Personal Relationships and Love

Personal Relationships

• Refer to associations and close connections formed by emotional bonds and interactions, often stemming from shared experiences.
• Family relationships are defined by people living together, related by birth, marriage, or adoption. This can include extended family like grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.
• Family members show love and affection through various actions such as hugging, kissing, patting, etc.
• Friendships are relationships between people who are not related by blood but share trust, respect, and care. Good friendships are reciprocal, supportive, and share common interests.
• Romantic relationships involve strong attraction, encompassing physical attributes and personality, and are often described as being "in love".
• These relationships require trust, respect, communication, and acceptance for success, especially in adolescence.

Ways of Showing Attraction and Love

• Attraction is primarily a physiological or hormonal response, leading to stages of closeness, love, and commitment, as proposed by Helen Fisher.
• Fisher's biological model of love posits three brain systems: lust, attraction, and attachment, involving different neurochemicals.
• Lust involves sexual desire, primarily driven by hormones such as estrogen and androgen.
• Attraction focuses attention on a specific person; physical attractiveness and proximity are influential factors.
• Similarity in interests and values also influences attraction.

Biological Model of Love

• The stages of falling in love, according to Helen Fisher, are driven by different brain systems: lust, attraction, and attachment

Factors Influencing Attraction

• Physical attractiveness is a primary factor in romantic attraction.
• Proximity, or geographical closeness, contributes to attraction.
• Similarity in values and interests increases attraction.

Triangular Theory of Love

• Intimacy, passion, and commitment are the three components of love.
• A variety of relationships exists based on varying levels of these three components. Different types of love involve different combinations of the three components.

Types of Love

• Liking: Intimacy only
• Infatuation: Passion only
• Empty Love: Commitment only
• Romantic Love: Intimacy and Passion
• Companionate Love: Intimacy and Commitment
• Fatuous Love: Passion and Commitment
• Consummate Love: Intimacy, Passion, and Commitment

How to Become Responsible in Real Life

• Honesty is essential in all relationships
• Acting on a situation, rather than reacting, is more productive.
• Forgiveness and understanding are necessary for strong relationships.

Social Relationships

• Relationships like those with parents, peers, and community members significantly influence adolescents.
• Leadership and followership are important aspects of these relationships, with a dynamic exchange between leaders and followers.
• Different societal roles exist (political leaders, religious leaders, teachers).

Filipino Values

• Filipino values like 'hiya', 'pakikipagkapwa-tao', and hospitality are vital to relationships and harmony among people.

Family Structures

• Varying family structures exist, from nuclear to extended families; Stepfamilies, single-parent families, adoptive families, bi-racial or multiracial families, and trans-racial adoptive families.
• Other relevant structures discussed include blended families, conditionally separated families, foster families, and gay or lesbian families.

Family Legacies

• Spiritual, emotional, and social legacies influence and are shaped by positive and negative factors that are passed down in families.

Parenting Styles

• Authoritarian parenting involves strict rules and little warmth.
• Permissive parenting involves warmth but no rules.
• Authoritative parenting involves warmth and clear boundaries and limits; this style is useful for balancing parenting needs.

Career Development

• Career development involves managing learning, work, and leisure transitions toward a desired future.
• Differential, social, and developmental psychology contribute understanding to different aspects of career development.
• Individuals' goals, values, and preferences are integral parts of this development cycle.