Untitled Quiz

Healthy Relationships, Love, Sexuality, & Communication

• Relationships involve communication, love, and sexuality.
• Various theories and concepts, like Sternberg's triangular theory of love, explore these facets.
• Love is a multifaceted concept, including intimacy, passion, and commitment.
• Communication is crucial in relationships, impacting how feelings are expressed and understood.
• Healthy relationships often exhibit mutual respect and understanding.

Unit Overview

• This unit examines healthy and dysfunctional relationships.
• Communication and different relationship types are covered.
• Love, such as companionate love, passionate love, and triangular love, will be studied.
• Human sexuality, including identity, normalcy vs. variant, and STIs, are discussed.

Communication

• Activity: Groups of five students play poker together.
• Rules for the game of poker are discussed.
• Hand rankings, for example Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four of a Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, Three of a Kind, Two Pair, Pair, High Card, are mentioned.

Card Game

• Communication breakdowns are analyzed.
• Debriefing focuses on assumptions, and how they vary based on culture, gender, and age.
• Participants react to the assumptions made by each other.

Communicating for a healthy relationship

• Communication involves expressing feelings.
• Effective communication relies on actively hearing others, regardless of what was said.
• Skills like self-closure, active listening, and mindful speaking help build healthy relationships.

Improving Listening Skills

• Essential elements of active listening include acknowledging the speaker’s intent, demonstrating empathy, and responding with respect.
• Active listening involves clarifying meanings and perception checking.
• Acknowledging cultural differences is vital for effective listening.

Characteristics of Intimate Relationships

• Intimate relationships are characterized by behavioral interdependence, with mutual impact on one another.
• Individuals in intimate relationships fulfill needs like social approval and reassurance.
• Emotional closeness, experiencing feelings of love, and emotional availability, which includes giving and receiving in a relationship, are core characteristics of these relationships.

Forming Intimate Relationships

• Families of origin and nuclear families impact relationship formation.
• Establishing friendships involves elements of enjoyment, trust, respect, acceptance, mutual assistance, understanding, confiding, and spontaneity.
• Significant relationships, such as couples, have characteristics similar to friendships.
• Fascination, exclusivity, sexual desire, giving, and advocacy are also characteristics mentioned within relationships.

This Thing Called Love

• Different types of love exist, such as companionate love built on trust, and passionate love driven by high arousal.
• The triangular love theory emphasizes intimacy, passion, and commitment, and is more positive and healthy love relationships.
• Definitions of love vary amongst individuals.

Sternberg's "Triangle Theory of Love"

• Sternberg's Triangle Theory of love identifies different types of love based on the levels of intimacy, passion, and commitment.
• Different types of love are identified based on the presence and absence of the three components.

Process of falling in love

• Imprinting, attraction, and attachment are stages of falling in love.
• Imprinting involves evolutionary and genetic predisposition factors and past experiences influencing romantic reactions.
• Attraction, or liking someone, is triggered by neurochemicals producing feelings of euphoria.
• Attachment, or developing a bond, is associated with endorphins, which foster a secure and calm emotional connection.
• Production of "cuddle chemical" (oxytocin) leads to feelings of satisfaction and attachment.

Gender Issues in Relationships

• Communication styles often differ based on gender.
• Individuals may be influenced by factors when selecting partners, such as similarities or reciprocation, or physical attraction.
• The factors used in selecting relationship partners may include personal experiences.

Overcoming Barriers to Intimacy

• Dysfunctional families, jealousy, and overdependence on relationships can hinder intimacy.
• Barriers to intimacy can include obstacles to psychological health and self-love within dysfunctional families.

Committed Relationships

• Different types of committed relationships, such as marriage, monogamy, serial monogamy, open relationships, and cohabitation, are discussed.
• Staying single is a valid life choice, and some statistics about single-living are given.

Building Better Relationships

• Predictability, dependability, and faith are key elements in healthy relationships.
• Partners' interpretation of each other's behavior and mood is crucial.
• Shared interests and sexual intimacy are also important elements.
• Shared history and maintaining a cherished history are essential ingredients for strong relationships.

When Relationships Falter

• Various reasons exist why relationships end, such as communication problems or unmet expectations.
• Coping strategies for loneliness are also discussed.
• Reflecting on relationship dynamics can prevent mistakes in future relationships.

Your Sexual Identity

• Differentiating between sex and gender, which distinguish biological from psychosocial conditions.
• Concepts like gender roles, gender identity, gender stereotypes, and androgyny are part of this topic.
• Learning about social influences is important to understand human identity.

Expressing Your Sexuality

• Defining aspects of sexual orientation as biological, psychological, and socioenvironmental.

Sexual Orientation

• Sexual orientations including heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual are explored.
• Homophobia, or irrational fear of homosexuality, is identified as a harmful prejudice.

Your Sexuality (Sexual Disorders)

• Sexual disorders, like inhibited sexual desire and various others, are addressed.
• Related problems, like sexual aversion disorders, arousal disorders, orgasm disorders, and sexual pain disorders, are noted.

Your Sexuality (Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs))

• Common STIs, such as Chlamydia, Genital Herpes, HPV, and Gonorrhea, are listed.
• The mode of transmission is primarily through sexual contact, and includes various forms, like vaginal, anal, oral, or hand-genital interactions.
• STIs can spread through mouth-to-mouth contact (but less frequently).
• Safe practices are crucial for preventing STI transmission—a condom is a recommendation.

Direct Contact

• Susceptibility to STIs varies based on age and life stage.
• This topic underscores the need for informed choices.

Expressing Your Sexuality (Variant Sexual Expression)

• Various sexual expressions beyond traditional categories, such as group sex, transvestitism, transsexualism, fetishism, sadomasochism, autoerotic asphyxiation, exhibitionism, voyeurism, and pedophilia are discussed.

Difficulties That Can Hinder Sexual Functioning

• Drugs such as alcohol can negatively impact sexual responses.
• Specific "date rape drugs," like Rohypnol ("roofies") and Gamma-hydroxybutrane (GHB), are included, emphasizing the importance of consent and safety in dating situations.