn promotes a variety of relationship-maintenance behaviors. However, no past research had examined the role of partners. Across three studies, I examined the notion that partner investments would predict individuals’ commitment above and beyond their own satisfaction, investments, and alternatives. Study 1 found that higher levels of partner investments predicted higher levels of commitment within ongoing marriages. Study 2 provided experimental support by manipulating the degree to which individuals thought their romantic partners would sacrifice for their relationship. Specifically, participants told their partners would sacrifice a great deal reported higher levels of commitment than did those told their partner would sacrifice very little. Further, the perception of partner investments mediated the relationship between the partner investments prime and commitment. Study 3 was a couples study designed to examine both actual and perceived partner investments. Despite failing to provide additional support, the findings can inform designs for future dyadic research. Studies 1 and 2 provided the first evidence of partner effects in the investment model and advance the understanding of relationship functioning by demonstrating how both partners can work to strengthen each others’ commitment.

The aim of this study was to examine whether and how being committed to a close romantic relationship and gender would affect Turkish young adults&rsquo / death-anxiety. Based on Terror Management Theory (TMT), it was hypothesized that participants who are exposed to separation thoughts from a relationship partner would experience more death&ndash / anxiety than participants who are not exposed to separation thoughts from their relationship partners. In this respect, it was also hypothesized that high commitment to the relationship partner would work as a buffer against death-anxiety and those who have higher commitment to their relationship partners would, therefore, experience less death anxiety than those who have lower commitment to their relationship partners. It was also aimed to investigate whether the effects of commitment to close romantic relationships differ between genders. The effect of neuroticism was also controlled for all participants, so that any difference that is observed between groups would not be due to the effects of neuroticism. One-hundred sixty one participants (age range = 19-38) from Ankara, Istanbul, and Izmir, Turkey were included in this study. Results suggested no significant main effects of experimental manipulation (i.e. experimental group, control group), commitment level (i.e. high, low) or gender (i.e. female, male) on death-anxiety. A significant interaction effect between commitment level and experimental manipulation was found. According to that, in the experimental group (those who were asked to imagine a separation from their relationship partners) participants with high commitment level were found to experience less death&ndash / anxiety than participants with low commitment level. Also, it was revealed that those who have low commitment to their relationship partners experience more death- anxiety when they were asked to imagine a separation from their relationship partners than when they were not asked to imagine such separation. The same increment in death anxiety was not observed in participants who have high commitment to their relationship partners. The strengths, limitations, and implications of the study were discussed in light of related literature.

Proposed associations between social influence strategies (i.e., persuasion, coercion, and relationship referencing), Kelman's (1958; 1961) processes of change (i.e., internalization, identification, and compliance), and types of motivation derived from self-determination theory were examined. Proposed associations between social influence strategies and relationship satisfaction were also examined. A sample of 194 undergraduate students answered various questionnaires to measure relationship satisfaction, motivation to engage in exercise, Kelman's processes, and forms of social influence. Results indicated significant associations between social influence strategies and Kelman's processes, as well as significant associations between Kelman's processes and motivation. Results supported one mediation path (i.e., persuasion is associated with intrinsic motivation via internalization). Results also indicated an association between persuasive influence strategies and relationship satisfaction.

Proposing marriage is one of the few rituals that many people engage in world-wide, and yet many aspects remain a mystery. For example, there is currently no research on rejected marriage proposals, despite their potential impact on the self and well-being. The purpose of the present research was to compare and contrast rejected and accepted marriage proposals. Because the traditional proposal script is well known in Western society, I hypothesized that all proposals would be high rather than low in traditionalism. But, men whose proposal is rejected may not know that women prefer private proposals (Hoplock, 2015), and so I hypothesized that rejected proposals would be more likely to occur in public compared to accepted proposals. Additionally, I hypothesized that couples would distance themselves from each other during rejected proposals. I also predicted that couples would remain close to each other during accepted proposals compared to during rejected proposals. Finally, I hypothesized that couples experiencing rejected proposals would be less likely to talk about marriage in advance than couples experiencing accepted proposals. I tested these hypotheses in two studies. I conducted a content analysis of 285 marriage proposal videos (36 rejected proposals, 249 accepted proposals; Study 1), and of 374 first-person written accounts of marriage proposals (180 rejected proposals, 194 accepted proposals; Study 2). Trained coders rated the proposals for traditionalism (e.g., offering a ring), the presence of others, and couple members’ approach and avoidance goals. I also used inductive coding to derive themes from the data. Additionally, in Study 2, trained coders noted men’s motivation for proposing and women’s reasons for their response, the relationship status before and after the proposal, and whether couples discussed marriage in advance of the proposal. In Study 1 but not Study 2, proposals were high rather than low in traditionalism. In both studies, rejected proposals were less traditional than accepted proposals. Some traditional behaviors were particularly strong as distinguishing between proposals: The odds of a proposal being accepted were 8 – 20 times higher if the proposer presented a ring. Expectedly, rejected proposals were more likely to occur in public than accepted proposals. Moreover, women were particularly affected by the proposal, distancing themselves from their partner during rejected proposals and drawing close to their partner during accepted proposals. Providing insight into the proposers’ motivations, men often proposed for reasons such as a desire to commit to their partner, but, unlike men whose proposal was accepted, men whose proposal was rejected were also likely to propose out of desperation. Furthermore, women most commonly declined a proposal because they thought they were too young or not ready to get engaged. Unfortunately, some of the heartache of rejected proposals may have been avoided if the couple members had discussed marriage in advance: Only 29% of couples experiencing rejected proposals discussed marriage in advance, compared to 100% of couples experiencing accepted proposals. The rich nature of this data brings to life the proposal experience and highlights many potential directions for future research. / Graduate / 0621 / 0451

There is a large body of research documenting the link between individuals’ perceptions of partners’ traits and relationship satisfaction (Simpson, Fillo, & Myers, 2012). Prior work indicates that both accurate understanding and idealized perception of partners’ traits are associated with greater relationship satisfaction (e.g., Luo & Snider, 2009). However, research in this area has predominantly focused on the impact of partner perception on relationship satisfaction. There is very limited evidence on whether relationship satisfaction in turn affects partner perception. The present study followed newlywed heterosexual couples during their first 2-3 years of marriage and examined the relations between individuals’ perceptions of spouses’ attachment style and marital satisfaction over time using two waves of data. Using cross-lagged structural equation models, the study finds that individuals’ greater satisfaction significantly predicted their greater accuracy in tracking their partner’s anxiety, lower accuracy in tracking their partner’s avoidance, increased positive illusions of their partner’s avoidance, and their partner’s decreased positive illusions of individuals’ avoidance one year later. Furthermore, individuals’ greater positive illusions of their partner’s anxiety and avoidance led to their partner’s increased satisfaction and individuals’ decreased satisfaction down the line, respectively. Potential explanations for contradictory results between anxiety and avoidance are discussed at length. The study extends the literature by investigating the directionality of the link between partner perception and relationship outcomes using cross-lagged models in a longitudinal design.