UNIT 12: CLOSE RELATIONSHIPSBold Terms:- Passionate love (romantic love)- strong feelings of longing, desire, and excitementtoward a special person- Companionate love (affectionate love)- mutual understanding and caring to make the relationship succeed- Passion- an emotional state characterized by high bodily arousal, such as increased heart rate and blood pressure- Intimacy- a feeling of closeness, mutual understanding, and mutual concern for each other’s welfare and happiness- Commitment- a conscious decision that remains constant- Exchange relationships- relationships based on reciprocity and fairness, in which people expect something in return- Communal relationships- relationships based on mutual love and concern, withoutexpectation of repayment- Attachment theory- a theory that classifies people into four attachment styles (secure, preoccupied, dismissing avoidant, and fearful avoidant) based on two dimensions (anxiety and avoidance)- Secure attachment- style of attachment in which people are low on anxiety and low on avoidance; they trust their partners, share their feelings, provide and receive support and comfort and enjoy their relationships- Preoccupied (anxious/ambivalent) attachment: style of attachment in which people are low on avoidance but high on anxiety; they want and enjoy closeness but worry that their relationship partners will abandon them- Dismissing avoidant attachment- style of attachment in which people are low on anxiety but high on avoidance, they tend to view partners as unreliable, unavailable, and uncaring- Fearful avoidant attachment- style of attachment in which people have both high anxiety and high avoidance; they have low opinions of themselves and keep others from getting close- Self-acceptance- regarding yourself as being a reasonably good person as you are- Investment model- theory that uses three factors: satisfaction, alternatives, and investments to explain why people stay with their long-term relationship partners- Relationship-enhancing style of attribution- tendency for happy couples to attribute their partner’s good acts to internal factors and bad acts to external factors- Distress-maintaining style of attribution- tendency of unhappy couple to attribute their partner’s good acts to external factors and bad acts to internal factors- Social constructionist theories- theories asserting that attitudes and behaviors, including sexual desire and sexual behavior, are strongly shaped by culture and socialization- Evolutionary theory- theory of sexuality asserting that the sex drive has been shaped by natural selection and that its forms thus tend to be innate- Social exchange theory- theory that seeks to understand social behavior by analyzing the costs and benefits of interacting with each other; it assumes that sex is a resource that women have and men want- Coolidge effect- the sexually arousing power of a new partner (greater than the appeal of a familiar partner)- Erotic plasticity- the degree to which the sex drive can be shaped and altered by social, cultural, and situational forces- Extradyadic sex- having sex with someone other than one’s regular relationship partner, such as a spouse of boy/girlfriend- Social reality- beliefs held in common by several or many people; public awareness- Paternity uncertainty- the fact that a man cannot be sure that children born to his female partner are his- Double standard- condemning women more than men for the same sexual behavior (e.g. premarital sex)- Reverse double standard- condemning men more than women for the same sexualbehavior (e.g. premarital sex)From the reading:-Define the original 3 main types of attachment style-Anxious/ambivalent: Clinging types who want to be as close as possible, who ideally would like to experience a complete merger with someone else, and whoseproblems stem from the fact that others don’t want to be as close as they do-Avoidant: Uncomfortable when others want to get too close and who try to maintain some distance between themselves and relationships partners-Secure: Comfortable between the above, the person is happy to become close andintimate with others and does not worry inordinately about being abandoned or hurt-Define the 4 types of attachment in the revised model and know how they differ -on eachof the 2 dimensions of anxiety and avoidance. -Preoccupied or Anxious Ambivalent: High on Anxiety (negative attitude towardsself) and Low on Avoidance (negative attitude towards others)-Fearful Avoidant: High on anxiety and high on avoidance-Secure: Low on anxiety, low on avoidance-Dismissing Avoidant: Low on anxiety, high on avoidance-What is a social constructionist theory of sexuality? Asserts that cultural forces and socialization shape how people assign meaning to their lives, with the result that sexual attitudes and behaviors vary widely based on culture-What is an evolutionary theory of sexuality? Asserts that the sex drive has been shaped by natural selection and that its forms thereforetend to be innate-Describe the basic tenets of Bem’s theory on sexuality Proposed that there is not a specific gene for homosexuality, but there are genetic contributions to temperament, heterosexual development proceeds because boys and girlsare temperamentally different and therefore play mainly with their own gender during childhood, and therefore the opposite gender seems “exotic”-Describe the basic tenets of Diamond’s 2-systems theory of sexualityProposed that humans form relationships based on two separate systems, which can reinforce each other of be in conflict. One of these is the attachment system, which is an urge to connect and form close social bonds with a few individuals. The other system is sex drive, based on the principle of mating. -Also know answers to the following questions from the book:1) Do men have a stronger sex drive than women?: Yes, men have stronger sex drives than women.2) Who can more easily enjoy love without sex – men or women?: Usually women3) Who can more easily enjoy sex without love – men or women?: Usually men4) Define erotic plasticity. Which gender exhibits higher erotic plasticity?: The degree to which the sex drive can be shaped and altered by social, cultural, and situational forces. Women usually have higher erotic plasticity.5) Who is the gatekeeper of sex? (who restricts sex and decides when it will happen?: Women restrict sex because they usually wait longer to consent to sex From the
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