Conference PaperPDF Available

The Bangla Version of the Miller Social Intimacy Scale: An Exploratory Study

Authors:
  • Envision Research Institute, Wichita, KS, and the Smith Kettle-well Eye Research Institute, San Francisco, CA, USA; University of Dhaka, Bangladesh
Universal Journal of Psychology 2(8): 241-247 2014 http://www.hrpub.org
DOI: 10.13189/ujp.2014.020801
The Bangla Version of the Miller Social Intimacy Scale:
An Exploratory Study
Naima Nigar*, A. K. M. Rezaul Karim , Mahmudul Hasan Sagar
Department of Psychology, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh
*Corresponding Author: naima.nigar@yahoo.com
Copyright © 2014 Horizon Research Publishing All rights reserved.
Abstract Intimacy is an important component of
interpersonal relationship. The Miller Social Intimacy Scale
(MSIS) was developed (Miller & Lefcourt, 1982) to measure
social intimacy, to quantify the degree of emotional
closeness a person felt toward another person. The aim of
this study was to translate the MSIS into Bangla and validate
in Bangladeshi culture. Data were collected from 177
university students (77 females and 100 males) using survey
method. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of the data from
172 participants (who provided complete responses)
identified a two factor structure of the MSIS with 12 items.
The Two factors namely ‘Frequency’ of intimate contact,
and ‘Intensity’ of intimate relations together explained
49.20% of the total variance. The MSIS and its factors
showed good internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = .83 for
the MSIS, .75, for ‘Frequency’ dimension and .79 for
‘Intensity’ dimension), strong convergent and discriminant
validity. Thus, the Bangla version MSIS appears to be valid
and reliable and therefore can be used in further research on
interpersonal relationship of the people in Bangladesh.
Keywords Social Intimacy, Psychometric, Factor
Analysis, Validity, Reliability
1. Introduction
People live in a society with their near and dear ones.
Being a social animal it is hard for people to lead a loner life.
To live a healthy life and work effectively one must maintain
an intimate and healthy relationship with their loved ones.
According to Robert Sternberg’s (1986) triangulation theory,
there are three components of love in interpersonal
relationship- intimacy, passion, and commitment. Intimacy
encompasses feelings of attachment, closeness,
connectedness and bondedness. Studies have shown that
people with higher intimacy in their relationships are more
satisfied with their life (Kim & Hatfield, 2004), and that
depression and less satisfied school life are associated with
poor social intimacy in adolescents (Okada, Suzue, &
Jitsunari, 2010). Other studies showed that psychopathy was
negatively associated with life satisfaction and intimacy (Ali,
& Chamorro-Premuzic, 2010). Intimacy provides a sense of
security and belonging, a perception that one is cared for
deeply (Reis & Shaver, 1988). Present life intimacy with the
loved ones not only tells us about the quality of relationship
but also helps us to predict about one’s early life attachment
with the parents. Because close and intimate relationships
with parents in early life shape-up all our future relationships
(Bowlby, 1982). Thus social intimacy is one of the important
dimensions of interpersonal relationship. Intimacy
encompasses feelings of attachment, closeness,
connectedness and bondedness. Thus to understand the
strength of interpersonal relationship it is important to know
the level of intimacy of relationship. In order to measure the
intimacy in interpersonal relationship Miller developed a
psychological measure of social intimacy, to quantify the
degree of emotional closeness a person felt toward another
person such as a family member, spouse, partner, or friend
(Miller & Lefcourt, 1982). It is a widely used scale in
western countries. The factor structure of the MSIS was
examined by Downs and Hillies (1991). In their study they
examined internal reliability and principal components of the
scale for non-spousal same and mixed-sex dyads with 149
male and 210 female undergraduate students. Analyses
yielded high internal reliability overall and unique
multidimensional structures for each dyad type. However, no
work has yet been done to measure the social intimacy in
eastern culture. Therefore the present study was designed to
validate the Miller Social Intimacy Scale (MSIS) in
Bangladeshi culture. It is really very important to adapt this
scale in Bangladeshi culture because there is no valid
measure available in the country to measure intimacy among
the young people. Such an adapted measure can be used in
further research on interpersonal relationship of Bangladeshi
people. The findings would have implications for theory,
research and clinical practice.
