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Two studies were conducted to explore the following questions: (i) does intimacy, within the context of a couple relationship, contribute to individual need fulfillment?; (ii) does self-disclosure have beneficial effects on need fulfillment without being accompanied by intimacy's others dimensions: positive affective tone and partner listening and understanding?; and (iii) does intimacy's impact on need fulfillment mediate its relationship with physical and psychological well-being? For the first study, 154 commuter university students completed questionnaire measures of well-being and the Need Fulfillment Inventory (NFI), a new paper-and-pencil test that assesses the agentic and communal dimensions of need fulfillment. Results from study 1 showed positive correlations between both agentic and communal need fulfillment and well-being. For the second study, 133 cohabiting couples were asked to complete the NFI, two measures of relational intimacy, five measures of well-being, and to keep a daily record of their interactions for a week. Factor analyses of the daily record data revealed three dimensions of verbally intimate interaction: positive affective tone, daily self-disclosure, and listening and understanding. Results supported the notion that relational intimacy, assessed globally and as a characteristic of the couples' daily interactions, is positively associated with individual need fulfillment. Self-disclosure's impact on need fulfillment was found to vary as a function of the other dimensions of intimacy present in the interactions. The pattern of moderation between self-disclosure and other dimensions of intimacy was not exactly as predicted, however; sometimes, self-disclosure may soften the detrimental effects of negative interactions on need fulfillment. Finally, the mediational hypothesis was mostly supported, which indicates that intimacy's relationship to psychological well-being is most likely accounted for by its effects on individual need fulfillment. Need fulfillment did not fully mediate the relationship between intimacy and depressive symptoms.

Couples who seek a stable and satisfying relationship must recover emotionally and reestablish their intimate connection after their conflicts are over. In a 3-week diary study, 100 cohabiting couples reported on their daily moods, intimacy, relationship satisfaction, and conflicts. Results indicated that on days following a conflict, couple partners have worse mood, less satisfaction, and less self-disclosure than on other days. Attachment security and intimacy partially moderated the ability of relationship partners to recover positive and reduce negative affect on days following conflict. Partners of anxiously attached individuals experienced more pronounced postconflict changes in mood and intimacy than partners of securely attached individuals. More intimacy in postconflict interactions was associated with a faster recovery from conflict.How a couple recovers from conflict may be as important to the ongoing functioning of their relationship as their behavior during conflict.In order to sustain a high level of intimacy and satisfaction over many years and through many disagreements, a couple must be able to come back together after conflict and reestablish their intimate bond. Although much is known about the impact of couples' behavior during conflict, less is known about how couples reconcile following conflict. The purpose of this study is to investigate romantic couples' recoveries from conflict, and to determine (a) whether information about the short-term aftermath of conflict can help predict the well-being of individual partners and their relationship and (b) whether we can reliably identify characteristics of individuals or relationships to better predict which couples will experience negative effects of conflict beyond the day when the conflict occurs. It is our contention that couples who are able to recover and resume intimate relating soon after conflict are less likely to avoid conflict when it arises and, as a result, less likely to live with unresolved issues contaminating the relationship. Teaching couples how to recover once they have conflict may contribute as much to marital therapy success as does teaching them how 308

The present study examined people's working definitions of intimacy, which emerge through daily interactions that are perceived as intimate by the participant. We proposed that working definitions should be reflected in a set of interaction characteristics that prompt relationship partners to label their interaction as intimate. Participants were 113 cohabiting couples who completed questionnaires and kept diaries of their interactions for 1 week. Interaction characteristics explaining perceived intimacy were interaction pleasantness, disclosure of private information, the expression of positive feelings, the perception of being understood by one's partner, and the disclosure of emotion. Further, more satisfied couples perceived their interactions as more intimate and showed stronger associations between interaction intimacy and partner disclosure than did less satisfied couples. Findings indicated that couple characteristics are more salient than person characteristics as predictors of intimacy in interactions. The deepest need of man, then, is the need to overcome his separate‐ness, to leave the prison of his aloneness. The absolute failure to achieve this aim means insanity, because the panic of complete isolation can be overcome only by such a radical withdrawal from the world outside that the feeling of separation disappears–because the world outside, from which one is separated, has disappeared.

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