Family and Relationship Theories: Intimacy, Attachment, and Parenting Styles

Intimacy

Emotional closeness in a relationship

Passion

Physical attraction in Sternberg's theory of love

Commitment

The decision to maintain a long-term relationship

Consummate Love

A complete love that includes intimacy, passion, and commitment

Secure Attachment

Comfort with closeness in a relationship

Anxious Attachment

A style characterized by a fear of abandonment

Avoidant Attachment

Discomfort with intimacy and closeness

Eros

Passionate and intense love

Storge

Friendship-based love

Pragma

Practical and logical love

Agape

Selfless, giving, and altruistic love

Ludus

Game-playing or uncommitted love

Mania

Possessive and jealous love

Enmeshment

Sacrificing personal needs excessively within a relationship

Homogamy

Choosing partners with similar traits and characteristics

Endogamy

Choosing partners from within one's own social group or background

Propinquity

Geographic closeness that influences the choice of a partner

Heterogamy

Choosing a partner outside of one's own social group

Total Fertility Rate (TFR)

The average number of live births per woman in her lifetime

Replacement-Level Fertility

The birth rate needed for a population to replace itself (approx. 2.1 in the US)

Pronatalist Bias

Social pressure or cultural preference toward having children

Structural Antinatalism

Social conditions that make it difficult or costly to raise children

Voluntary Childfree

The deliberate choice to not have children

Multipartnered Fertility

Having children with different partners across multiple relationships

Infertility

The clinical inability to conceive after 12 months of regular, unprotected intercourse

Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART)

Medical procedures used to address infertility

Open vs. Closed Adoption

Degrees of contact between birth and adoptive parents

Transracial Adoption

Adopting a child of a different race or ethnicity

Kinship Adoption

Adoption of a child by relatives

Refined Divorce Rate

The number of divorces per 1,000 married women

Crude Divorce Rate

The number of divorces per 1,000 people in the total population

Starter Marriage

A brief first marriage that ends in divorce within a few years

Gray Divorce

Divorce occurring among older adults, typically aged 50 and older

Independence Effect

When financial independence allows a person to leave an unsatisfactory marriage

No-Fault Divorce

Legal dissolution of a marriage that does not require proof of wrongdoing

Levinger's Model of Divorce

Barriers: Factors stopping someone from leaving (e.g., children, religion, finances)

Divorce Mediation

A neutral third party helping a couple reach a settlement outside of the adversary system

Binuclear Family

A post-divorce family system consisting of two separate households

Cooperative Co-Parenting

Parents working together as a team

Parallel Co-Parenting

Parents operating independently with little communication

Authoritarian Parenting

A style characterized by low warmth and high control, valuing absolute obedience

Authoritative Parenting

A style with high warmth and high control, setting clear but flexible limits

Permissive Parenting

A style with high warmth and low control

Concerted Cultivation

A parenting model where parents actively foster a child's talents through organized activities

Accomplishment of Natural Growth

A model providing basic needs while allowing children to grow spontaneously

Psychological Parent

The parent who takes primary emotional responsibility for the child's well-being

Hyperparenting/Intensive Parenting

Parenting characterized by high levels of involvement and pressure

Stress Model of Parental Effectiveness

A theory suggesting that parental stress impacts parenting quality and child outcomes

ABC-X Model

A framework for understanding family crisis: A (the stressor) + B (resources) + C (perception) = X (the crisis)

Boundary Ambiguity

Lack of clarity about who is considered part of the family system

Fictive Kin

Non-relatives who are treated as and considered family members

Nadir

The lowest point of family disorganization during a crisis

Reframing

Redefining a stressful situation in a more positive or manageable way

Family Resilience

The ability of a family to recover from or adapt to stress and crisis