Chapter 11 - Relationships Flashcards
List the five stages of adult friendship development. What are the three broad themes that underlie adult friendship?
The five stages are: ABCDE - Acquantianceship, Buildup, Continuation, Deterioration, and Ending.
The three broad themes that underlie adult friendship are:
1) Based on loyalty, trust, and commitment are self-disclosure and expressions of intimacy, affection, and appreciation which lie the emotional basis of friendship.
2) the shared or communal nature of friendship indicates how friends take part in or support activities of mutual interest.
3) the sociability and compatibility dimension characterizes how friends entertain us as sources of amusement, fun, and recreation.
What is the lifespan theory of socio-emotional selectivity? How does it explain the developmental pattern of friendship formation? How do friendships differ between men and women?
The lifespan theory of socio-emotional selectivity suggests that goals such as information processing, self-concept, and emotion regulation are motivations for social contact.
This theory can explain the developmental pattern of friendship formation because as people recognize their goals and how socializing may help accomplish them, friendship becomes more likely. As well, when emotion regulation is the goal, individuals prefer familiar faces and are selective in choosing people.
Friendships between men and women differ on why they occur. Men tend to form friendships based on the shared interest of activities whereas women tend to form friendships to feel a sense of emotional and intimate sharing.
Describe the theory of assortative mating. Describe the research by Schmitt and colleagues (2004) that examined the effects of attachment style on mate selection in different cultures. What were the main findings?
The theory of assortative mating asserts that people find partners based on their similarities to each other.
Similarities are based on many dimensions such as political ideology, age, and education.
The research by Schmitt & colleagues (2004) aimed to find how attachment style may influence how one forms romantic relationships. Findings indicated almost 80% of cultural groups demonstrated secure romantic attachment. East Asian cultures noted preoccupied romantic attachment style and North American cultures noted dismissive romantic attachment style. Some attachment styles show across most cultural groups, but one is present over all.
Describe the issues associated with violence in relationships. Describe the seven different categories of elder abuse
Women in abusive relationships may experience battered woman syndrome - the belief that they cannot escape the situation, and can result in murdering their partner. There are factors that can predict victimization: being female, Latina or African American, if one was a victim of child abuse, early onset of sexual activity, multiple romantic partners, being a college student. Culture is important to pay attention to when exploring violence in relationships as often it can be the result of traditions or values the culture holds.
The 7 categories of elder abuse:
1) physical abuse
2) sexual abuse
3) emotional or psychological abuse
4) self-neglect
5) neglect
6) abandonment
7) material or financial exploitation.
What are the costs and benefits of being single, and how is it different for men and women? Why do people cohabitate? Discuss some of the challenges gay and lesbian couples face on a daily basis.
Unfortunately, some married people may experience stereotypes and biases. A benefit of being single is having total focus on establishing a career or accomplishing other individual goals.
Men tend to marry later and thus stay single longer than women. though, they tend to find partners more easily as they have a large age range to choose from. Fewer men than women remain single.
People cohabitate for 3 reasons:
1) Testing the relationship for potential marriage.
2) Convenience
3) A marriage alternative.
Unfortunately, gay and lesbian couples tend to have less family support. As couples they also face controversy in the United States. Lack of legal recognition can lead to difficulties such as not being eligible for partner benefits, not being allowed to see significant other in hospital, and not being allowed to marry.
What are the different meanings of a successful marriage, and what are the most important factors that influence marital success? What is the normal pattern of marital satisfaction across the lifespan?
There are 4 different meanings of a successful marriage that the textbook discusses:
1) Martial success refers to any outcome of the marriage, including divorce.
2) Martial quality is an evaluation of the relationship on multiple dimensions.
3) Martial assessment refers to the amount of accommodation each partner shows the other.
4) Martial satisfaction is the global assessment of one’s marriage.
Factors that influence martial success include age - the younger the partners are, the lower the odds fo a successful marriage, financial security and pregnancy at time of marriage, homogamy and amount of similarity in values and goals, and the exchange theory all play an important role in martial success.
The normal pattern of martial success across the life span consists of the beginning of the marriage being high in satisfaction, this satisfaction lowers until children leave the house in adulthood, and rises again in old adulthood.
What are the factors related to divorce? How does divorce affect men and women differently? What are the important issues in remarriage? How does widowhood affect men and women differently?
Couples of mixed ethnic background and low levels of education tend to have higher divorce rates. Negative feelings during conflict predicted early divorce, as resulted in wife-demand-husband-withdraw. Negative feelings and lack of positive emotion were also factors relating to divorce.
When women initiate the divorce, they report self-focused growth and optimism. Though when they do not, they tend to feel vulnerable. Women also experience more financial difficulty than men do after a divorce.
Issues in remarriage include waiting long enough to avoid the rebound effect, possible loss of benefits from late partner’s pension or retirement plan, dealing with the opinions of adult children, and having to deal with issues from a past relationship while focusing on a new one.
Women are more likely to be widowed than men as they have longer life spans and tend to marry men older than their age. If they were dependent on their husband, they tend to report high levels of self-esteem learning how to do things on their own. they also experience great financial difficulties.
Define kinkeeper, sandwich generation, boomerang kids, and filial obligation. What are the issues associated with caring for an older parent? What are the positives and negatives aspects of parental caregiving?
The kin keeper is the person in the family that organizes family gatherings and keeps family members in touch with one another. Tends to be a middle-aged mother.
The sandwich generation refers to middle aged adults stuck between the demands of their own children and their parents.
Boomerang kids refer to young adults that return back home after leaving, usually due to the increased cost of living.
Filial obligation refers to the feeling that one needs to care for their aging parent if necessary.
Issues associated with caring for an older parent include the parent feeling a loss of independence, they may feel like a burden and have negative feelings toward the situation.
Caring for a parent may result in difficulties of the adult child accepting the decreasing functioning of their parent. They may also experience a challenge in balancing work, their own children, and caring for their parent which can result in burnout and conflict in the home. On the positive side of things, they can develop a closer bond with their parent.
What functions to grandparents serve? Describe the ethnic differences in grandparenting. Why are more grandparents raising grandchildren today, and what additional issue does this raise?
Grandparents serve many functions. Societally, grandparents are known for passing on family history. They may also pass on skills, religious and social values through storytelling. They also serve individual needs and satisfactions of their grandchildren.
In African American and Latino American families, intergenerational relationships are important for reasons such as educating religious beliefs. In Latino grandparents and African American grandparents, child care is common.
More grandparents are raising grandchildren today because of the increase in both parents working. Previously the mom would stay home with the children. Other reasons grandparents are caring for their grandchildren include parental incarceration, addition, behavioural problems in the child. Grandparents raising grandchildren leads to difficulties with lack of legal guardianship. This can make dealing with schools and obtaining records challenging.
