Romantic Relationships

With contributions from the leading experts on relationships, this book covers important issues, such as love as self-expansion, equity in maintaining close relationships, commitment, social support, self-verification, and minding the relationship. The end result is a comprehensive account of the reasons why close relationships are or are not maintained and the manner in which these principles can be applied to current social issues and clinical interventions. Divided into two sections, Part I describes models developed to characterize how relationships are maintained over time, accounts of specific mechanisms at work in close relationships, and conceptualizations of the maintenance and enhancement of close relationships using existing theoretical paradigms. Part II addresses contemporary social issues, as well as clinical applications. Close Romantic Relationships will appeal to students, researchers, and professionals due to its broad sampling of theory and research on relationship maintenance and enhancement.

Westerners believe that love makes life worth living; that sex is a natural desire different in kind from love; and that only cynics reduce our love life to a calculation of economic or genetic factors. In this volume, essays explore these and other assumptions about the relationship between romantic love and sex. This represents the first interdisciplinary social science study of love and sex.

As renowned sex and marital therapist David Schnarch reveals in this revolutionary book, keeping passion and intimacy alive requires facing the anxiety of defining yourself while getting closer to your partner, a process called differentiation. In his sexual crucible approach, you don't have to compromise or give up your desires; instead, you have to stand on your own, stay close to your partner, and be prepared to soothe yourself when you don't get what you want. Sexual encounters provide perfect opportunities to differentiate and develop the strength of love deeply. Mixing humor and compassion, Schnarch describes couples' explicit sexual encounters and dramatic therapy sessions to demonstrate how they found personal, marital, and sexual fulfillment far greater than they ever dreamed possible. In this respectful, erotic, uplifting, and spiritual guide to sexual and emotional fulfillment, David Schnarch seeks to bring out the best in each of us, to help us love on life's terms, and to revel in invigorating adult sexuality.

Following the work of E. O. Wilson, Desmond Morris, and David Buss, What Women Want--What Men Want offers compelling new evidence about the real reasons behind men's and women's differing sexual psychologies and sheds new light on what men and women look for in a mate, the predicament of marriage in the modern world, the relation between sex and emotion, and many other hotly debated questions. Drawing upon 2000 questionnaires and 200 intimate interviews that show how our sexual psychologies affect everyday decisions, John Townsend argues against the prevailing ideologically correct belief that differences in sexual behavior are "culturally constructed." Townsend shows there are deep-seated desires inherited from our evolutionary past that guide our actions. In a fascinating series of experiments, men and women were asked to indicate preferences for potential mates based on their attractiveness and apparent economic status. Women overwhelmingly preferred expensively dressed men to more attractive but apparently less successful men, and men were clearly inclined to choose more attractive women regardless of their professional status. Townsend's studies also indicate that men are predisposed to value casual sex, whereas women cannot easily separate sexual relations from the need for emotional attachment and economic security. Indeed, wherever men possess sexual alternatives to marriage, and women possess economic alternatives, divorce rates will be high. In the concluding chapter, Townsend draws upon the advice of couples who have maintained their marriages over the years to suggest ways to survive our evolutionary predicament. Lucidly and accessibly written, What Women Want--What Men Want shows us why we are the way we are and brings new clarity to one of the most intractable debates of our time.

Lampert presents the story of love: when, why, and how love became a central experience of humans. She sheds new insights as to who we fall in love with, why our sexual life is so full of contradictions, and from where the behavioral repertoire of lovers came. Based upon the most current scientific information, this book is written for every educated person.

How do people fall in love? Why does true love elude so many of us? Are there different kinds of love? Why is it that the same traits that charm us when we fall for someone are often the same traits that drive us crazy later on?

This first book is to unlock the mysteries of how and why we fall in love. It is filled with tips and suggestions for those seeking an intimate relationship as well as step-by-step instructions for lovers to turn relationship problems into opportunities for growth.

Love presents itself as a complex, multidimensional phenomenon that has been considered one of the most intense and powerful of all human emotions. This book is a comprehensive compilation, analysis, and evaluation of existing views and theories about love development, maintenance, and dissolution. It examines diverse theorizations in terms of their theoretical foundations, basic principles, empirical evidence, and strengths and weaknesses. The volume also suggests future directions for developing love studies as a comprehensive, multidisciplinary scientific discipline.

Relational maintenance provides a rallying point for those seeking to discover the behaviors that individuals utilize to sustain their personal relationships. Theoretical models, research programs, and specific studies have examined how people in a variety of close relationships choose to define and maintain those relationships. In addition, relational maintenance turns our attention to communicative processes that help people sustain their close relationships. In this collection, editors Daniel J. Canary and Marianne Dainton focus on the communicative processes critical to the maintenance and enhancement of personal relationships. The volume considers variations in maintaining different types of personal relationships; structural constraints on relationship maintenance; and cultural variations in relational maintenance. Contributions to the volume cover a broad range of relational types, including romantic relationships, family relationships, long-distance relationships, workplace relationships, and Gay and Lesbian relationships, among others. Maintaining Relationships Through Communication: Relational, Contextual, and Cultural Variations synthesizes current research in relationship maintenance, emphasizes the ways that behaviors vary in their maintenance functions across relational contexts, discusses alternative explanations for maintaining relationships, and presents avenues for future research. As such, it is intended for students and scholars studying interpersonal communication and personal relationships.

Providing a thorough review and synthesis of work on communication skills and skill enhancement, this Handbook serves as a comprehensive and contemporary survey of theory and research on social interaction skills. Editors John O. Greene and Brant R. Burleson have brought together preeminent researchers and writers to contribute to this volume, establishing a foundation on which future study and research will build. The Handbook chapters are organized into five major units: general theoretical and methodological issues (models of skill acquisition, methods of skill assessment); fundamental interaction skills (both transfunctional and transcontextual); function-focused skills (informing, persuading, supporting); skills used in management of diverse personal relationships (friendships, romances, marriages); and skills used in varied venues of public and professional life (managing leading, teaching). Distinctive features of this Handbook include: broad, comprehensive treatment of work on social interaction skills and skill acquisition; up-to-date reviews of research in each area; and emphasis on empirically supported strategies for developing and enhancing specific skills. Researchers in communication studies, psychology, family studies, business management, and related areas find this volume a comprehensive, authoritative source on communications skills and their enhancement, and it is essential reading for scholars and students across the spectrum of disciplines studying social interaction.