Jeffry A. Simpson - Böcker

The Oxford Handbook of Close Relationships provides the best, most in-depth, and most comprehensive summary of the study of close relationships. The book is divided into eight sections: introductory comments, major theoretical approaches to relationships, attraction in relationships, models of relationship functioning and processes, daily relationship functioning, psychological and physical well-being in relationships, relationships across development and time, and concluding comments. The 37 chapters showcase the most important classic and contemporary theories, models, and empirical research that have been conducted across three dozen major topic areas within the field of close relationships. Chapter topics range in scope from evolutionary approaches to understanding relationships, the "battle between the sexes," cultural influences on relationships, female sexuality, personality in relationships, intimate partner violence, relationships and health, social development, and adult relationship outcomes. Each chapter is structured around three themes: (1) the most important and foundational principles, ideas, and findings on each chapter topic, (2) the most important and novel emerging themes and issues relevant to each topic, and (3) the newest and most promising directions for future research. Current, comprehensive, and with heretofore unmatched breadth and depth, this volume will serve as a roadmap for future theory and research in the study of close relationship during the next decade.

First published in 1987. This book is about the processing of information. The central domain of interest is face-to-face communication in which the speaker makes available both audible and visible characteristics to the perceiver. Articulation by the speaker creates changes in atmospheric pressure for hearing and provides tongue, lip, jaw, and facial movements for seeing. These characteristics must be processed by the perceiver to recover the message conveyed by the speaker. The speaker and perceiver must share a language to make communication possible; some internal representation is necessarily functional for the perceiver to recover the message of the speaker. The current study integrates information-processing and psychophysical approaches in the analysis of speech perception by ear and eye.

What a pity it would have been if biologists had refused to accept Darwin's theory of natural selection, which has been essential in helping biologists understand a wide range of phenomena in many animal species. These days, to study any animal species while refusing to consider the evolved adaptive significance of their behavior would be considered pure folly--unless, of course, the species is homo sapiens. Graduate students training to study this particular primate species may never take a single course in evolutionary theory, although they may take two undergraduate and up to four graduate courses in statistics. These methodologically sophisticated students then embark on a career studying human aggression, cooperation, mating behavior, family relationships, or altruism with little or no understanding of the general evolutionary forces and principles that shaped the behaviors they are investigating. This book hopes to redress that wrong.It is one of the first to apply evolutionary theories to mainstream problems in personality and social psychology that are relevant to a wide range of important social phenomena, many of which have been shaped and molded by natural selection during the course of human evolution. These phenomena include selective biases that people have concerning how and why a variety of activities occur. For example:* information exchanged during social encounters is initially perceived and interpreted;* people are romantically attracted to some potential mates but not others;* people often guard, protect, and work hard at maintaining their closest relationships;* people form shifting and highly complicated coalitions with kin and close friends; and* people terminate close, long-standing relationships.Evolutionary Social Psychology begins to disentangle the complex, interwoven patterns of interaction that define our social lives and relationships.

What a pity it would have been if biologists had refused to accept Darwin's theory of natural selection, which has been essential in helping biologists understand a wide range of phenomena in many animal species. These days, to study any animal species while refusing to consider the evolved adaptive significance of their behavior would be considered pure folly--unless, of course, the species is homo sapiens. Graduate students training to study this particular primate species may never take a single course in evolutionary theory, although they may take two undergraduate and up to four graduate courses in statistics. These methodologically sophisticated students then embark on a career studying human aggression, cooperation, mating behavior, family relationships, or altruism with little or no understanding of the general evolutionary forces and principles that shaped the behaviors they are investigating. This book hopes to redress that wrong.It is one of the first to apply evolutionary theories to mainstream problems in personality and social psychology that are relevant to a wide range of important social phenomena, many of which have been shaped and molded by natural selection during the course of human evolution. These phenomena include selective biases that people have concerning how and why a variety of activities occur. For example:* information exchanged during social encounters is initially perceived and interpreted;* people are romantically attracted to some potential mates but not others;* people often guard, protect, and work hard at maintaining their closest relationships;* people form shifting and highly complicated coalitions with kin and close friends; and* people terminate close, long-standing relationships.Evolutionary Social Psychology begins to disentangle the complex, interwoven patterns of interaction that define our social lives and relationships.

