Romantic Love and Positive Families Practice Flashcards

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers concepts from the 'Romantic Love and Positive Families' lecture, including biochemical drivers, multidimensional love theories, communication styles, and factors contributing to relationship and family health.

Oxytocin

Known as the "molecule of love" or the "cuddle hormone," this hormone is associated with social bonding, generosity, feelings of closeness, and intimacy.

Tend-and-befriend response

A behavioral response to stress associated with oxytocin where individuals move to protect their young and seek out social contact and support.

Passionate love

An intense longing for one’s beloved which can be experienced as a joyful emotional union and sexual fulfillment, or as the despair of rejection.

Companionate love

A quieter form of love associated with affection, companionship, friendship, and long-term commitment to relationships.

Eros

A love style characterized by passionate love and an irresistible desire to be the exclusive focus of a partner's attention.

Limerence

The scientific term for the feeling of being "madly in love" or "swept off one's feet," often associated with the eros love style.

Storge

A type of love that is primarily affectionate, close, and emotionally intimate, similar to the feelings shared between close friends.

Ludus

A love style described as "game-playing" love, where relationships are viewed as a way to play with feelings of affection and attraction, sometimes involving manipulation.

Pragma

A practical and pragmatic approach to love where individuals seek partners who fulfill specific conditions or possess necessary qualities like wealth or beauty.

Mania

A love style involving passionate emotionalism and an obsessive focus on the lover, but the experience is often marked by painful turmoil and wild emotional swings.

Agape

A selfless love that asks for nothing in return and is oriented toward giving and compassion for the other person.

Consummate love

In Sternberg’s triangular theory, the type of love that results from the combination of all three components: passion, intimacy, and commitment.

Positivity resonance

A back-and-forth reverberation of mutual responsiveness between two people that involves shared positive emotions, bio-behavioral synchrony, and mutual care.

Homogamy

The pairing of "like with like," referring to a vital factor in romantic attraction where partners share similar attitudes and values.

Capitalization

The specific form of communication involving the sharing of positive events with others to gain social support and enhance couple satisfaction.

Bids for attention

Small interactions or gestures in which one person invites the other to respond with affection, attention, humor, or support.

Dispositional authenticity

The ability to be open, truthful, and honest with oneself, remaining in congruence with one's deepest beliefs within a relationship.

Fundamental attribution error

The tendency to attribute others' behavior to enduring personality traits while seeing one's own behavior as being caused by temporary situational factors.

Positive romantic illusions

The cognitive process of idealizing a partner's attributes and holding exaggeratedly optimistic beliefs about the relationship's future.

Michelangelo phenomenon

The process where close relationship partners act as active participants in each other’s personal development, helping one another move closer to their ideal self.

Minding

A way of paying close attention to relationships by not acting out of habit and allowing creative new ways to experience a partner; similar to mindfulness.

Authoritative parenting style

A parenting style characterized by reasonable rules, high demands for maturity, high communication, and high levels of warmth and support.

Resilient families

Healthy families that adjust well and flourish during and after exposure to adversity, severe stress, or emotional loss.

Stonewalling

A passive-aggressive communication behavior where one person withdraws attention to punish the other; identified as one of the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse."

Flooding

The physical reaction to intense personal attacks in arguments, resulting in increased heart rate and blood pressure, making positive problem-solving impossible.

Repair attempts

Efforts made by partners to calm down a tense situation or de-escalate tension during a conflict to prevent flooding.