Chapter 8 Flashcards
Relationship Characteristics:
Traits or features that define how relationships function, such as trust, communication, and mutual respect.
Significant Relationships:
Important connections in one’s life that have a profound impact on personal well-being and development.
Purposes of Relationships:
Reasons why people form relationships, such as companionship, support, love, and collaboration.
Elements of a Good Relationship:
Key components that contribute to healthy relationships, including trust, communication, empathy, and mutual respect.
Understanding Attraction:
The process of recognizing what draws individuals to each other, which can be physical, emotional, or intellectual.
Reasons for Attraction:
Factors that influence why people are attracted to one another.
Physical Proximity:
Being physically near someone, which increases the likelihood of forming a relationship.
Physical Attractiveness:
The appeal of someone’s physical appearance.
Perceived Gain:
The benefits one expects to receive from a relationship.
Similarities and Differences:
Shared interests or complementary traits that attract individuals to each other.
Disclosure:
Sharing personal information, which can build intimacy and trust.
Coming Together:
The phases through which relationships develop and deepen
Initiating:
The first contact or interaction between individuals.
Experimenting:
Getting to know each other through small talk and shared activities.
Intensifying:
Increasing intimacy and sharing more personal information.
Integrating:
Merging lives and establishing a shared identity.
Bonding:
Formalizing the relationship through commitments like marriage or partnership.
Coming Apart:
The phases through which relationships deteriorate
Differentiating:
Recognizing individual differences and asserting independence.
Circumscribing:
Limiting communication and reducing intimacy.
Stagnating:
Relationship becomes inactive and routine.
Avoiding:
Deliberately creating distance from the partner.
Terminating:
Ending the relationship.
Relationship Maintenance:
Efforts made to sustain and nurture a relationship, such as regular communication, conflict resolution, and showing appreciation.
Relationship Dialectics:
Tensions or opposing forces within relationships that need balancing.
Separation-Integration:
Balancing time apart with time together.
Predictability – Novelty:
Balancing routine with new experiences.
Openness – Closedness:
Balancing sharing with privacy.
Similarity-Difference:
Balancing shared interests with individuality.
Ideal-Real:
Balancing idealized views with reality.
Self-Disclosure:
Sharing personal thoughts and feelings with others to build intimacy.
Alternatives to Self-Disclosure:
Other ways to communicate without revealing personal information, such as using humor or indirect communication.
Improving Communication Skills:
Developing abilities to effectively convey and interpret messages, enhancing understanding and connection in relationships.
