| 英文摘要 |
This study is an attempt to study the formation and development of intimacy in Chinese marital couples. The researcher used a life history approach and conducted several in-depth interviews with 25 couples married between 6 to 26 years. The content of the interviews included the marital history of the couple, the general and critical incidents in the marriage, and the intimate feelings they experienced. The researcher identified four components of marital intimacy: feelings of gratitude, appreciation, closeness and understanding. The researcher also proposes a hypothetical model to explain the developmental process of marital intimacy. It is pointed out that marital intimacy comes from individual's devotion and couples'mutual experience, which are affected by marital expectation as well as communication. The researcher further claims that the four components of marital intimacy vary from one state to another as time goes by. This change usually happens when conflicts or some critical incident occur during a marriage. In the final section, the researcher draws four conclusions: First, Chinese marital intimacy is related to role performance and sexual attraction. Second, the development of intimacy shows a circular pattern. Third, conflicts brings about change and adjustment. Finally, feelings of marital intimacy are accumulated throughout marital life. |