Term
| The Nature and Importance of Intimacy |
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Definition
| This book focuses on adult friendships and romantic relationships |
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Term
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Definition
| Intimate relationships differ from more casual associations in at least six specific way: knowledge, caring, interdependence, mutuality, trust, and commitment |
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Term
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Definition
| Humans display a need to belong, a drive to maintain regular interaction with affectionate, intimate partners. Severe consequences such as poor physical and mental health, may fallow if the need remains unfulfilled over time. |
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Term
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Definition
| Cultural norms regarding relationships in the United States have changed dramatically over the last forty years. Fewer people are marrying than ever before, and those who do marry wait longer. People routinely live together when they're not married, and such cohabitation appears to make a future divorce more, not less, likely. |
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Term
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Definition
| High levels of socioeconomic development, increasing individualism, and new technology contribute to culture change. So does the sex ratio; cultures with high sex ratios are characterized by traditional roles for men and women, whereas low se ratios are correlated with permissive, less traditional behavior. |
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Term
| The Influence of Experience |
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Definition
Children's interactions with the major caregivers produce differnt style of attachment. Four styles
- Secure
- Preoccupied
- Fearful
- Dismissing
Which differ in avoidance of intimacy and anxiety about abandonment, are now recognized.
These orientations appear to be learned. Thus, our global beliefs about the nature and worth of close relationships appear to be shaped by our experiences within them. |
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Term
| The Influence of Individual Differences |
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Definition
| There's wide variation in people's abilities and preferences, but individual differences are more often gradual and subtle instead of abrupt. |
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Term
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Definition
| Despite lay beliefs that men and women are quite different, careful analysis indicates that most sex differences are quite small. The range of variation among members of a given sex is always large compared to the average difference between the sexes, and the overlap of the sexes is so substantial that many members of one sex will always score higher than the average member of the other sex. Thus, the sexes are much more similar than different on most of the topics of interest to relationship science. |
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Term
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Definition
Gender differences refer to social an psychological distinctions that are taught to people by their cultures. Men are expected to be dominant and assertive, women to be warm and emotionally expressive. These expectations only fit half of us, however. A third of us are androgynous and possess both instrumental, task-oriented skills and expressive, social and emotional talents
Men and women who adhere to traditional gender roles do not like each other, either at first meeting or later during a marriage, as much as less stereotyped, androgynous people do. |
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Term
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Definition
| Personality traits are stable tendencies that characterize people's thoughts, feelings, and behavior across their whole lives. Extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness help produce pleasant relationships, but neurotic people are less satisfied with their partnerships than are those with less neuroticism. |
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Term
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Definition
What we think of ourselves stems, in part, from our interactions with others. The sociometer theory argues that if others regard us positively, self-esteem is high, but if others don't want to associate with us, self-esteem is low.
People who have low self-esteem undermine and sabotage their close relationships by underestimating their partners' love for them and overreacting to imagined threats. |
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Term
| The Influence of Human Nature |
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Definition
| An evolutionary perspective assumes that sexual selection shapes humankind, and that men and women should differ only to the extent that they routinely faced historically different reproductive dilemmas. Because men and women differ in parental investment and paternity uncertainty (men cannot be absolutely certain that a child is his unless he is completely confident that his mate has been faithful to him), such differences probably occurred. The sexes pursue different mates when they're interested in a long, committed relationship than they do when they're interested in a short-term affair. the evolutionary perspective also assumes that cultural influences determine whether inherited habits are still adaptive and some of them may not be. |
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Term
The Influence of Interaction
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Definition
| Relationships result from the combinations of their participants' histories and talents, and thus are often more than the sum of their parts. Relationships are fluid processes rather than static entities. |
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Term
| The Dark Side of Relationships |
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Definition
| There are potential costs, as well as rewards, to intimacy. So why take the risk? because we are a social species, and we need each other. |
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Term
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Definition
| A simple count of the number of men for every 100 women in a specific population. |
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