2. Method
2.1. Participants
A total of 177 students (77 females and 100 males)
studying at the University of Dhaka voluntarily participated
242 The Bangla Version of the Miller Social Intimacy Scale: An Exploratory Study
in this study. Because of incomplete responses 5 participants
(2 females and 3 males) were dropped. The age of the
remaining 172 participants ranged from 18 to 25 years with a
mean of 22.33 and standard deviation (SD) of 2.01. Of the
participants, 43.6% were females and 56.4% were males.
The female participants’ age ranged from 18 to 25 years with
a mean of 22.11 and SD of 1.89 and the male participants’
age ranged from 18 to 25 years with a mean of 22.49 and SD
of 2.09. 83.1% of the participants were single, 7.6% were
married, 6.4% were in a relationship, 1.2% were divorced,
and 1.7% were separated.
2.2. Measures
2.2.1. Miller Social Intimacy Scale
The MSIS is a 17-item tool designed to assess intimacy in
a variety of relationships such as friendships, family and
spouse (Miller & Lefcourt, 1982). Each of the items is rated
on a 10-point scale, ranging from 1 (very rarely) to 10
(almost always). The higher the score on MSIS the higher is
the intimacy. Internal consistency (Cronbach’s a) of the
MSIS ranges from .86 to .91, the test–retest reliability
coefficients being .84 for one-month interval and .96 for a
two- month interval (Miller & Lefcourt, 1982).
2.2.2. Internet Addiction Test
The Bangla version of the Internet Addiction Test (IAT)
was used to examine the discriminant validity of the Bangla
version MSIS. The original IAT is a 20-item tool designed to
assess internet addiction (Young, 1996). The Bangla version
instrument comprises 18 items under four dimensions
(Karim & Nigar, 2014). Each of the items is rated on a
5-point scale, ranging from 1 (rarely) to 5 (always). The
higher the score on IAT the higher is the addiction. The
original IAT has exhibited good psychometric properties in
various researches. The internal consistency (Cronbach α)
of the IAT was found to be 0.92 and test-retest reliability
was satisfactory (Yang, Choe, Baity, Lee & Cho, 2005). It
has also high face validity (Widyanto & McMurran, 2004).
The psychometric properties of the Bangla version IAT also
support that it is a reliable and valid measure of social
intimacy (Karim & Nigar, 2014).
2.3. Procedure
2.3.1. Translating the MSIS into Bangla
The MSIS items were first translated into Bangla, called
the first draft. It was then given to four judges, including one
expert in Bangla, one expert in English and two experts in
Psychology/ Psychometrics. Their native language was
Bangla, but being professors/lecturers of a university or
college they had also very good command in English. Their
task was to judge the accuracy of translation and
relevance/suitability of each item for measuring Intimacy in
the socio-cultural context of Bangladesh. Each expert
independently rated the translation using a 2-point scale (0 =
Not correct, 1 = Correct) and the relevance of each item
using another 2-point scale (0 = Not relevant, 1 = Relevant).
Following their evaluation, accuracy of the translation was
examined by calculating for each item the Accuracy Index
(AI = Number of rating at 1/Number of experts; Karim &
Nigar, 2014). The item yielding an AI of 1 (AI = 4/4) was
considered to be correctly and reliably translated. All the
four experts rated 13 items’ translation at 1, the AI for each
of them becoming 1. The remaining 4 items’ yielded an AI of
less than 1. They also identified conceptual similarity
between Item 1 and Item 7 and between Item 6 and Item 9.
So, item 7 and item 9 were excluded. Furthermore, two other
items (Item 3 and Item 16) were reviewed in the light of the
comments and suggestions of the judges to ensure the
accuracy of translation. The relevance/suitability of the items
in Bangladeshi culture was further examined by calculating
for each item the Relevance Index (RI = Number of rating at
1/Number of experts; Karim & Nigar, 2014). The item
yielding an RI of 1 or .75 (RI = 4/4 or RI = 3/4) was
considered to be relevant or suitable. All the four experts
rated the relevance of each item at 1, the RI for them
becoming 1. Thus the second draft of the Bangla version
MSIS was finalized to administer on the selected
participants.
