Kuczynski, A. M., Kanter, J. W., Wetterneck, C. T., Olaz, F. O., Singh, R. S., Lee, E. B., Stowe, T. J., Mazzucchelli, T. G., Mier-Chairez, J., Maitland, D. W. M., Manbeck, K. E., Corey, M. D. (2020). Measuring intimacy as a contextual behavioral process: Psychometric development and evaluation of the Awareness, Courage, and Responsiveness Scale. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 16, 199-208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2019.02.004
High quality relationships are essential to psychological health and well-being, and relational intimacy is a core feature of these relationships. Decades of research in relationship science have converged on a central model of intimacy wherein individuals develop close, trusting relationships with one another. Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) is a contextual behavioral intervention approach that is well-equipped to target interpersonal processes through the provision of in-session, therapist mediated reinforcement of skillful intimate relating. Single-subject level analyses of FAP's efficacy and mechanism of action are supportive; however, there is a need for group-level research to evaluate its efficacy and generalizability. This paper presents the development of the Awareness, Courage, and Responsiveness Scale (ACRS), a self-report measure of behaviors essential to intimate relating informed by contextual behavioral science principles and Reis and Shaver's (1988) Intimacy Process Model. In this five-part study, functioning of the ACRS is examined in undergraduate student samples (Studies 1–3), an adult community sample (Study 3), non-clinical dyadic relationships (Study 4), and a transdiagnostic clinical sample (Study 5). Strengths and limitations of the final measure are discussed.
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