This study investigated the impact of touch on marital intimacy. The following questions were investigated: (a) do nonverbal exercises increase marital intimacy, (b) are the changes sustained, and (c) do subjects recognize an increase in their level of intimacy? / Twenty marital dyads were recruited, demographic and marital adjustment information was gathered, and the couples were randomly assigned to an experimental or control group. The experimental couples were asked to perform a series of nonverbal exercises centering on touch daily for one week. Both the experimental and control groups were asked to subjectively evaluate their feelings during this period. Both groups were then posttested using the Personal Assessment of Intimacy in Relationships, (Schaefer and Olson, 1981) inventory, and the experimental group was retested on this measure after three months. Additional qualitative data were obtained from the experimental group using a questionnaire at the follow-up testing. / The posttest data were analyzed using an Analysis of Covariance with marital adjustment as the covariate. The follow-up data were analyzed using the Friedman two-way analysis of variance by ranks. / The findings of the study were difficult to interpret as the null hypothesis could not be rejected. The level of intimacy of the experimental group did change, however, the difference was not in the predicted direction--the level of expected intimacy was decreased. The level of perceived intimacy showed no significant difference except for recreational intimacy which decreased significantly. These results were sustained over a three month period. The qualitative findings indicated the subjects had no knowledge of how their intimacy level had been affected. / The conclusions that are suggested by these findings are: (a) nonverbal exercises may affect intimacy, (b) prescribing touch deceased the amount of intimacy couples desire, (c) couples do not always recognize that their level of intimacy has decreased, and (d) decreases in intimacy may last for a minimum of three months. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-03, Section: A, page: 0801. / Major Professor: Mary Hick. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77972 |
| Contributors | Shoaps, Paul Douglas, III., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 140 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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