2.3.2. Data Acquisition
Each participant was briefed about the general study
purpose and requested to volunteer in the study. Participants
were assured that their responses would be kept confidential
and used only for research purposes. After getting their
verbal consent the paper-based survey (2nd draft) was
administered in person. The survey components included an
informed consent statement, socio-demographic section, the
IAT and the MSIS. Participants were asked to sign on the
consent paper, record the socio-demographic information
(age, gender, education, marital status and SES), and read
carefully the standard instructions of how to respond before
going through the items or questions of the test/scale. Thus
the surveys were administered and data were collected over a
6-week period from all the participants.
2.4. Data Analyses
Each participant’s responses to the test items were scored
according to the scoring principles of the IAT and the MSIS.
Two participants left a few IAT items and three participants
left a few MSIS items with missing responses and were
therefore data for these five participants were excluded from
further processing. Data for the remaining 172 participants
were fed into computer for factor analysis on IBM SPSS
Statistics 20. According to standard textbook authors and
researchers, the minimum sample size for factor analysis
varies from 100 (e.g., Gorsuch, 1983; Kline, 1979) to 250
(e.g., Cattell, 1978), and there is practice of applying factor
analysis even to the data for less than 100 participants (e.g.,
Widyanto & McMurran, 2004). There is another set of
recommendations varying from a minimum SV
(subjects-to-variables) ratio of 2:1 (e.g., Guilford, 1956;
Kline, 1979) to 10:1 (e.g., Everitt, 1975; Kunce, Cook &
Miller, 1975; Marascuilo & Levin, 1983; Nunnally, 1978).
The number of participants in this study was more than 10
times the number of MSIS items/variables (17). Thus the
sample size required for factor analysis was satisfied.
Universal Journal of Psychology 2(8): 241-247 2014 243
However, before carrying out factor analysis we examined
the response distributions of all MSIS items and estimated
their internal consistency by investigating inter-item
correlations and item-total correlations. Then we analyzed
the data in EFA, a method widely used to uncover the
underlying structure of a relatively large set of variables (e.g.,
Gratz & Roemer, 2004; Hawi, 2013; Muris, 2001; Widyanto,
Griffiths, & Brunsden 2011; Widyanto & McMurran, 2004).
We also examined the discriminant validity by correlating
the MSIS and MSIS subtests with the IAT and the reliability
by estimating internal consistency (Cronbach’s α) of the full
test and subtests as well.
3. Results
3.1. Factor Structure
3.1.1. Item Analysis
Response distributions of the MSIS items indicated that
none of these variables/items were excessively skewed or
kurtotic (Kendall & Stuart, 1958; Karim & Nigar, 2014). The
correlation matrix (R-matrix 1,) contained 6 negative values
out of 120 inter-item correlation coefficients. It also
contained one negative item-total correlation coefficient.
This excluded 2 items (item no. 8 and 14) at this stage of item
analysis. Thus 13 items were retained for factor analysis. For
these 13 items 91 inter-item correlation coefficients were
obtained of which 6 were non-significant, the average
inter-item correlation coefficient being .31 (R-matrix 2,
Table 1). The item-total correlations for these items were
significant and ranged from .47 to .65 with a mean of .59.
3.1.2. Factor Analysis
First, in order to examine whether data were suitable for
factor analysis, measures of sampling adequacy were carried
out on the 13-item MSIS. Inspection of the R-matrix
revealed a substantial number (43.96%) of coefficients .30
and above. The determinant of the R-matrix was .02
(>.00001, Field, 2005), indicating that there was no
multicolinearity (very highly correlated variables) or
singularity (perfectly correlated variables) problem. The
KaiserMeyerOlkin (KMO) measure indicated a value
of .79 which exceeded the recommended value of .60 (Kaiser,
1970) and Bartlett’s test of sphericity indicated a χ2 value of
652.42 (p < .001). All this together supports the factorability
of the R-matrix. Data for the full set of MSIS items were
therefore subjected to EFA. Method of principal component
(PC) with varimax rotation was used. The initial analysis
with eigenvalue > 1.00 (the KaiserGuttman criterion)
extracted 3 factors structure of the MSIS with 13 items was
identified, accounting for 54.55% of the total variance (data
not shown). However, Floyd and Widaman (1995) suggested
that the scree test (Cattell, 1966) is a more accurate method
for retaining factors than the KaiserGuttman criterion.