This Research Handbook facilitates the integration between two substantial yet often separated fields: the study of couple relationships and the study of family relationships. An array of expert contributors provide an up-to-date understanding of these important bonds, highlighting opportunities for consolidation and growth, and identifying new avenues of research.The Research Handbook on Couple and Family Relationships examines 12 major themes, each addressed in two companion chapters: one from the perspective of couple research and the other from the perspective of family research. Chapter authors outline different factors that influence couple and family relationships. Topics cover individual characteristics such as attachment, personality, depression, and gender roles; relational processes such as responsiveness, emotion regulation, conflict, aggression, and maltreatment; and external influences such as stress, financial strain, minority stress, neighborhoods, and social context. The companion treatment of these topics reveals key similarities and differences in the theories and methods used to study couple and family relationships, pointing toward potential advancements within each area.Adopting an innovative cross-disciplinary approach, this Research Handbook is invaluable to students and academics specializing in relationship, family, and gender scholarship, as well as social, developmental, and clinical psychology. Its insights into couple and family relationships are also of interest to mental health practitioners and policymakers.

Provides a unique interdisciplinary approach to the science of intimate human relationships This newly updated edition of a popular text is the first to present a full-blooded interdisciplinary and theoretically coherent approach to the latest scientific findings relating to human sexual relationships. Written by recognized leaders in the field in a style that is rigorous yet accessible, it looks beyond the core knowledge in social and evolutionary psychology to incorporate material and perspectives from cognitive science (including brain-imaging studies), developmental psychology, anthropology, comparative psychology, clinical psychology, genetic research, sociology, and biology.Written by an international team of acclaimed experts in the field, The Science of Intimate Relationships offers a wealth of thought-provoking ideas and insights into the science behind the initiation, maintenance, and termination of romantic relationships. The 2nd Edition features two new chapters on health and relationships, and friends and family, both of which shed new light on the complex links among human nature, culture, and romantic love. It covers key topics such as mate selection, attachment theory, love, communication, sex, relationship dissolution, violence, mind-reading, and the relationship brain. Provides a coherent and theoretically integrative approach to the subject of intimate relationshipsOffers an interdisciplinary perspective that looks beyond social and evolutionary psychology to many other scientific fields of studyIncludes two new chapters on ‘Relationships and Health’ and ‘Friends and Family’, added in response to feedback from professors who have used the textbook with their classesPresented by recognized leaders in the field of relationshipsFeatures PowerPoint slides and an online Teaching Handbook The Science of Intimate Relationships, 2nd Edition is designed for upper-level undergraduate students of human sexuality, psychology, anthropology, and other related fields.

Why do we think about and interact with other people in the particular ways that we do? Might these thoughts and actions be contemporary products of our long-ago evolutionary past? If so, how might this be, and what are the implications? Research generated by an evolutionary approach to social psychology issues profound insights into self-concept, impression formation, prejudice, group dynamics, helping, aggression, social influence, culture, and every other topic that is fundamental to social psychology. Evolution and Social Psychology is the first book to review and discuss this broad range of social psychological phenomena from an evolutionary perspective. It does so with a critical and constructive eye. Readers will emerge with a clear sense of the intellectual challenges, as well as the scientific benefits, of an evolutionarily-informed social psychology. The world-renowned contributors identify new questions, new theories, and new hypotheses—many of which are only now beginning to be tested. Thus, this book not only summarizes the current status of the field, it also sets an agenda for the next generation of research on evolution and social psychology. Evolution and Social Psychology is essential reading for evolutionary psychologists and social psychologists alike.

This volume showcases the latest theoretical and empirical work from some of the top scholars in attachment. Extending classic themes and describing important new applications, the book examines several ways in which attachment processes help explain how people think, feel, and behave in different situations and at different stages in the life cycle. Topics include the effects of early experiences on adult relationships; new developments in neuroscience and genetics; attachment orientations and parenting; connections between attachment and psychopathology, as well as health outcomes; and the relationship of attachment theory and processes to clinical interventions.

The ongoing growth of attachment research has given rise to new perspectives on classic theoretical questions as well as fruitful new debates. This unique book identifies nine central questions facing the field and invites leading authorities to address them in 46 succinct chapters. Multiple perspectives are presented on what constitutes an attachment relationship, the best ways to measure attachment security, how internal working models operate, the importance of early attachment relationships for later behavior, challenges in cross-cultural research, how attachment-based interventions work, and more. The concluding chapter by the editors delineates points of convergence and divergence among the contributions and distills important implications for future theory and research.

In the past two decades, an explosion of research has generated many compelling insights--as well as hotly debated controversies--about the evolutionary bases of human nature. This important volume brings together leading proponents of different theoretical and methodological perspectives to provide a balanced look at 12 key questions at the core of the field today. In 43 concise, accessible chapters, followed by an integrative conclusion, the contributors present viewpoints informed by human behavioral ecology, evolutionary psychology, and gene-culture coevolutionary approaches. Topics include the strengths and limitations of different methodologies; metatheoretical issues; and debates concerning the evolution of the human brain, intellectual abilities, culture, and sexual behavior.