Relationship course theory: An interdisciplinary integrative proposition to address the complexification of interpersonal relationships

Researchers have been observing a complexification of interpersonal relationships in contemporary societies. However, current theoretical perspectives on relationships fall short of comprehensively grasping increasingly diverse and fluid relationship types (e.g., friends with benefits, polyamory, living-apart-together, coparenting, etc.) and patterns of change. In an attempt to meet the need for more integrative and interdisciplinary theorizing, this paper introduces a first outline of relationship course theory to better comprehend the complexity of relationships. In contrast to previous theoretical perspectives that conceptualize relationships as a single trajectory, I posit that the course of a relationship is composed of multiple intertwined trajectories, each of which stemming from differentiated domains such as sexuality, friendship, love, family, domesticity, and occupation. These relationship domains constitute a metatypology from which to examine the multiple sets of meanings and temporalities that intertwine throughout the course of a relationship. I propose that relationships are defined based on the combination of relationship domains, with different iterations and permutations of these domains producing various relationship configurations. Furthermore, the theory defines three levels of relationship courses: Sociocultural (i.e., stories that circulate about relationships in given sociocultural contexts), interpersonal (i.e., stories that individuals co-construct about the particular relationships they experience), and life courses (i.e., stories that individuals co-construct about themselves as relational beings). This proposition will hopefully stimulate the theoretical conversation on the complexity of relationships and foster dialogue between researchers from different theoretical and disciplinary affiliations.     

A Theory of Love and Sexual Desire

The experience of being in love involves a longing for union with the other, where an important part of this longing is sexual desire. But what is the relation between being in love and sexual desire? To answer this it must first be seen that the expression ‘in love’ normally refers to a personal relationship. This is because to be ‘in love’ is to want to be loved back. This much would be predicted by equity and social exchange theories of interpersonal attraction. Findings suggest however that love differs fundamentally from liking and, consequently, distinct approaches to the theory of love have been developed. A phenomenological theory is then put forward which suggests that the experience of being in love involves a complex of desires for reciprocal vulnerability in order to care and be cared for. Sexual desire is then seen to involve the physical expression of these desires in the form of desires for mutual baring in order to caress and be caressed. Unlike love, however, sexual desire need not refer to the other person's desires. This is supported by the existence of sexual desires like fetishism. It is concluded that other desires which often appear in instances of being in love are not basic to the experience of being in love.     

论社会主义友爱的三个层次

从当代人际交往的实际看,我国公民间的友爱关系包含相互依存的三个层次:道德情感、道德规范和道德理想,它们与社会主义制度相联系,从不同侧面反映着公民道德建设的基本要求。以情感为动力、规范为导向,创建互助友爱的和谐的人际关系是公民道德建设的目标。     

“自我的道德地形学”——一个具有心理学和社会学意涵的本体诠释学理论

在当今中国,社会学、心理学研究领域中所强调的“文化自觉”的旨趣在于凸显文化主体性以及文化间的和平沟通。“自我的道德地形学”无疑对这一旨趣具有独特的理论启示意义,它构成了C.泰勒的巨著《自我的根源》的主体部分,并在其诠释学思想中占有基础地位。“自我的道德地形学”首先是作为一个心理学理论被提出来的,而它的社会学意涵在以其为基础的、C.泰勒的著名政治理论论文“承认的政治”中充分地得以展现。鉴于这一理论以兼具心理学和社会学意涵的本体论诠释为基础,对错综复杂的历史经验具有条分缕析的阐释力,因此,作者认为,对该理论所具有的启示意义予以深刻地把握,对中国社会学、心理学在方兴未文的跨学科文化研究领域建构基础性的平台具有重要意义。     

Love or the Black Sun of Personal Relationships

Previous research about love, in the social‐psychological literature, has focused on the antecedents, or causes, of love. Moreover, within the field of Personal Relationships, love is often regarded as implicitly present, and thus, is not treated directly. Here, we address the possibility of a reversal of this perspective, where love is no longer treated as a dependent variable but as an independent variable. We show that this change is necessary to promote the status of love to that of a reliable object of scientific enquiry. We discuss the differences between scientific and naïve conceptions of love, and the necessity of distinguishingbetween an alleged reality of love and the consequences of the mere idea of love.     

古典家庭的解构与婚姻的圣化:奥古斯丁对社会基本单元的新构建

家庭是古典社会的基本单元,是一个基于自然权力的支配架构。奥古斯丁把个体抽离出世俗共同体,还原为纯粹的精神实体,为基督教的社会模式奠定了基点。奥古斯丁否认世俗共同体具有任何终极和德性涵义,导致家庭作为最基本的共同体形式,以一种“去自然”的方式被解构。奥古斯丁进而在基督教的框架下把人类社会理解为一个基于“平等和友爱”原则的“团契”（societas）;在这个抽象的精神性社会里,具有神圣意味的婚约（圣化的婚姻）以相同的原则构建起来,是体现人类社会性的最基础的组织单位,奥古斯丁由此构建起以“婚约”为基本单元的全新社会模式。该模式在中世纪晚期趋于瓦解,但其构建原则却为现代社会的基本单元--基于夫妻制度的核心家庭所继承。     

