Responsiveness and Physical Intimacy within Romantic Relationships (2010)

Undergraduates: Katelyn Brown-Gomez, none none none

Faculty Advisor: Sara Algoe
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

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This study looks specifically at how responsive behavior, the act of understanding, validating, and caring for what their partner is saying, is associated with physical intimacy, sexual satisfaction and physical affection, within romantic relationships. This 4 week study had participants, heterosexual couples, come in for 2 lab sessions where they answered a series of questionnaires and were prompted with a conversation task. This study is unique in that it used three methods of recording responsive behavior: Global Perceived Responsiveness (participant’s perception of how responsive their partner is over all in their relationship), Post-Interaction Perceived Responsiveness (how responsive their partner was during a conversation task), and Responsive Behavior (third-person experimenter coding partner’s responsive behavior.) The results of this study showed that Global Perceived Responsiveness was positively associated with Physical Intimacy at both lab sessions. Post-Interaction Responsive Behavior was positively associated with sexual satisfaction at both lab sessions. Responsive Behavior was not consistently associated with sexual satisfaction or physical affection, but showed that depending on the speaker's Relationship Approach Motives, a moderating effect could be seen between Responsive Behavior and Physical Intimacy. Overall, these findings show that Responsiveness and Physical Intimacy are positively associated.