The Relationship Between Attachment Symbols, Attachment Styles and Self-Differentiation with Marital Intimacy

Intimacy is a basic human need and is recognized as an important process in the development of friendly relationships. Given the importance of this structure in marital relations, the purpose of this study was to investigate the role of self-differentiation, attachment symbols and attachment styles in the prediction of marital intimacy of marital couples in Zanjan city. The research method was correlation. All married couples living in Zanjan city in 2018 formed the statistical population of this study. The final sample consisted of 278 people selected by stepwise cluster sampling. The instruments of the Bagarozzi intimacy scale (2001), self-differentiated R-DSI revised questionnaire, Hazan and Shaver (1995), attachment style questionnaire and Hazen Attachment Symptom Questionnaire (1987). Non-parametric correlation test showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between emotional intimacy with security and support. There is a positive and significant relationship between rational intimacy with support. There is a positive and significant relationship between sexual intimacy with adjacency and support. There is a positive and significant relationship between spiritual intimacy with security. There is a positive and significant relationship between the aesthetic intimacy with security. There is a positive and significant relationship between social-entertainment intimacy and proximity. There is a positive and significant relationship between the overall score of intimacy with proximity, security, and support. Pearson correlation showed that Pearson correlation indicated that there is a negative and significant relationship between the avoidant attachment style and the total score of intimacy and the components of social recreational intimacy and emotional intimacy. There is a negative and meaningful relationship between the attachment style of social-communicative intimacy. There is a negative and significant relationship between the ambivalent attachment style and the general score of intimacy and the components of social intimacy-emotional and emotional intimacy. The results of regression analysis indicated that only anxiety attachment style could predict marital intimacy among attachment styles and self-differentiation dimensions (R2 = 0.02). The findings of this study can be used to develop and implement educational and therapeutic programs in order to increase marital intimacy of couples. Key words: self-differentiation, attachment styles, marital intimacy, married couples