Transcript Unit 3: Up Close and Personal - Intimate Relationships Activity 1: Hooking Up Social Science Gets Personal.

Unit 3: Up Close and
Personal - Intimate
Relationships
Activity 1: Hooking Up Social Science Gets
Personal
Before we proceed




What factors do you think contribute to how an intimate
relationship develops?
What are some stages or phases of intimate
relationships that you know?
How do you think social scientists explain intimate
relationships?
Think of some questions that you have about intimate
relationships.
– Include questions about the characteristics and
influences on the development of intimate
relationships, traditional and non-traditional
relationships, and what influences decision making in
intimate relationships.
Variations on Marriage



What are intimate
relationships? These are personal
connections involving close emotional
involvements between friends, blood
relatives, or married people. Some forms
of intimate relationships may involve
sexual relations.
Marriage comes in many forms, in both
traditional and non-traditional forms.  Some couples
Marriage is typically recognized as a
formal, legal arrangement with a sexual
component. People may be married as a
result of free-choice mate selection,
or an arranged marriage.
choose their own
mates,
while others enter
into an arranged
relationship.
Cohabitation
People who cohabitate are
considered common-law spouses
but are not legally married.
 There are several alternatives to
the traditional marriage
relationship.
 In Canada, ________________ is
becoming increasingly popular.
 ________________________,
where the partners maintain
separate households but are
committed to the relationship, are
also on the rise.
 ___________________have
become socially acceptable.

• Homosexual
relationships are an
alternative to a
traditional relationship.

In all variations,
_______________________
_______________________
_______________________
______________________.

While monogamy is a familiar
form of marriage in Canada,
polygamy is common in many
other societies such as Tibet and
southern India.

Fresh starts, involving
remarriage and cohabitation, is
another alternative to the
traditional marriage relationship.
• Many couples remarry
after divorce or the death
of a spouse.
Theories of Attraction
_______________
_________________
that is used as a
foundation for
intimate
relationships.
 Historically, marriages
were more of a
benefit to the family
group than the
individuals.

Romantic love has only recently become a
factor in the development of intimate
relationships.
 However, it is still not the norm in many
cultures around the world.
 Many relationships are the result of
_______________, as people want to
appear like other couples and avoid
stereotypes associated with not being in a
relationship.

The __________________________
is interested in the social influences on
individual interactions.
 Social exchange theorists believe that
people find mates because they are
attracted to different types of people who
can offer them something, such as
physical attractiveness, social status or
wealth, engaging personalities, etc.

___________________________believe
that individuals choose a mate based on their
idealized image of the perfect partner.
 Individuals decide if the people they meet will fit
this ideal and judge them to be attractive or
not, accordingly.
 Qualifications for attractiveness are based on
interactions the individual has had from
childhood on, with a wide range of people
including family and community members, as
well as media images.

____________theorists
explain that attraction is
based on similarities
between the individuals.
 People are attracted to
others who share physical,
socio-economic, age, and
ethnicity characteristics, as
well as values and religious
and political values.

• People can be attracted
to individuals who meet
their criteria for a suitable
mate.
_________________ explains that
mates are found amongst the people with
whom the individual associates.
 Bernard Murstein’s _____________
explains mate selection as a result of a
“filtering” process. Individuals are
selected from a pool of eligible candidates
and are assessed for homogenous
(common) qualities, including propinquity,
attraction, and compatibility, before being
deemed an acceptable partner.

 _______________________
theorist David Buss believes that
women are attracted to men who
can offer financial improvements
over their current socio-economic
status. Women apparently
pursue men who have the
potential to be a successful
family provider.

However, men are less
concerned with “marrying
up” than they are attracted
to women who appear able
to have characteristics that
would enable them to bear
and raise successful
children, including wide
hips and sufficient body fat.
People can be attracted to
individuals who share their
interests and values.
 ________________________
about love contains three
interrelated
concepts_________________.
 The strength of each of the three
concepts determines the type of
intimacy, from friendship to
romance to mature intimacy.

Anthropologist Helen Fisher explains
that historically, women selected mates
who would provide for their families, as
the women needed to stay with their
children to protect them. Men selected
women through which he would be able to
pass on his genes.

Sociologist Emile Durkheim discovered that
intimate relationships affected individual survival
as well as benefitted society: married people
committed suicide less often than non-married
people, and wedding ceremonies created a
sense of social cohesion.

Max Weber explained marriage as an
arrangement that provided partnerships
between feudal households, which increased the
power of the family clans.

Karl Marx and Frederick Engels theorized
that marriage is a way to establish economic
security for a family, through the inheritance of
wealth.

Agenda
– Start by taking up case study on page 183-84
– Dating Game activity/Work on organizer for
History of Marriage
– Finish notes on Activity 1

Homework
– Start Postcard assignment
Characteristics of Enduring
Intimate Relationships

Many researchers have made several
studies of successful marriages, and
identified a number of common
attributes.
• Successful and
satisfying
relationships
contain common
characteristics.
Enduring relationships are
characterized by the following:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Companionship through similar values and
pastimes.
.
Establishing new boundaries, limiting the
influences of the childhood families, and
prioritizing the marriage relationship.
Maintaining romance, love, and devotion.
.
Developing an identity as a couple, while
maintaining independence of each spouse.
Enduring relationships are
characterized by the following: (cont…)
7..
8. Managing life crises together.
9. Open communication and providing
opportunity for the expression of
negative emotions.
10. r.
11. Mutual respect and empathy.
12..
Stages
___________________
________________ in
satisfaction occur over
the development of the
intimate relationship.
 Intimate relationships
may cycle through these
stages many times over
the lifespan of their
relationships.

Stage 1:

Partners enjoy each other’s company, and
are on _____________ in pursuit of the
ideal relationship.
New relationships are
marked by romance and
infatuation.
Stage 2:

Predictable, normal events that may
happen throughout the lifespan of an
intimate relationship may cause stress in
the relationship, reduce marital
satisfaction, and require that the partners
resolve the conflict if the relationship is to
survive the event.
Some events may include the birth of a
child, the teenage years, children
becoming adults, retirement, and old age.
Other less-predictable events such as
unemployment, financial strain, or the
death of a child will also stress a
relationship.
 When conflict is present Individuals needs
to be honest with each other and adapt
their own behaviours if the relationship is
to succeed.

Stage 3:

Negotiation and compromise
establishes stability, and a more
realistic relationship that creates
alignment between each individual’s
needs and expectations.

According to the _____________,
individuals must negotiate the rules
of their relationship that determine
everyday decisions and routines. A
relationship between partners who
establish this marital system is more
likely to succeed over time.

Mature relationships
have experienced many
conflicts.
Remember…Negotiation is an
important part of a successful,
enduring relationship.