Inspection of the scree plot revealed a clear break after the
2nd component (Figure 1A), leading us to retain 2
components. Therefore, we analyzed the data in another EFA,
limiting the number of factors to 2 with all factor loadings
< .40 suppressed. The two factors together accounted for
46.33% of the total variance (data not shown). Results
further revealed that one item (Item 02) loaded at <.40.
Tab le 1. Correlation matrix (R-matrix) for MSIS
Items 01 02 03 04 05 06 10 11 12 13 15 16 17 MSIS Total
01 1
02 .17* 1
03 .45** .24** 1
04 .22** .31** .35** 1
05 .25** .11 .32** .33** 1
06 .31** .12 .39** .33** .36** 1
10 .16* .18** .23** .28** .19** .16* 1
11 .30** .18** .32** .30** .40** .48** .26** 1
12 .33** .20** .33** .33** .23** .30** .25** .54** 1
13 .21** .13* .36** .24** .21** .20** .40** .29** .35** 1
15 .30** .31** .23** .20** .12 .120 .23** .39** .34** .31** 1
16 .26** .19** .20** .36** .30** .32** .42** .37** .53** .48** .54** 1
17 .14* .12 .08 .29** .21** .22** .35** .23** .48** .40** .38** .64** 1
.57** .47** .63** .63** .54** .57** .53** .65** .65** .58** .56** .69** .54** 1
Note. N = 172; average inter-item correlation = .31; average item-total correlation = .59.
* p < .05 (one-tailed). ** p < .01 (one-tailed).
Determinant = .016.
244 The Bangla Version of the Miller Social Intimacy Scale: An Exploratory Study
Figure 1. The scree plots generated in EFA: (A) for 13 items, and (B) for 12 items.
These low factor loadings indicated that perhaps the items do not represent social intimacy in Bangladeshi culture. After
discarding this one item, data were subjected to a final EFA with all factor loadings < .40 suppressed. Though the EFA was
run this time without specifying the number of factors a two-factor structure of the MSIS with 12 items was identified,
consistently with the scree plot (Figure 1B). These two factors, which were rotated to position of maximum orthogonality in
three iterations, explained together 49.20% of the total variance (Table 2).
Tab le 2. Rotated factor matrix for MSIS items
Items of MSIS
Factor Loadings
F1 F2
1 .62
3 .74
4 .51
5 .62
6 .71
10 .57
11 .62
12 (.41) .59
13 .61
15 .63
16 .84
17 .82
Eigen value 1.46 4.45
Variance explained 23.32% 25.88%
Cronbach’s (standardized) α .75 .79
Factor loadings <.40 were suppressed.
Extraction method: principal component analysis
Rotation method: varimax with Kaiser normalization
Rotation converged in 3 iterations
Note. N= 172
Factor 1 accounts for 23.32% of the variance, and Factor 2 accounts for 25.88% of the variance. Before labeling the factors
we identified that item 12 was cross loaded on Factor 1 and Factor 2 with the loadings of .41 and .59, respectively. Item 12
was grouped under Factor 2, the factor of their greater loadings and best conceptual fit. Thus Factor 1 comprises items 1, 3, 4,
5, 6 and 11 which was termed as ‘Frequency’ of intimate contact consistently with the dimension of the original scale. It
Universal Journal of Psychology 2(8): 241-247 2014 245
should be noted that item 11 was under the dimension of ‘Intensity’ of intimate relation in the original scale but through factor
analysis it is grouped under the dimension of ‘Frequency’ in the present study. Factor 2 comprises items 10, 12, 13, 15, 16 and
17 which we termed as ‘Intensity’ consistently with the dimension of the original scale.
