Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This study investigates the correlation between alcohol use and opposite-sex friendships. Research has been done on the dynamics of opposite-sex friendships, but few studies have incorporated the effects of alcohol consumption on these friendships. This study, which looks specifically at college students, incorporates the variable of alcohol and how it influences the likelihood of opposite-sex friends becoming intimate. Analysis of the results found that the consumption of alcohol was a significant predictor of the likelihood of opposite-sex friends becoming intimate.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Do intimacy expressions affect intimacy and relational quality? The present study examines the effect of biological sex and self-reported intimacy expressions on perceived intimacy and perceived relational quality. Biological sex affects perceived intimacy. The level of intimacy expressions affects perceived relational quality

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In response to critiques from feminist, existential, and postmodern qualitative researchers, the idea of maintaining objective and distant relationships with research subjects gave way to the belief that researchers could and, in some cases, should become intimately connected to research participants. The publication of sexual tales from the field (Goode, 1999, 2002), however, led some to question whether we can go too far in the quest for intimate familiarity and, in particular, take advantage of research subjects in the name of subjectivity (Bryant, 1999; Hopper, 1999; Manning, 2002; Saguy, 2002; Williams, 2002). In this paper, I reflect on some of the debates regarding sex, intimacy, and exploitation by examining my experiences of dating, marrying, and, eventually, divorcing my key informant and offer a new model to evaluate ethical conduct in field research.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Previous sociological research on interracial intimacy has focused on interraciality as a social problem, failing to consider how these relationships may experienced as both a liability and a source of social capital for White partners. Scholars, therefore, have neglected an opportunity to examine interraciality as a site in which White partners may reconceptualize their sense of racial identity and cultivate a critical analysis of how race, racism, and racialization operate in their lives. In this article we respond to these omissions by drawing upon two separate longitudinal ethnographic research projects conducted by the authors with members of 80 Black/White interracial couples living in the eastern United States (New York, Philadelphia, and Washington DC) and England. We demonstrate that White partners who develop “racial literacy,” begin to rethink and evaluate their everyday practices and the social processes that reproduce their privilege.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Mounting evidence suggests that the transition from casual to serious involvement coincides with increased conflict and emotional negativity within romantic relationships; we argue that this turbulence is also manifest in people's appraisals of irritating relationship circumstances. In addition, we identify relational uncertainty and interference from partners as mechanisms that may explain why people attribute heightened degrees of severity and relationship threat to irritations occurring at moderate levels of intimacy. We conducted a cross-sectional study in which individuals evaluated potential irritations that had recently occurred in their dating relationship. As predicted, appraisals were (a) curvilinearly associated with intimacy, and (b) positively associated with both relational uncertainty and interference from partners. Contrary to our expectations, neither relational uncertainty nor interference from partners mediated the curvilinear trajectory between appraisals and intimacy. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding the functions and foundations of appraisals of irritating circumstances within dating relationships.