Are married couples happier in their relationships than cohabiting couples? Intimacy and relationship factors

This study was designed to examine the relationship between dyadic adjustment and intimacy, and to determine how this varies for different types of relationships between males and females, and for relationships of different duration. Eighty-seven heterosexual couples (10 dating, 21 living together, 56 married) participated in the study. The results demonstrated that there was a strong interrelationship between intimacy and dyadic adjustment for both males and females. Those in relationships of longer duration and married couples experienced higher levels of intimacy and relationship satisfaction than other couples. There was a general trend for married couples and those who were living together to have a higher level of agreement on their levels of intimacy and relationship adjustment than couples who were dating. The implication of these findings for obtaining a better understanding of the lifecycle of relationships is discussed.

Working out intimacy: young people and friendship in an age of reflexivity

Drawing upon a longitudinal, interview-based study of Australian secondary school students, this article explores young people's friendship experiences and attitudes to intimacy and the interpersonal. The discussion develops in relation to the work of Anthony Giddens on detraditionalisation and reflexivity, and Nikolas Rose on modernity and the self. First, I argue that feminism and psychotherapeutic ways of constituting and knowing the self are reconfiguring the cultural meanings of intimacy. Second, I suggest that this reworking of intimacy has differential and uneven effects and has particular consequences for the production of gendered subjectivities. Third, I raise some critical questions about the extent to which either Giddens's or Rose's account can properly capture the gendered and situated experiences of intimacy. I offer examples in which gender is being rearticulated in new yet familiar ways and note some persistent tensions in desires for connection and community versus autonomy and freedom. Carol Gilligan's work on gender differences in orientations to autonomy and connection is briefly revisited. Overall, it is argued that we need to take more account of how class, location and schooling differences influence dispositions to friendship and the interpersonal, and this is elaborated through a discussion of the 'relationship orientations' of two white Australian young men.

Internet child pornography : an examination of attachment and intimacy deficits

This study found that Internet child pornographers (ICP) reported significantly less optimal attachment than non-offenders, matched child and matched adult sexual offenders. ICP also reported a more negative view of self than non-offenders and the matched sexual offender groups. Finally, the ICP group reported more social avoidance and distress than non-offenders. The portfolio explores the influence of treatment readiness on the best practice principles when working with violent offenders in relation to their assessment, and subsequent treatment recommendations. The importance of treatment readiness and its utility in relation to these principles is highlighted in four case studies.

Technological intimacy in haemodialysis nursing

Technology plays a major role in nursing care. Among the challenges for nurses is being able to maintain a patient focus while surrounded by highly complex technology. The provision of high quality nursing care in technologically complex environments is particularly challenging when nurses develop relationships with their patients over an extended period of time. In these environments the potential for intimate relationships can increase. This potential for intimacy is evident in the haemodialysis context where dialysis technology, nurses and patients interface. As nurses and patients can spend up to 20 hours per week together intimate relationships can develop. This paper identifies the challenges these dialysis nurses face and introduces the concept of technological intimacy. Technological intimacy can be defined as physical touching and self disclosure, associated with closeness and knowing, that is undertaken in the full view of others in a healthcare environment dominated by technology. In the haemodialysis context technological intimacy has been scarcely acknowledged and rarely researched. Further research will assist in guiding haemodialysis nursing practice.

Intimacy and making : thinking constellations of consciousness and the movements of invention

This paper takes up the three terms - creativity, consciousness and intimacy - and positions them as possible ‘ultimate terms’. Inquiring into the use of these terms to garner approval, status or power within cultural contexts, the paper attempts to unpack them, and simultaneously to seek out any structural similarities in the ways that they operate. The term ‘creativity’ is deconstructed via a Derridean framework, wherein ‘inventiveness’ is posited as a more rigorous alternative in most cases. Consciousness is read closely in relation to its association with notions of awareness and ‘enlightenment’. And ‘intimacy’ is playfully explored as an alternative term for enlightenment, a manoeuvre which brings to the fore some structural assumptions about that which intimacy might comprise. The assumption of intimacy as a spatially-dependent notion is also interrogated. The paper contends that intimacy may involve an unsettling of spatial assumptions proper, and therefore not be simply a function of closeness or distance. It draws on Serres’ notion of the angel as messenger and as analogy for the preposition, indicator of position, but occupant of none. Finally an example from art practice is offered, one that arguably performs the terms intimacy and creativity at once: an epistolary adventure in poetry and photographs, called The Post Project.

Intimacy at work: Playback theatre and corporate cultural change in Mercedes Benz, Brazil

On the back of a faltering economic year in 2007 and a major merger of motor car and truck dealerships, international motor car giant Mercedes Benz adopted a radical approach to re-aligning the company vision for their Brazilian business. Adopting a people-centred approach to change, they integrated participatory theatre and personal stories into a nationwide cultural development programme producing twelve performances in twelve cities. The central content of the performances came from employees who told personal stories that were then performed onstage. Each event acted as a unique expression of workplace values that would be led by employee attitudes and behaviour. Through the dialogic process, the company established a new code of conduct for customer care for the next phase of company activity. This article critiques various aspects of the programme and considers the value and limitations in the person-centred approach facilitated through theatre.

Who am I? 52 Tuesdays, intimacy and the search for an authentic life

Recent research shows that young people list media entertainment as one of the sources where they find information about what they really want to know about sex and what is not taught through the school curriculum – namely, relationships and eroticism. This paper addresses the potential role that may be played by small independent alternative feature films such as 52 Tuesdays in the sexual education of young people. While 52 Tuesdays’ purpose was never explicitly pedagogic, the subject matter – family relationships, sexual experimentation, sexual identity and agency, and transgender experience – situates it firmly within the concerns of contemporary young people.