Communication and Family Closeness

Topics: •Thinking about closeness. •Emotional Communication.• Attachment. •Love.

Measuring and Thinking about Closeness

Circumplex model (p. 213).Self-disclosure and social penetration model.Domains of family closeness– financial, ideological (values), physical, psychological, sexual, spiritual.

Communication & Family Closeness

Emotional communication:Subjective.Structured to central nervous system– accessing information about what’s inside and outside.Direct, immediate subjective experiences of feelings/desires.Spontaneous expression and strategic expression.

Communication & Family Closeness

Role of early attachment:Biology of love– endorphins. Linked to analgesia, inhibition of respiration, subjective “high”Infants bathed in endorphins in womb– euphoric state as possible “prototypic love state”?Types of parent-child attachment: secure, anxious-ambivalent avoidant.

Communication & Family Closeness

Behaving “love” (Swenson, 1972).Verbal expression.Intimate revelation.Support, interest, respect.Unexpressed feelings of happy, secure, relaxed in other’s presence.Material evidence (chores, gifts, etc.).Physical expression (touches, hugs, kisses, sexual relations, etc.).Willingness to tolerate “less pleasant side of other.

Communication & Family Closeness

Societal idealism and communicating loveVarious conceptions of “Love”

Agape (Pure love)Nomos (Submissive love)Phila (Friendship love)Eros (Passionate love)

Triangular theory of love(Sternberg, 1986)