Intimate Relationship and Communication

Commitment to a particular person involves focusing on one person, being responsive, sensitive and emotionally available to their needs, emotional states, their attitudes, judgements and showing a concern for their well-being. It requires putting that person first and taking care of them before you take care of your own

* intimate relationships involve a high degree of love, trust, empathy and commitment from both partners

Upon enrolling in Sexual Communication, my initial belief was that I️t would be an easy course. I also had the belief that I wouldn’t learn much due to my prior knowledge regarding sex and communication. Weeks later, this notion was dismissed and I began learning facts, tips, and other pieces of information I most likely would not been exposed to if I did not enroll into this class.

According to Newman & Newman (2012), “Infancy: Trust versus mistrust (first 24 months), Toddlerhood: Autonomy versus shame and doubt (2 to 4 years old), Early School Age: Initiative versus guilt (4 to 6 years old), Middle Childhood: Industry versus inferiority (6 to 12 years old), Early Adolescence: Group identity versus alienation (12 to 18 years old), Later Adolescence: Individual identity versus identity confusion (18 to 24 years old), Early Adulthood: Intimacy versus isolation (24 to 34 years old), Middle Adulthood: Generativity versus stagnation (34 to 60 years old), Later Adulthood: Integrity versus despair (60 to 75 years old), and Elderhood: Immortality versus extinction (75 years old until death)” (p. 71).

The research article that I selected was interesting to me because it focused on romantic relationships. This information might be beneficial and valuable information to me in the future. Also, this article is interesting to me because I am minoring in Interpersonal Communication and this article could help me gain knowledge. This article is related to communication because the main focus is about communication styles regarding irritations in romantic relationships.

Erikson’s views on development made an addition to some aspects of Freud and deviated from some of his other emphases. Erikson proposed that we develop more “Psychosocially” than “Pyschosexually” (Freud’s framework), which crosses the entire life span. His view is deterministic in the sense that adults are effected by their childhood, but he is not reductionistic in suggesting that the entire mold of adult personality is formed only in the early years; rather there is ongoing development throughout life.

They are intimacy, commitment, and passion. Intimacy defines warmth and closeness of a relationship, commitment is the maintenance of a relationship despite difficulties, and passion is the intense feelings of the persons in the romantic relationship. A common romantic relationship in young adulthood is a marriage partner, which can be heterosexual or homosexual couples.

“The third ingredient is decision and commitment. Sternberg observed that when many people speak of love, they refer more to a conscious decision than to a feeling state. Emotions come and go, but commitments based on decisions remain constant unless they are deliberately revoked” (Baumeister & Bushman, 2014).

Erik Erikson is the most influential person in the field of psychology. He was born on June 15th, 1902 in Frankfurt, Germany and died on May 12th, 1994 in Massachusetts, Boston. He is known for his theory of psychosocial development comprising eight stages from early infancy to adulthood. Each of these stages, the person experiences a psychosocial crisis that influences personality based on their positive or negative outcomes. However, every human being enters certain stages to reach the full potential of development. In addition to Erikson, he was influenced by Sigmund Freud, who was a psychoanalysis, developed the structural models of personality, and psychosexual stages. Erikson extends on Freudian thoughts

Just like Sigmund Freud, Erikson believed in the significance of early childhood. However, he believed that an individual’s personality development occurs over the individual’s entire course of life. In the early 1960s, Erik Erikson proposed a theory that provided a description of eight different stages of human development (Scheck, 2014). According to him, in each phase, individuals face new challenges and the outcome of the stage depends on how individuals handle the encountered challenges (Scheck, 2014). The stages are named based on the possible outcomes.

Dr. Heidi Reeder defines commitment as the experience of being psychologically attached to something and intending to continue. She explains that there are four factors that predict our commitment to a relationship, job, goal, etc. The first two are treasures and troubles, which is pretty much the pros and cons of what the commitment brings. The next one is contribution, which is how much do you have invested in this commitment.The last factor is choices, like the amount of options you have is going to make you more or less likely to commit. The equation that dictates the level of commitment we have is treasures - troubles + contributions - choices = commitment because many pros and a lot of investment without too many options will make it

In adulthood, we don’t have recollections of this stage; however our beginnings are a very essential starting point to our lives. During this stage it’s important to develop trust, which follows people their entire lifespan.

Commitment follows when the two parties know enough about each other to develop the ability to predict each others’ behaviour and therefore elicit reward/pleasure/satisfaction from each other.

Friendships and romantic relationships makes our lives go round. Without them our lives would be dull and lonely. Unlike family members, we are allowed to choose our friends and lovers. There are various levels of friendships and diverse forms of romantic relationships, and they can all lead to being close, intimate, and loving. Both friendships and romances considerably enrich the well-being of our physical and mental state. Friendships can lead to romantic relationships, and romantic relationships can lead to just being friends.

Sometimes sex and love are thought to be one and the same. Probably because when you love somebody and there is a physical attraction (Chemistry) having sex or making love with them is part of the equation, in most cases. When there is real love there is also a spiritual connection between the partners and that is what makes it so special. Before, during, but especially after having sex, in a loving committed relationship there is what I would call a union not only of body but of mind and spirit that is truly unique. Real love and real lovemaking involves feelings of safety and trust.