INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP EXPERIENCE EFFECTS ON INDIVIDUAL AN PSYCHOLOGICAL TENDENCIES WITHIN AN INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP: PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION
Keywords:
intimate relationship, individual tendencies, psychological tendencies, experience, positive relationship.Abstract
Intimate relationships can play a significant role
for humanity because if individuals would not interact,
socialize and reproduce, the human species would not
procreate (Miller & Perlman, 2008). Therefore, individuals
in general have a desire to love and to belong, some
declaring that the sensation of being loved and wanted is
very essential in their life (Miller & Perlman, 2008). The
purpose of this study was to investigate how intimate
relationship experience (i.e. number of partners so far) can
affect some psychological and individual tendencies (such
as: relationship esteem, motivation and satisfaction) within
an intimate relationship. It is a study that takes part of a
larger investigation regarding intimate relationships and
our aim was to deepen our knowledge and to better
understand relationship dynamics and individual and
psychological tendencies within the Romanian population.
In this light, with the use of the Multidimensional
Relationship Questionnaire (MRQ; Snell et al., 2002), 53Â
university students participated in this study. We
investigated if there was any correlation (positive or
negative) between intimate relationship experience and
some individual and psychological tendencies (such as:
relationship esteem, motivation and satisfaction) regarding
intimate relationships. After the use of Spearman
correlation and ANOVA test, results showed that intimate
relationship experience (number of partners so far) had a
positive relation with the studied individual and
psychological tendencies (such as relationship esteem,
motivation and satisfaction). With the present results, we
can assume that individuals who have a high level of
experience regarding intimate relationships can experience
high levels of esteem, motivation and satisfaction within an
intimate relationship. Further investigations and
conclusions are discussed.
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