3.3. Validity
3.3.1. Convergent Validity
Convergent validity of the Bangla version MSIS was examined by estimating inter-factor correlations and the factor-MSIS
total correlations. The inter-factor correlations (Pearson’s r) were all significant, the coefficient ranging from .56 to .93
(Table 3). The two MSIS factors also significantly correlated with the full MSIS, with the coefficients ranging from .82 to .93.
The MSIS had stronger correlation with F1 (Frequency) and the weaker with F2 (Intensity).
Table 3. Correlation matrix for 12-item Bangla MSIS and two MSIS factors.
MSIS Factors/MSIS F1: Frequency F2: Intensity MSIS
F1: Frequency 1
F2: Intensity .53** 1
MSIS .90** .84** 1
Note: N = 172.
** p < .01 (one-tailed)
3.3.2. Discriminant Validity
Discriminant validity of the Bangla version MSIS was examined by correlating the MSIS and MSIS factors with the
Bangla version IAT and IAT dimensions. Negative or non-significant correlations were hypothesized between the measures
in order for them to have discriminant validity. As hypothesized, the MSIS and MSIS factors were correlated significantly
and negatively with the IAT (r = -.17 to -.27, Table 4) and one of the MSIS factor (F2: Intensity) correlate significantly and
negatively with all the IAT dimensions: Neglect of Duty; Online Dependency; Virtual Fantasy; and Privacy and Self-defense
(r = -.22 to -.29), and the another Factor (F1: Frequency) correlate non-significantly with the IAT: Neglect of Duty (r = -.07)
and Virtual Fantasy (r = -.13) but significantly and negatively with IAT: Online Dependency (r = -.19) and Privacy and
Self-defense (r = -.23). All these correlations strongly support the discriminant validity of the measures.
Table 4. Correlations of the 12-item Bangla MSIS and MSIS factors with the Bangla IAT and IAT dimensions.
MSIS dimensions/ MSIS
IAT factors/IAT
Neglect of duty
Online
dependence
Virtual
fantasies
Privacy and
Self-defense
IAT
F1: Frequency -.07 -.19* -.13 -.21** -.17*
F2: Intensity -.26** -.29** -.25** -.22** -.32**
MSIS -.18* -.27** -.21** -.24** -.27**
Note: N = 172.
* p < .05 (one-tailed)
** p < .01 (one-tailed).
3.4. Reliability
3.4.1. Internal Consistency
The inter-item correlation matrix (Table 1) contained no
negative values, indicating that the items were measuring the
same characteristic. The reliability of the Bangla version
MSIS was further examined by estimating internal
consistency. The coefficients of Cronbach’s α were
calculated. Cronbach’s α (standardized) for the full MSIS
was .83. The coefficients for the ‘Frequency’ and ‘Intensity’
subtests were .75 and .79 respectively (Table 2).
4. Discussion
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the
psychometric properties of the Miller Social Intimacy Scale.
By analyzing the data in EFA, a two-factor model of the
MSIS with 12 items was identified (Table 2). Factor 1
measures Frequency’ of intimate contact (e.g., choose to
spend time with, showing affection, confined very personal
246 The Bangla Version of the Miller Social Intimacy Scale: An Exploratory Study
information, understanding feelings, feeling close, spending
time, satisfying relationship) and Factor 2 measures
‘Intensity’ of intimate relations (e.g., listen to personal
disclosure, affectionate towards loved ones, understanding
feelings, encouragement and support in relationship,
importance of affection, importance of relationship). These
factors together accounted for 49.20% of the variance. Factor
1 accounts for 23.32% of the variance and Factor 2 accounts
for 25.88% of the variance. The factors show high internal
consistency (.75 and .79). As shown in Table 3, both the
factors were significantly correlated with the whole MSIS (r
= .90 for factor 1 and .84 for factor 2, p < .01). The moderate
inter-correlations of the factors (r = .53, p < .01) support the
representation of the factors as unique, distinguishable
components (Jelenchick, Becker & Moreno, 2012).
