Love and Relationships

Love and Relationships

Welcome to the the Love and Relationships Page. This page contains links to various sources of information on love and relationships.

Flashback to a time of Love and Peace! Check out our Black Lite Art page and Trinity's Liquid Dreams.

Types of Love

A review of some theories of love and some current research on love.

The Love Test

The Love Test is an on-line self-assessment tool based on current research. This test will allow you to assess what you think love is, and/or assess your current experience of love. If you take both versions you can compare the two to see how your experience of love matches up to what you think love should be. After you take the test and submit it, the server will send you back how you scored and information on how to interpret them.

Findings from The Love Test

Here, you will find information derived from The Love Test data. Answers to questions such as: Is relationship satisfaction related to descrepancies between what we think love is and our current experience of love?

Sexuality Standards, Sexual Attitudes, and Behavior

According to one theory, people differ in the amount of love and commitment they need before having sex with a new partner. This research examines the relationship between sexuality standards and various measures of attitudes, beliefs and behavior. Using measures of sexuality standards and various measures of attachment to the partner, I was able to correctly predict for almost 80% of participants whether or not they had sex with their romantic interest.

Female Courtship Strategies

Female Courtship Strategies as a Function of Sexuality Standards and Perceptions of Love and Commitment. Tim Perper and others have observed that females use proception and rejection strategies to control the progression of physical intimacy in a relationship. Betty believes that use of these strategies should be a function of the female's sexuality standards and her perceptions of the amount of love and commitment in the relationship.

Some great advice on reading female nonverbal signals or -- How does a guy know when it's ok to attempt to increase the level of physical intimacy in a new relationship?

Female's Proceptivity and Receptivity as a Function of Hormonal Cyclicity. Tim Perper and others have observed that females use proception and rejection strategies to control the progression of physical intimacy in a relationship. Betty thinks that the female's use of proceptive signals and rejection strategies to control the progression of physical intimacy in a relationship should be partially a function of her hormonal state at the time of the courtship interaction. Higher levels of estrogen prior to ovulation should correspond to higher levels of proceptive and receptive behavior because of increased sexual motivation (indexed by measures of sex drive and autoeroticism).

Here are some of my ramblings on relationships from my discussion list and some useful resources on relationships.

Love and Lust

Passion, Emotional Intimacy and Commitment and the likelihood of relationship success. Some thoughts on the importance of sex in a relationship, differences in the courtship process between in-person and net relationships, and on the likelihood of relationship success as a function of whether the relationship begins based mostly on passion or emotional intimacy.

Compatibility: Passion based vs Intimacy based new relationships and the likelihood of relationship success. How our tolerance range for potentially compatible partners affects the likelihood of success in a relationship

On turning initial passion/attraction into a lasting relationship A response I wrote to someone who described all the delightful feelings of being attracted to someone new, but who was concerned about whether the feelings were mutual.

Gender differences in the experience and labeling of sexual arousal. I think males and females differ in terms of the experience and labeling of sexual arousal.

Communication

The Communication Process. The internal process of reacting to what someone says or does--to escalate the conflict or to deescalate and promote understanding.

The Communication Process. Some factors that I think are involved in communication online and some factors that I think promote miscommunication.

On communicating when one is angry. It's easy to lash out when one is feeling angry... however, I think there are better ways to express feeling jerked around emotionally.

On making sure one's relationship lasts and is good. An e-mail I wrote on things one can do to increase the odds of keeping your love strong over time.

Processing information

A short discussion on the guiding principles of my philosophy: 1) do no harm, and 2) if it's consentual it's ok and how that affects how one interacts with others in life.
On how we process what is moral or not and on behaving congruently with our beliefs.

Sentience (my own personal definition).

Impression formation and maintenance. How we form impressions of others and how close we are to actually understanding who that person is.

Net Relationships

The Natural Life Cycle of Mailing Lists. A description by Katherine Nagel of how discussion lists change over time.

Zina Lee's Romance on the Internet Page Includes information on love and computer mediated communication.

