this introductory chapter reviews the existing literature on the development of intimate relationships / we concentrate our attention here on past conceptual approaches / in doing so, we cite research for illustrative purposes, but we do not attempt a comprehensive review of empirical evidence
we first ask: what is intimacy / why is it important / toward the end of the chapter, we briefly discuss ways of promoting intimate bonds / for the most part, intimacy and relationship development have long been treated separately / thus, sometimes our remarks will apply to both areas, but in other sections of the chapter we reflect exclusively on one topic or the other
we had to be selective about which treatments of intimacy to include / we have concentrated on social scientific, especially psychological, analyses (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)