Intimacy

The purpose of the researcher was to investigate intimacy. The independent variables were gender, age, relationship type, and length of time married or dating. The dependent variables were the perceived intimacy scores of different scales obtained from the Personal Assessment of Intimacy in Relationships Inventory. The scales were Emotional, social, Sexual, Intellectual, Recreational, and Conventionality. The sample consisted of 32 males and 84 females from 7 different classes at the university. Copies of questionnaires were completed by those students willing to participate in the research. Four composite null hypotheses were tested, employing a three-way analysis of variance (general linear model) at the .05 level. A total of 78 comparisons were made plus 84 recurring. Of the 78 comparisons, 24 were main effects and 54 were interactions. Of the 24 main effects, 6 were statistically significant at the .05 level. The results indicated the following for main effects: gender for the dependent variable intellectual, gender for the dependent variable recreational , gender for the dependent variable sexual , relationship type for the dependent variable social, gender for the dependent variable social , and length of time married or dating for the dependent variable sexual. Of the 54 interactions, 3 were statistically significant at the .05 level. The following interactions were statistically significant: gender and length of time married or dating for the dependent variable sexual; relationship type, age, and length of time married or dating for the dependent variable sexual; and relationship type and gender for the dependent variable intellectual. The results of the present study appeared to support the following generalizations: 1) females are more satisfied with recreational intimacy than males. 2) married participants are more satisfied with social intimacy than dating participants, 3) females are more satisfied with social intimacy than males. 4) gender and length of time married or dating should be examined concurrently for sexual intimacy satisfaction. 5) relationship type, age, and length of time married or dating should be examined concurrently for sexual intimacy satisfaction, and 6) relationship type and gender should be examined concurrently for intellectual intimacy satisfaction.