Close Relationships: Love, Intimacy, and Sexuality

Passionate Love

Strong feelings of longing, desire, and excitement toward a special person.

Companionate Love

Mutual understanding and caring.

Physiological difference

Presence of PEA.

Love and Culture

Passionate love as a social construction; romantic love is found in most cultures with forms and expression varying by culture.

Love Across Time

Passionate love is important for starting a relationship and exists for a brief period of time; companionate love is important for making it succeed and survive.

Sternberg's Triangle

A model consisting of Passion (emotional state with high bodily arousal), Intimacy (feeling of closeness, mutual understanding and concern), and Commitment (conscious decision; remains constant).

Attachment Theory

Theory developed along two dimensions: Anxiety and Avoidance, with four attachment styles: Secure attachment, Dismissing avoidant attachment, Fearful avoidant attachment, Preoccupied attachment.

Self-esteem and Love

Popular belief that you need to love yourself before you can love others, not demonstrated in theory or facts.

Self-esteem

Self-acceptance.

Maintaining Relationships

Good relationships tend to stay the same over time; key to maintaining a good relationship is to avoid a downward spiral.

Investment Model

Three factors to explain long-term relationships: Satisfaction, Alternatives, Investments; considered together they predict the likelihood of maintaining the relationship.

Thinking Styles of Couples

Difference in terms of attribution: Relationship enhancing and Distress-maintaining style.

Optimism in the relationship

Devaluing alternatives.

Theories of Sexuality

Includes Social Constructionist Theories, Evolutionary Theory, and Social Exchange Theory.

Sex and Gender

Men have a stronger sex drive than women; men are more likely to seek and enjoy sex without love, while women are more likely to enjoy love without sex.

Coolidge effect

A phenomenon in which males exhibit renewed sexual interest if introduced to new receptive sexual partners.

Homosexuality

Challenges theories of sexuality; most cultures condemn homosexuality; EBE - Erotic becomes exotic (Bem, 1998).

Extradyadic Sex

Rare or common? Association with breakups; reasons for straying.

Jealousy and Possessiveness

Cultural and Evolutionary Perspectives; causes of jealousy.

Culture and Female Sexuality

Paternal uncertainty and double standard.