Close Relationships

Pamela Regan is Professor of Psychology at California State University, USA. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Minnesota, USA. Her research interest is in the area of interpersonal relationships, with an emphasis on passionate love, sexual desire, and mate preference. She has published more than 100 articles, chapters, and reviews; has given over 75 presentations; and is the author of The Mating Game: A Primer on Love, Sex, and Marriage (Sage, 2008) and the co-author (with Ellen Berscheid) of The Psychology of Interpersonal Relationships (Pearson, 2005) and Lust: What We Know About Human Sexual Desire (Sage, 1999). In 2007, she was honored with the Outstanding Professor Award by her university for excellence in instruction and professional achievement.

"Dr Regan skilfully pulls together up-to-date information on the most important work in this area … The chapters are well-structured, easy to read or dip into, and lend themselves well for the use of a scientist-practitioner, with clear examples of real-life relevance and relationship specific psychometric tools used by researchers but equally useful for practitioners … With a multitude of theories, models, research, assessment tools and study guides this book makes an excellent introduction to the study of close personal relationships for all undergraduate and postgraduate psychology students." – Ewa Kremplewska in The Psychologist"Pamela Regan has given us the book to invite, engage, inspire and instruct the next generations of scholars in the exciting ... work of relationship science. ...Close Relationships informs, challenges, and charms. Our field and our lives can only be better for the comprehensiveness and vision in Dr. Regan's work." -- Ann L. Weber, UNC at Asheville, USA "This text contributes significantly to the field because of its emphasis on science, research findings, theoretical concepts, and multiple types of relationships. Dr. Regan is a superb writer. ... [It is] most appropriate for a course on Personal Relationships ... [or] ... as a supplementary text for a course on marriage and the family." — Susan Sprecher, Illinois State University, USA"A ‘reader-friendly’, intelligent review that draws on a range of theoretical perspectives and will appeal to a wide range of undergraduate and graduate students." -- Robin Goodwin, Brunel University, London"An excellent overview of relationship studies ... the material [is] easy for undergraduates to read and follow. … Dr. Regan writes well ... [and she] is a respected scholar." — Lawrence Ganong, University of Missouri, Columbia, USA"[This book] offers fascinating examples of studies and findings that make the science of relationships come alive to the reader. It is written in a highly accessible level, appropriate for either graduate or undergraduate uses, or for practitioners who want insight into the state-of-the-art of personal relationship science." --Brian H. Spitzberg, San Diego State University, USA"The text is written in an engaging, interesting, and utterly comprehensive manner. It is accessible to anyone—from the curious non-academic, to the first year university student, to the professional scholar. Everyone will learn something new about relationships by reading this book, and they will enjoy learning it." —Danu Anthony Stinson, University of Victoria, Canada

• Part 1. Principles of Relationship Science 1. Basic Facts and Key Concepts. 2. Research Methods. 3. Our Social Nature. Part 2. Relationship Development 4. Relationship Beginnings. 5. Relationship Initiation. 6. Relationship Development. 7. Mate Selection and Marriage. Part 3. Relationship Processes 8. Thinking and Feeling. 9. Communicating and Supporting. 10. Loving. 11. Sexing. Part 4. Relationship Challenges 12. Rejection and Betrayal. 13. Aggression and Violence. 14. Conflict and Loss. 15. Intervention.