The flavours of love: A cross‐cultural lexical analysis

Linguists have often remarked upon the polysemous nature of love, whereby the term encompasses a wide diversity of emotional relationships. Several typologies have been constructed to account for this diversity. However, these tend to be restricted in scope, and fail to fully represent the range of experiences signified by the term ‘love’ in discourse. In the interest of generating an expanded typology of love, encompassing its varied forms, an enquiry was conducted into relevant concepts found across the world's cultures, focusing on so‐called untranslatable words. Through a quasi‐systematic search of published and internet sources, 609 relevant words were identified. These were organised through a version of grounded theory into 14 categories, representing 14 different forms or ‘flavours’ of love. The result is an expanded theoretical treatment of love, allowing us to better appreciate the nuances of this most cherished and yet polysemous of concepts.     

社会心理测量中降低主观性偏差的方法探索——一项关于组织认同的测量思路与量表设计及其结果

对作为一种社会心理现象的组织认同的测量思路，从大的视野看，应该既从组织成员对组织与自己关系的内在体验和感受，也从其对这种关系表现出的外显性行为两个方面实施；从具体操作言，还应寻求组织认同中个体的主我认知与他我认知的统一，把二者的测量得分合二为一后，求对同一个问题的整合结果。测量量表的设计与编制应该同时考虑两个方面：一是在设计心理倾向测量的同时必须考虑测量内在心理和外显性行为表现两个层次；二是在测量这种主观意向倾向时应注意从主我与他我的两个方面。实际的测量结果有降低测量的主观性偏差和提高测量的精确度两个特点。     

Internationally adopted children's general and adoption‐specific stressors,coping strategies and psychological adjustment

We examined stress, coping and psychological adjustment of 68 children, aged 8–12, who were internationally adopted to Spain. Using the Kidcope, all children were asked about the most stressful general and adoption‐related problem they experienced and the use and effectiveness of various coping strategies when dealing with the problem. For all reported problems, the nature of the problem (personal, interpersonal, regarding others), the content, the degree of stress it created and its perceived controllability were analysed. Emotional and behavioural functionings were assessed with the Behaviour Assessment System for Children. About half of the children mentioned specific problems concerning the adoption, with inracial adoptees reporting less adoption‐related problems than transracial adoptees. For general and adoption‐related problems, interpersonal problems were mentioned most often. With regard to the content, ‘relationships’ and ‘victimization’ were mentioned most often for general and adoption‐related problems, respectively. Adoption‐related problems were appraised as less controllable. No differences emerged in terms of coping with general or adoption‐related problems except for ‘self‐criticism’. Overall, the children used many coping strategies and were generally well‐adjusted. Identifying the problems and coping strategies of adoptees is important in order to help these children and their families tackle these stressors.     

网络互动中人际信任概念辨析

因特网的虚拟性和匿名性等特征,使网络人际信任的内涵有别于现实社会。网络人际信任是交往双方对对方能够完成自己所托付之事的一种概括化期望,是心理预期和行为策略的统一。风险小、潜在威胁小是网络人际信任的基础;情感风险是网络人际信任的主要内容;文本符号是网络人际信任关系的中介。     

Renewed Conception of Harmonious Society,Governance, and Citizenship – Evidence from the Study of Chinese Perceptions in Hong Kong

This paper aims at constructing a modern theoretical conception of a harmonious society and testing it in relation to governance and citizenship rights, based on an empirical study of Chinese people’s perceptions in Hong Kong. It is proposed that a harmonious society can be defined as “a society in which the component parts are integrative and cooperative; even if there is conflict, it can be resolved within the established mechanisms and does not interrupt the orderly functioning of society.” This study investigates the social, economic, and political aspects and their related institutions in the renewed conception of harmonious society. Overall, less than two‐fifths of the respondents felt that Hong Kong was a harmonious society. The strength of governance in Hong Kong is its sound and trustworthy institutions; the weaker elements are social and interpersonal relations. This finding is in contrast to the traditional notion, which regards social harmony as harmonious social and interpersonal relationships. It is clear that the greatest challenge for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government is the need to rebalance the interests of big business and those of labor and the lower class in order to enhance the perception of a harmonious society among its citizens.     

