The Effects of Intimacy and Target Sex on Direct Aggression: Further Evidence

The effects on aggression of target sex and relationship with the target were investigated using self‐report data. One hundred and seventy‐four participants (115 female) reported on acts of direct aggression in the last 2 years toward intimate partners, known and unknown same‐sex targets, and known and unknown opposite‐sex targets. Women's self‐reported aggression was higher toward partners than other targets, replicating previous findings regarding women's intimate partner aggression. Women's aggression was consistently higher toward same‐sex than opposite‐sex targets, but the effect of knowing the target was inconsistent. Men's self‐reported aggression was more frequent toward same‐sex than opposite‐sex targets—including intimate partners—and more frequent toward known than unknown targets. Results are discussed with reference to a partner‐specific reduction in women's fear, and sex differences in threshold for classifying someone as “known well.” Limitations of the present sample and suggestions for future work are discussed. Aggr. Behav. 38:272‐280, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Alterity,Intimacy, and the Cultural Turn in Religious Ethics

This essay responds to four critics of Friends and Other Strangers: Studies in Religion, Ethics and Culture: Diana Fritz Cates, Eric Gregory, Ross Moret, and Atalia Omer. Focusing on the book’s organizing concepts of intimacy and alterity, engagement with empirical sources, discussion of Augustine’s thought, and attention to moral psychology and political morality, these interlocutors take up various strands in the book’s argument and extend them into metaethical, normative, and metadisciplinary domains. The author organizes his response under three rubrics: Metaethics and Personal Relationships; Political Morality; and Multidisciplinary Horizons.     

Relational Complexity and Ethical Responsibility

Richard Miller uses the concepts of alterity and intimacy as touchstones for analyzing neglected aspects of our interpersonal and social relationships. He argues that, as persons in relation, we oscillate between experiences of alterity and intimacy, and it is with a greater awareness of this oscillation that we do best to consider our ethical responsibilities. This paper affirms the value of thinking about—and potentially reimagining—how we conceive and relate to various others. It also makes explicit that, as persons, each of us is separate, not only from some, but from all other persons, even as we are also one with them. Moreover, each of us is different from all other persons, even as we are also like them. The aspects of persons and relationships on which we focus, in a given situation, matter because they partly determine the choices that we make in another’s regard.     

The Effect of Problem-Solving Based Family Therapy on Emotional Intimacy and Marital Quality of Cultural Couples in Tabriz

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the effect of problem-solving based family therapy on the emotional intimacy and marital quality of cultural couples in Tabriz. The research method was quasi-experimental by designing the pretest and post-test with the experimental group. The statistical population of this research consisted of all cultural couples with marital problems referring to counseling centers of Tabriz Education in 2019. The research sample based on The Cochran formula consisted of 32 couples that were selected by purposeful sampling and were randomly assigned into two experimental and control groups. The experimental group was exposed to 10 sessions of problem-solving based family therapy and the control group received no interventions. The research tool was the Marital Quality Index and the Intimacy Questionnaire, which was completed by both groups at the beginning and end of the intervention. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software and inferential statistics of covariance analysis were also investigated. The results of covariance analysis showed that problem-solving based family therapy had a significant impact on the emotional intimacy and marital quality of cultural couples. Therefore, problem-solving based family therapy can be used as a treatment in couples with marital problems.     

Construction and maintenance of parent–child relationships: Bidirectional contributions from the perspective of parents

The purpose of the present study was to investigate parents' perspectives of parent and child contributions to the construction and maintenance of the parent–child relationship. Twenty‐four mothers and fathers, with a child between 4‐ to 7‐years‐old, completed an open‐ended interview in which they described their parent–child relationship and commented on how they and their child strengthen, damage, and repair the relationship. Findings indicated that parents described their parent–child relationship with relatively similar emphasis on elements of authority, companionship, and intimacy. Parents reported that they were most likely to strengthen the parent–child relationship by interacting with their child in the companionship domain, whereas their overuse of power or authority and non‐responsiveness temporarily created damage in the relationship. Parents reported that their children were most likely to strengthen the relationship by complying with parent requests and engaging in companionate interactions, whereas not complying or challenging parent directives created relational tension. Parents indicated that both they and their children were most likely to repair interactional errors by restoring intimacy (e.g. apology, communication, or affection). Results are discussed from a framework of multiple relationship domains consisting of the interplay of vertical and horizontal dimensions of power. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.