As mentioned before only one study was conducted to
assess the structure of the MSIS in western culture (Downs &
Hillies, 1991). In their analyses they found high internal
reliability over-all and unique multidimensional structures.
But, the present study demonstrated tow factors similar to the
original scale (Miller & Lefcourt, 1982). The original scale
was a 17-item measure, however, the present study
demonstrated that it has 12 valid items. Item 7 and item 9
were excluded during the translation stage because of their
conceptual similarity with item 1 and item 6 respectively.
And item 8 and 14 were excluded due to their negative
correlations with other items and/or with the MSIS. If we
inspect the items we see that both item 1 and item 7 are about
spending time with their loved ones and item 6 and item 9 are
about how one feels close to their intimate ones. Item 8 is
about ‘How much do you feel like being encouraging and
supportive to him/her when he/she is unhappy?’ This item
emphasizes one’s role as an encourager and supporter in a
relationship when his/her partner is unhappy. In this type of
item people either like to overrate or underrate one’s role in a
relationship. Because of this nature of item 8 it might have
negative correlations with other items. Item 14 is about the
amount of damage caused by typical disagreement in a
relationship with partner. This is actually a vague item with
which some participants who are not confident about their
interpersonal relationship might agree with the statements
while others who are confident about their relationship might
not agree. Thus some participants might respond positively
while others negatively.
The most important aspect of this study is that it
demonstrated a two-factor model of the MSIS consistently
with the original scale (Miller & Lefcourt, 1982). It is
unclear why this item which is valid in other countries is not
valid in Bangladeshi culture. A second important aspect of
this study is that item 11 was identified under the dimension
of ‘Frequency’ sub-scale which was under the dimension of
‘Intensity’ sub-scale in the original scale. This item is about
‘How often do you keep very personal information to
yourself and do not share it with him/her?’ Satisfaction
means fulfillment of one’s wishes, expectations, needs,
or pleasure (Oxford Dictionaries, 2014). Thus satisfaction is
not a constant state rather it changes over time. That is why
people may feel satisfied with their relationship at some
point of time but dissatisfied at other time. Thus it can be
argued that this item fits well under the ‘Frequency’
dimension, not under the ‘Intensity’ dimension.
Another important aspect of the present study is that it
demonstrated discriminant validity of the MSIS. As
hypothesized we found Internet addiction to be significantly
and negatively correlated with the MSIS (r = -.27, p < .01)
and MSIS dimensions (r = -.17 and -.32, p < .05 or .01). This
was also evident when the MSIS and MSIS dimensions were
correlated with the dimension of IAT (Table 4). These
findings are consistent with the previous finding that the IAT
is significantly and negatively correlated with social support
(Korkeila, Kaarlas, Jaaskelainen, Vahlberg & Taiminen,
2010). Thus the Bangla version MSIS is a reliable and valid
measure of social intimacy.
Like all other studies the present study has also its pros
and cons. Firstly, the number of participants in this study was
very small. Though the minimum sample required for factor
analysis was satisfied here future studies on larger samples
can increase the reliability coefficients, confirm the factor
structure and other psychometric properties of the MSIS in
Bangladeshi culture. A second shortcoming is the use of
undergraduate/graduate students only. Such a sample of
convenience facilitates the early phase of a test construction,
but generalizing results to other populations such as
adolescents, other young adults and older adults may not be
warranted. So, future study should be designed to validate
the MSIS for these populations.
5. Conclusions
This study equipped us with a valid psychometric tool to
assess social intimacy among the educated young adults in
Bangladesh. This measure would be helpful to the counselor,
clinicians and other social workers who are dealing with
those young people who have relationships problems, family
problems, and other personal problems.
Acknowledgements
Authors would like to express their special thanks to all
the Dhaka University students who participated in this study.
They are grateful to those experts who judged the accuracy
of translation and relevance/suitability of each item for
measuring social intimacy in the socio-cultural context of
Bangladesh. Authors are also happy to express their
gratitude to the anonymous reviewers who made a number of
constructive suggestions on a previous version of this paper.
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