信任溃败与圈子解散:田园茶叶公司的集体离职事件研究

以田园茶叶公司为例,本文运用集因素论和互动论优势于一体的圈子理论分析集体离职事件。研究表明,在以领导为核心的圈子中的网络结构位置决定了员工的去留、职级,集体离职源于组织中圈子内信任关系的受损、溃败所导致的圈子解散和替换。本文提出了五个研究推论：第一,职务结构和圈子关系的重合或分离会影响离职;第二,领导的圈外人最可能离职;第三,与小领导不和的大领导班底不会离职且会晋升;第四,圈间“桥”缺失会导致集体离职;第五,组织变革中的“幸存者”是大领导班底或圈间“桥”。本文有三个研究贡献：为离职研究提供了圈子理论的分析视角,拓展了圈子理论的解释范围;圈间“桥”关系协调作用的研究发现具有理论和现实的双重意义;有助于辨析圈间“桥”和结构洞概念。     

Developmental impact of combat exposure: Comparison of adolescent and adult Vietnam veterans∗

Abstract

This study was undertaken to find whether differences existed between two age groups of Vietnam veterans with PTSD, in terms of their social readjustment. A group of 57 men were divided by two age ranges to reflect two distinct periods of identity formation‐adolescence and early adulthood. The social readjustment measures which were examined included: (1) Substance abuse history; (2) history of legal infractions; (3) work history; (4) interpersonal relationships; and (5) peer relationships.

It was found that the younger soldiers have had a more difficult post‐Vietnam readjustment than their older cohorts. The results lend support to the idea that unsuccessful completion of Erikson's developmental phase of identity vs. role confusion may create problems with one's capacity for love, work and relationships. Specifically, when developmental tasks of late adolescence are not completed because of events such as war, one may suffer difficulties in handling adult responsibilities later in life.     

Home Street Home: The Interpersonal Dimensions of Adolescent Homelessness

This paper draws on the available literature, as well as unpublished data, to reconstruct the often chaotic early childhood experiences of homeless adolescents and to describe the problematic ways of relating that may result from these troubled life histories. We also examine the processes by which homeless youth become separated from their families, and we make connections between socio-emotional problems on the street and early neglect and abuse at home. The risk-amplification model is offered as a theoretically compelling explanation of the adolescent homeless experience, high rates of victimization on the streets, and mental health problems that arise out of these circumstances. Finally, we present a promising approach for intervening with homeless youth, one that explicitly targets this cycle of ineffective interpersonal relationships.     

Narrating Love and Abuse in Intimate Relationships

via email: heather.fraser{at}rmit.edu.au Summary In this article, I use discourse analysis to explore the relationshipbetween love and abuse. I argue that Anglo-American social workhas been reticent to theorize love; and that when it does, theborders separating love from abuse are usually assumed to berelatively stable and readily apparent. After nominating someof the reasons for and repercussions of dichotomizing love andabuse, I suggest that knowledge about intimate abuse will expandif more attention is given to the study of love. I promote theuse of feminist discourses because they provide valuable insightsabout the operations of power in love relationships. Drawingideas from both structural feminism and post-structural feminism,I encourage social workers to move their analytical attentionback and forth between the micro-politics of intimate relationshipsto the wider cultural contexts within which they are staged.I conclude with the assertion that social workers will be betterplaced to understand the dilemmas that many ‘ordinary’women confront in their everyday lives, if they critically analysethe intersections of love and abuse.     

路遥小说爱情描写的悲剧情结

路遥小说的爱情描写充满了浓郁的悲剧色彩。爱情悲剧结局可归纳为三种表现形式。形成路遥悲剧情结的思想、创作与心理因素是复杂而深刻的。     

优势视角下中学生团体心理辅导的思考

学校团体心理辅导是青少年心理健康教育的重要方法之一,能做到对心理问题的积极预防。本文论述的是在优势视角下,采用参与式方法对中学生展开团体心理辅导,关注学生抗逆力的提升,主要从对朋辈群体的归属感、内在优势因素以及自我效能感的培养三方面展开论述。     

International adoption and the formation of new family attachments

Clinical studies of children in international adoption reveal unique patterns of psychological adjustment to permanent family care. Pre‐adoption history often includes early object loss, medical and nutritional deprivation, multiple care‐giving disruptions, and the lack of primary care‐giving relationships. These factors and the age at the time of adoption are risks to positive emotional and cognitive development. Adoptive parents may be unprepared for the resulting developmental problems. Most significantly, parents and children are often at different points in readiness to establish an attachment relationship. The parents are eager to claim their child, but the child is unready to respond because of emotional fragility and lack of previous attachment experiences. Two clinical vignettes illustrate the importance of a developmental and medical framework in assessing the unique needs of these survivor children, as well as the necessity of an empathic therapeutic holding environment that can sustain the emerging family attachments under stress. The psychological impact of cross‐cultural adoption and traumatic early beginnings reverberates across time but with empathic parental care and treatment recovery can be significant.     

A Process Model of Parenting and Adolescents' Friendship Competence

This study examined the prospective relationship between negative parenting behaviors and adolescents' friendship competence in a community sample of 416 two‐parent families in the Southeastern USA. Adolescents' externalizing problems and their emotional insecurity with parents were examined as mediators. Parents' psychological control was uniquely associated with adolescents' friendship competence. When both mediators were included in the same model, adolescents' perceptions of emotional insecurity in the parent–adolescent relationship fully mediated the association between parents' psychological control and adolescents' friendship competence. Parental hostility was associated with friendship competence indirectly through adolescents' emotional insecurity. Results contribute to identifying the mechanisms by which parenting affects youths' friendship competence, which is important in informing theory and practice regarding interpersonal relationships in adolescence.