Sometimes when we feel anxiety about the state of our relationships we may change how we behave to rid ourselves of these negative feelings. These are known as mate-retention behaviours and we utilise them to minimise the risk of our partner cheating or of the relationship breaking down by some other means. Knowing how these behaviours can be categorised and the effects they have on our connections can help us hold on to what we care about the most.
sociology
Why Relationships Become Unstable
Relationships are breaking down all the time but luckily, social scientists have been measuring why for over 20 years. Although each breakup has its own intricacies and perhaps endless avenues for dissolution, there will often be shared themes among many relationships which academics can measure. Thankfully, some decided to conduct a meta-analysis and put all this info in one place!
Thinking About Infidelity
I’m not reporting on science here and instead, I’m encouraging some thought. Depending on what you value in terms of ethics, the following scenarios can be seen in many ways. I want to demonstrate here that morality is incredibly complex, especially when it comes to relationships and infidelity.
Three Types of Jealousy
Whether you’ve experienced it yourself, seen your friends or partner go through it, or maybe even with a sibling, you likely have some experience with jealousy. It’s a complex emotion that manifests itself in different ways so I’d like to explore it in this post.
How to be Single
Being single is stigmatised. You might hear about a biological clock running out, or how important it is to settle down and get married. I’m here to tell you how we’ve been duped and how you can live a life as a single person that can be even more fulfilling than a married life.
Three Ways to Think of Fetishes
A word that generates negative connotations in the minds of many. Fetishes are often associated with “weirdos” yet, by some definitions, it’s likely that you have some kind of fetish yourself. To understand what a fetish is, the history surrounding its definition needs to be tracked, along with the culture in which these definitions arose. Definitions often change, as does culture, and the defining of sexual fetish has been no different.
Cyclical Relationships and Their Effects
The trajectory of romantic relationships is not always straightforward. Often time when people break up, they get back together and have to work on developing their relationship again. This process of development followed by a breakup can happen multiple times and in the literature is referred to as cyclical relationships.
Relationships in Adolescence: Are They Worth It?
Note. Due to the appalling state of research into non-heterosexual adolescent relationships, I have focused on data from studies based on heterosexual relationships.
Romantic relationships happen early. Data shows that 25% of 12 year old have reported being a part of one and as adolescence continues, the number jumps to around 50% at age 15 and 75% by 18. A considerable amount of people are getting into relationships early on which begs the questions: what characteristics do romantic relationships at this stage have and should they be encouraged or discouraged?
Porn Addiction: Pathologising Healthy Sexual Behaviours to Exert Control Over Human Sexuality
The following is based on information taken from scientific journals focusing mainly on North America with some from Western Europe.
Porn addiction is not recognised in diagnostic manuals nor is it supported by strong empirical data. In fact, reviews of the available science supporting porn addiction show poor experimental designs which calls the findings into question. Scientists have argued that porn addiction is not a medical issue but a moral one and that’s what I’m going to outline here.
How 20 Women View Their Vulvas
I’m going to base this post on a study conducted in 2014. It asked a group of 20 female participants of different races, ages and sexual orientations about their relationship to their genitals. Seven main themes emerged from the discussion which I will present to you. Quick note: although the entire female genitalia is commonly referred to as the ‘vagina’, this is anatomically incorrect. The visible parts of the female genitalia are collectively called the vulva and the vagina is an internal component.
Relationships and Science 