Chap 9 INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS IN EARLY ADULTHOOD

INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS IN EARLY ADULTHOOD

INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS IN EARLY ADULTHOOD

• They experience feelings of need for strong, close, stable and committed relationships.

• Increased proximity

Increased proximity in RELATIONSHIPS IN EARLY ADULTHOOD includes:

• Mutual disclosures.

• Sensitivity to the needs of the other person.

• Acceptance and mutual respect.

The feelings of need for stable and committed behaviour is

• important motivation for human behaviour.

Skills needed for good relationships

• Self-awareness.

• Empathy.

• Emotional intelligence: Skill in communicating emotions.

• Conflict resolution.

• Respect commitments.

Powerful relationships depends on

personality and relationships

Early adulthood and friendships

• Important for the sense of well-being

• Females have closer friendships compared to males

• Friends as fictitious relatives

Greater sense of well-being will affect

• people who have friends feel good

• people who feel good are more likely to make friends.

Closer friendships for women (female friendships)

they talk about problems and receive support and advice.

Friendships in males

they share information and activities

Friends as fictitious relatives

Psychological family of the individual

Friendships nowadays

• Use social networking as a way to maintain and strengthen connections with friends and family.

• Fewer and fewer early adults have close confidants.

Triangle theory of love

3 elements of love:

intimacy

passion

commitment

The degree to which each element is present determines what kind of love a person feels.

intimacy

• emotional element including self-disclosure → bonding, warmth and trust.

passion

• motivational element based on internal drives → physiological stimulation in sexual desire.

commitment

cognitive element → decision to love and stay with the beloved.

 Patterns of love related to Triangular theory of love

No love

Taste

Infatuation

Empty love

Romantic love

Companionate love

Fatuous love

Consummate love

 No love

all 3 components are missing.

Most relationships.

Taste

Only intimacy (friendship).

Infatuation

Only passion ("love at first sight")

Empty love

Only commitment (arranged marriages).

Romantic love

there is intimacy and passion (but no commitment).

Companionate love

there is intimacy and commitment (they decide to stay together without passion)

Fatuous love

There is passion and commitment, without intimacy

• (they commit out of passion without knowing each other).

Consummate love

there are the 3 components.

"Complete love".

It is easier to attain it than to sustain it.

The relationship of an early adult with their parents

• Emerging adults have need for acceptance, empathy and parental support.

• Their attachment to parents is a Core element of their well-being.

• Financial support from parents plays a role in the possibility for success in adult roles.

Positive parent-child relationships during early adolescence 

• A more cordial and less conflictual relationship in emerging adulthood.

• When the emerging adult will establish themself the role, the relationship with their parents is also affected in a positive way.

Negative parent-child relationships during early adolescence 

• Mother-parent relationship →  quality of relationship with adult children will have an impact.

• If an early adult caught between two conflicting parents,

  this will increase the risk of depressive thoughts.

Inability to become independent occurs due to:

• When an thirty-somethings avoid taking responsibility (live still at home).

•  Problems in redefining their relationship with parents.

• Adults which are forced to maintain some dependency due to economic hardship because of their need for higher Degree (so they are financially dependent on their parents)

new developmental stage: adulthood at home

• Habituation and the positive perception of early adult children staying in the parental home.

• In this stage, young adults adjust to and embrace their living situation, perceiving it not as a setback, but as a natural and constructive part of their transition into full adulthood.

 Empty nest syndrome for parents

• Supposedly difficult transition that occurs when the youngest child leaves home.

• Difficulties compensated by a sense of liberation with the departure of children.

Greater challenges regarding empty ness syndrome

• can be more challenging when children experience limited success because of financial problems, especially in areas like career or personal development.

• This occurs due to parents torn between wanting them to

  be independent and wanting to help them.

How can it affect if financial challenges also are involved during empty nest syndrome?

There might be outcome of greater stress when there was already

tension in the relationship or if the older children return home.

Consequences of empty nesting

• It depends on the quality and duration of the parental relationship.

• It can either lead to feelings of Second "honeymoon", as it increases the couple's satisfaction as there is more time to spend with each other

• or more challenges if partner identity depends on their role as parents or if there are previous relationship problems.