ABSTRACT
Close relationships are essential to health and well-being (Cohen, 1988; Sarason, Sarason, &Gurung, 2001; Uchino, Cacioppo, &Kiecolt-Glaser, 1996), andmost people regard their intimate relationships as their most important source of personal happiness (Myers&Diener, 1995; Ryff, 1989).Moreover, the capacity to form intimate bonds with others is considered to be aprincipal feature of effective personality development and a key marker of mental health (Bowlby, 1988; Epstein, 1994). But despite the importance of close relationships for health andwell-being, many people find it difficult to develop and sustain intimate relationships with others, andmany relationships fail to provide partners with the deep sense of emotional closeness that is necessary for optimal functioning. In this chapter, we use attachment theory as a framework for understanding closeness and intimacy processes within adult close relationships and for exploring individual differences in the capacity for intimate relating (see also Cassidy, 2001; Reis & Patrick, 1996). Attachment theory provides a useful perspective from which to understand intimacy processes for a number of reasons. First, attachment theory highlights the importance of closeness and intimacy processes for the development and maintenance of trust and felt security in close relationships. In doing so, attachment theory emphasizes the central role of care-seeking-caregiving exchanges as a special class of intimate interactions. Second, attachment theory identifies
the ways in which individual differences in attachment style shape the quality of intimate interactions within a relationship, as well as partners’ subjective perceptions of these interactions. Finally, attachment theory provides insight into the role of early family experiences in the development of intimacy-related goals and skills.
