Course Description
Students will learn how to improve their own relationships by studying the science behind relationships: the good, the bad, the ugly, and how to fix it when it is not working. Students will explore what draws people together, the processes in how they either stay together or break up, and both the advantages and disadvantages to learning how to be in a relationship in a contemporary context.
Athena Title
21st-Century Intimate Relation
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in HDFS 3930E
Prerequisite
HDFS 2100 or HDFS 2100H or HDFS 2100E or PSYC 1101 or PSYC 1030H or PSYC 1101E or SOCI 1101 or SOCI 1101H
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall and spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
1. Select appropriate theories and methods used to generate knowledge about intimate relationships. 2. Identify and discuss the basic processes of forming and maintaining relationships. 3. Discuss the process by which relationships are dissolved and enhanced. 4. Prepare high-quality oral and written presentations regarding the current fund of knowledge about interpersonal relationships. 5. Apply knowledge about the influences on relationships, such as gender, personality, conflict, relationship beliefs, and meaning-making in relationships, as well as how power and violence are manifested in relationships.
Topical Outline
1. Couples research 2. Theories that inform relationship science 3. Gendered power 4. Attraction 5. Personality's influence on relationships 6. Communication in couples 7. Couple conflict 8. Relationship beliefs 9. Meaning making in relationships 10. Relationship stressors 11. Friendships 12. Couple maintenance and interventions 13.Dating in the digital age
Syllabus