Chapter Review on Relationships PDF

## Chapter Review ### SUMMARY #### 8.1 Friendship - Social support is one way people benefit from friendships. - We often share social identity characteristics with our friends, but cross-group friendships can help us better understand others. - Stereotypes suggest that women engage in face-to-fa...

## Chapter Review ### SUMMARY #### 8.1 Friendship - Social support is one way people benefit from friendships. - We often share social identity characteristics with our friends, but cross-group friendships can help us better understand others. - Stereotypes suggest that women engage in face-to-face friendships, while men's friendships follow a side-by-side pattern, but in reality there's a lot of individual variability, especially when other aspects of people's social identities are considered. - People tend to have both same gender and cross-gender friendships, although many people believe that (heterosexual) men and women can't be just friends. - Girls may engage in relational aggression against friends and acquaintances. This type of behavior can be a way to assert and/or gain power. - Sometimes bullying is tied to the social identity of the target. There are long-lasting consequences for those who experience bullying. #### 8.2 The Culture of Romance - Idealized and unrealistic beliefs about love and romance are common and are perpetuated through the media. - Dating scripts continue to reflect traditional, gendered, heterosexual standards. These scripts don't reflect the experiences of women who date other women. - Online dating has risen in popularity. While some people have success connecting with long-term partners through these websites and apps, others do not. - Dating hasn't been replaced by hooking up, and studies show that many young adults continue to date. #### 8.3 Committed Relationships - Monogamy is seen as normal and natural, but this view is tied to social norms about relationships. - Some people chose consensually non-monogamous relationships, such as polyamory, rather than monogamous relationships with a single partner. - Many people are choosing not to marry or are marrying later than was true in the past. - Some unmarried individuals maintain committed relationships through cohabitation, some opt out of marriage because they view it as inexorably tied to patriarchy, and still others are aromantic and aren't seeking romantic relationships. - Many cultural, and often gendered, expectations are associated with weddings. - Most people's expectations about marriage are unrealistic. - Healthy marriages provide benefits in terms of social support, finances, and health. Marriage also brings institutionalized legal and financial benefits. - Some women report positive consequences from their divorces. However, financial strain commonly increases for women after divorce. - Gendered power dynamics commonly play a role in female-male relationships, and the partner who is least invested in the relationship (usually assumed to be the man) typically has more power. - Couples who are equally invested in their relationships tend to be more satisfied with their relationships. #### 8.4 Division of Labor - Women with male partners generally do a higher proportion of the household labor, and progress toward equity over the latter half of the 20th century has stalled. - Women are more likely than men to manage what needs to be done around the house and to engage in emotion work. - Men's generally greater power within relationships contributes to inequity. - Women are more likely to have been socialized to do household labor and are more likely to be viewed negatively if they don't do it. - There is greater household labor equity in countries with more egalitarian gender attitudes, and individuals with more egalitarian beliefs are more likely to have an equitable division of labor in their relationships. - Relationship satisfaction and sexual satisfaction decrease when the division of labor is perceived as unfair. - Open communication between partners can make achieving equity more likely. ### KEY TERMS - social support - informational social support - instrumental social support - emotional social support - active constructive responding - co-rumination - relational aggression - identity-based bullying - cyberbullying - dating scripts - compulsory monogamy - consensually non-monogamous (CNM) relationships - polygamy - polyamorous (poly) relationships - mate retention behaviors - principle of least interest - routine labor - low-control labor - intermittent labor - second shift - emotion work - relative resources theory - social exchange - time availability - gender deviance neutralization ### THINK ABOUT IT 1. Imagine that you've been asked to develop an anti-bullying campaign for a local high school. Based on the research findings described in this chapter, what topics would you include? What potential barriers would you anticipate? How might you address them? 2. Google "Valentine's Day cards and explore the different messages that are conveyed about romance. What themes emerge? Can you think of a way to write a card that doesn't include some of the more problematic messages associated with the romantic script? 3. What advice would you give to a friend who is setting up a dating profile? What theories would best help guide your advice? How might dominant dating scripts help or hinder the dating process? 4. As you learned in this chapter, progress toward equal distribution of household labor stalled around 1998-1999. Think about what might have caused that shift. What types of social and interpersonal things will need to change in order to increase and sustain gender equity in all households? ### Glossary - social support - informational social support - instrumental social support - emotional social support - active constructive responding - co-rumination - relational aggression - cyberbullying - identity-based bullying - dating scripts - compulsory monogamy - consensually non-monogamous (CNM) relationships - polygamy - polyamorous (poly) relationships - mate retention behaviors - principle of least interest - routine labor - low-control labor - intermittent labor - second shift - emotion work - relative resources theory - social exchange - time availability - gender deviance neutralization