ABSTRACT
This purpose of this chapter is to discuss intimacy and closeness in the light of some of the current research on adult temperament, which is defined as inborn biological differences affecting style of behavior in a wide variety of situations. In this chapter closeness is viewed as an emotional, cognitive, and behavioral phenomena, defined below, and intimacy is conceptualized as a subset of closeness-that is, the emotional experience of it. Thus I begin with a discussion of adult temperament, and then proceed to research and theory regarding its relationship to closeness by considering one such temperament trait, referred to as sensory-processing sensitivity (E. N. Aron & A. Aron, 1997) (although it might well be called something else), and three types of effects that the characteristics associated with this trait, or any trait, have on closeness. These three effects are actor, partner, and relationship effects. (This organization is loosely based on Kenny’s, 1994, social relations analysis.) Although this chapter is predominately theory-based and research oriented, it also benefits from the author’s clinical experience when it has seemed useful in predicting research hypotheses.
