Sociology

-Intimacy- Closeness between two people
Four key features of intimacy -Love and/or affection , Personal validation, trust and Self-disclosure
-Factors affecting commitment- The balance of costs and benefits, Normative inputs, structural constraints
Benefits get from intimate relationships
Central feature of romantic love
Companionate love- warm and tender affection we feel for close others. It includes frienships, shared interests and activities, and companionships. May lack sexual attraction or dessire and produces less of the extreme highs and lows people experience from passionate love. Pg 150
Attachment theory and style Jealousy- Occurs because of a partner’s real, imagined, or likely involvement with a third person
Fear of loss, coupled with insecurity, increases the likelihood of jealousy.
Commitment

Love in same-sex relationships Traditional female sexual scripts•Expected to wait for and comply with male’s initiation, Focuses on feelings and love, Women are unable talk about sex. Some women are not comfortable about communicating their needs.
Traditional sexual scripts-Expectations of how to behave sexually, Enables individuals to organize sexual situations and interpret emotions and sensations as sexually meaningful, We may modify or change our scripts, but we will not throw them away, Society regulates sexuality.
Traditional male sexual scripts-Sexual competence, Ability to give partners orgasms,Sexual desire, Prolonged erection, Being a good lover, Fertility, Heterosexuality
Contemporary sexual scripts men and women- Legitimate sexual activities are not limited to sexual intercourse, but also include masturbation and oral-genital sex, Sexual activities may be initiated by either partner., Both partners have a right to experience orgasm, through intercourse, oral genital sex, or manual stimulation, Nonmarital sex is acceptable within a relationship context, Gay, lesbian, and bisexual relationships are increasingly accepted, especially on college campuses and in large cities.
Stage in gay/lesbian/bisexual identities- 1.Fear and suspicion that one’s desires are different from those of others 2.Labeling feelings of attraction, love, and desire as homoerotic if they recur often 3.The person’s self-definition as lesbian or gay 4.Entering the gay subculture 5.First lesbian or gay love affair
Autoeroticism-Sexual activities such as sexual fantasies, masturbation, and erotic dreams that involve only the self
Cunnilingus

How sexual relationships are enhanced Extramarital affairs Sexual responsibility- Disclosure of intentions, Freely and mutually agreed-upon sexual activities, Use of mutually agreed-upon contraception method, Use of “safer sex” practices, Disclosure of infections and exposures, Acceptance of consequences of sexual behavior
Women and sexually transmitted diseases (STD) symptoms
Gender differences in communication-Compared with men’s nonverbal communication patterns, women: smile more. express a wider range of emotions through their facial expressions. occupy, claim, and control less space. maintain more eye contact with others with whom they are interacting.
Male tend to talk about “things”: sports, cars, politics, Females tend to talk about feelings
Verbal and nonverbal communication- Verbal communication expresses the basic content of the message.
Nonverbal communication reflects more of the relationship part of the message.
•The attitude of the speaker
•How the words are to be interpreted
Nonverbal communication has three important functions in marriage:
1.Conveying interpersonal attitudes
2.Expressing emotions
3.Handling the ongoing interaction
Touch, Proximity and Eye contact
Proximity- Nearness, in terms of physical space, time, and so on, A distance of 0 to 18 inches is considered an intimate zone
Eye contact - may be best understood as part of a broader category of information and emotions conveyed and communicated with one’s face.
Touch- A review of the research on touch finds it to be extremely important in human development, health, and sexuality
Children response to marital conflict- Children react to parental conflict in a variety of ways, depending on how the parents handle themselves.
Ways to resolve conflict-•Constructive Conflict Management (Summarizing , Paraphrasing, Validating, Clarifying)
Self-disclosure- the revelation of our own deeply personal information—before or soon after marriage is related to later relationship satisfaction
Premarital factors that impact marriage

Marriage squeeze- The gender imbalance reflected in the ratio of available unmarried women and men
•Members of one gender tend to be “squeezed” out of the marriage market
Mating gradient- The tendency for women to marry men of higher status
•Men tend to marry women slightly below them in age, education, and so on
How many men select women to marry

Homogamy, exogamy and endogamy, heterogamy-
Exogamy-Requires us to marry outside certain groups—specifically, outside our own family (however defined) and outside our sex.
Endogamy -People usually marry others from within their same large group—such as the nationality, ethnic group, or socioeconomic status with which they identify—because they share common assumptions, experiences, and understandings.
Homogamy- tendency to choose a mate whose personal or group characteristics are similar to ours.
Functions of engagement

Benefits of marriage-•Economic well-being (e.g., higher income, greater productivity, and mobility at work) Physical and mental health, Personal happiness
Widowhood- The loss of one’s spouse confronts women and men with a variety of deep and painful emotions. Although both women and men lose their chief source of emotional support when widowed, women typically have wider and deeper friendship networks to turn to for support.