Reexamining Gender Issues in Erikson's Stages of Identity and Intimacy

A number of writers have argued that Erikson's stages of identity and intimacy do not address the experience of women accurately. Several have argued that in women these stages are reversed or fused. This article contends that such claims come out of a serious misreading of Erikson's work and shows that the stages as they stand are not incompatible with the idea that there are relational components of identity formation. New directions for feminist reinterpretations of Erikson's work and for research that reflects his theory more accurately are discussed.     

Linkages Between the Psychosocial Stages of Identity and Intimacy and the Ego Strengths of Fidelity and Love

According to Erik Erikson, fidelity and love are ego virtues or strengths that emerge from successful psychosocial stage resolutions of identity and intimacy. However, such proposed linkages have remained untested. To examine these assumptions, we conducted a study among 153 undergraduates (ages 18 through 22) from predominantly White, middle class backgrounds. Participants completed measures of identity and intimacy, fidelity and love, and masculinity and femininity. Fidelity and love served as dependent variables in regression analyses, and identity, intimacy, femininity, masculinity, and gender served as independent variables. Consistent with Eriksonian theory, advanced identity formation predicted fidelity for men and women. In respect to love, identity was the strongest predictor for men, and both intimacy and identity predicted love for women. Femininity and masculinity shared in the prediction of fidelity and love, but for women only. The role of sex roles in identity and intimacy is discussed.     

Marital Intimacy

This article describes a conceptualization of marital intimacy based on the idea of a matrix of four basic characteristics-self-disclosure, emotional support, sensual/physical contact, and companionship. These four characteristics are further distinguished along the dimensions of breadth, depth, mutuality, and temporal duration. Suggestions for clinical assessment and intervention for marital intimacy are presented utilizing the matrix framework.     

Intimacy and Loneliness

The article contends that the fear of loneliness is the basic and universal motivational drive influencing human relationships. For each and every individual, the ultimate goal of overcoming isolation is a sense of belonging or intimacy with another self-conscious being. The paper then focuses on the psychological conditions which make intimacy possible and, indeed, necessary when the conditions actually exist. These conditions include and are completely restricted to the following four presuppositions: (a) shared physical and temporal "closeness" between selves; (b) mutual trust in the Eriksonian sense; (c) mutual affection; and (d) mutual respect in the Kantian sense. When, and if, these four conditions are met, then the sense of loneliness will be replaced by and transformed into a feeling of intimacy.     

Intimacy and Autonomy

No abstract available for this article.     

Intimacy in same-sex friendships

Three studies were conducted to evaluate the significance of the finding that females are more disclosing in their same-sex friendships than are males. No support was found for the suggestion that males feel just as close to their same-sex friends as do females. However, there was support for a developmental contention that during adolescence both sexes expect to become more disclosing in their other-sex friendships in adulthood, and that the spousal relationship should be the most intimate. Further, both sexes, whether in the United States or Hungary, believe females are more disclosing of their feelings and problems than are males. Although males do seem to wish to be more disclosing, they expect to be more open mainly in other-sex friendships. The majority of adults profess little concern about disclosure in same-sex friendships, but women report feeling more at ease in relating to other women than to men.     

Male Friendship and Intimacy

Our primary focus is the concept of intimacy, especially in the context of adult American male relationships. We begin with an examination of comradeship, a nonintimate form of friendship, then develop an account of the nature and value of intimacy in friendship. We follow this with discussions of obstacles to intimacy and of Aristotle's views. In the final section, we discuss the process of men attaining intimacy.     

Comment—Marital Intimacy

No abstract available for this article.     

Intimacy and computer communication

The relationship between intimacy and communication which uses computer technology is addressed. Definitions of intimacy are considered, and the nature of intimate conversations which use computers as a communications medium are discussed. Implications for counselling are examined.     

Friendship and Reasons of Intimacy

Reasons of intimacy, i.e. reasons to care for friends and other intimates, resist categorization as either subjective Humean reasons or as objective consequentialist reasons. Reasons of intimacy are grounded in the friendship relation itself. not in the psychological attitudes of the agent or in the objective intrinsic value of the friend or the friendship. So reasons of intimacy are objective and agent-relative and can be understood by analogy with reasons of fidelity and reasons of prudence. Such an analogy can help us to understand which objective agent-relative reasons we have and which, such as deontological constraints, we do not have.     

Close Encounters in Intimacy

ABSTRACT

Having noted the variable nature of the sensibility of each individual, this article presents 3 examples of my body/mind intimate connection to my patients’ immediate experience. These examples constitute the establishment of a form of intimate analytic encounter quite different from an experience of ESP, which I have never experienced.     

Existential Sexuality and Intimacy

This article will discuss sexuality from an existentialist and constructivist point of view. Constructivism will be used as a means to grasp a dynamic understanding of sexual existence and intimate life. In fact, the author believes there is genetic character of intimacy that informs the passive and active existential choices that constitute our sexual identity. The goal of the article is to show how the social constructions that define human sexual existence are remodeled continuously by the fluid nature of intimacy.     

Intimacy: A behavioral interpretation

This paper proposes that intimacy is a process that emerges from a sequence of events in which behavior vulnerable to interpersonal punishment is reinforced by the response of another person. These intimate events result in an increase in the probability of behavior vulnerable to interpersonal punishment in the presence of the reinforcing partner. The process results in intimate partnership formation and reports of feeling intimate. In addition to positing an operant process integrating the various components of intimacy, the theory also posits that the punishment of interpersonally vulnerable behavior is an integral aspect of intimate partnership formation and that intimate partnerships can develop that reinforce behavior that may be destructive both to the individual and to others.