Perceptions of intimacy in marriage: A study of married couples

Abstract

Abstract For this study, 75 married couples completed several instruments measuring attitudes toward self-disclosure, intimacy, their partner, and the marriage. Comparisons were made between husbands and wives on variables such as intimacy and self-disclosure. Satisfaction was related to the variables of intimacy and self-disclosure, and the perceptions that the marriage partners had of one another's behavior. Husbands and wives tended to give similar responses on the self-disclosure and intimacy variables. The important differences seemed to be that men's attitudes were more distant regarding intimacy than were women's, and that women's satisfaction with the marriage was more affected by their own perception of the marriage than by the husband's attitudes as reflected by his scores on instruments used in the study.