Making Friends in Cyberspace Some research that looks at friendships via Usenet Newsgroups. Malcolm R. Parks, University of Washington, & Kory Floyd, University of Arizona, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Vol. 1, No. 4, March, 1996.

	`Types of Love`
	A review of some theories of love and some current research on love.
	`The Love Test`
	The Love Test is an on-line self-assessment tool based on current research. This test will allow you to assess what you think love is, and/or assess your current experience of love. If you take both versions you can compare the two to see how your experience of love matches up to what you think love should be. After you take the test and submit it, the server will send you back how you scored and information on how to interpret them.
	`Findings from The Love Test`
	Here, you will find information derived from The Love Test data. Answers to questions such as: Is relationship satisfaction related to descrepancies between what we think love is and our current experience of love?
	`Sexuality Standards, Sexual Attitudes, and Behavior`
	According to one theory, people differ in the amount of love and commitment they need before having sex with a new partner. This research examines the relationship between sexuality standards and various measures of attitudes, beliefs and behavior. Using measures of sexuality standards and various measures of attachment to the partner, I was able to correctly predict for almost 80% of participants whether or not they had sex with their romantic interest.
	`Female Courtship Strategies`
	Female Courtship Strategies as a Function of Sexuality Standards and Perceptions of Love and Commitment. Tim Perper and others have observed that females use proception and rejection strategies to control the progression of physical intimacy in a relationship. Betty believes that use of these strategies should be a function of the female's sexuality standards and her perceptions of the amount of love and commitment in the relationship.
	Some great advice on reading female nonverbal signals or -- How does a guy know when it's ok to attempt to increase the level of physical intimacy in a new relationship?
	Female's Proceptivity and Receptivity as a Function of Hormonal Cyclicity. Tim Perper and others have observed that females use proception and rejection strategies to control the progression of physical intimacy in a relationship. Betty thinks that the female's use of proceptive signals and rejection strategies to control the progression of physical intimacy in a relationship should be partially a function of her hormonal state at the time of the courtship interaction. Higher levels of estrogen prior to ovulation should correspond to higher levels of proceptive and receptive behavior because of increased sexual motivation (indexed by measures of sex drive and autoeroticism).

	`Love and Lust`
	Passion, Emotional Intimacy and Commitment and the likelihood of relationship success. Some thoughts on the importance of sex in a relationship, differences in the courtship process between in-person and net relationships, and on the likelihood of relationship success as a function of whether the relationship begins based mostly on passion or emotional intimacy.
	Compatibility: Passion based vs Intimacy based new relationships and the likelihood of relationship success. How our tolerance range for potentially compatible partners affects the likelihood of success in a relationship
	On turning initial passion/attraction into a lasting relationship A response I wrote to someone who described all the delightful feelings of being attracted to someone new, but who was concerned about whether the feelings were mutual.
	Gender differences in the experience and labeling of sexual arousal. I think males and females differ in terms of the experience and labeling of sexual arousal.
	`Communication`
	The Communication Process. The internal process of reacting to what someone says or does--to escalate the conflict or to deescalate and promote understanding.
	The Communication Process. Some factors that I think are involved in communication online and some factors that I think promote miscommunication.
	On communicating when one is angry. It's easy to lash out when one is feeling angry... however, I think there are better ways to express feeling jerked around emotionally.
	On making sure one's relationship lasts and is good. An e-mail I wrote on things one can do to increase the odds of keeping your love strong over time.
	`Processing information`
	A short discussion on the guiding principles of my philosophy: 1) do no harm, and 2) if it's consentual it's ok and how that affects how one interacts with others in life.
	On how we process what is moral or not and on behaving congruently with our beliefs.
	Sentience (my own personal definition).
	Impression formation and maintenance. How we form impressions of others and how close we are to actually understanding who that person is.
	`Net Relationships`
	The Natural Life Cycle of Mailing Lists. A description by Katherine Nagel of how discussion lists change over time.
	Zina Lee's Romance on the Internet Page Includes information on love and computer mediated communication.
	Making Friends in Cyberspace Some research that looks at friendships via Usenet Newsgroups. Malcolm R. Parks, University of Washington, & Kory Floyd, University of Arizona, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Vol. 1, No. 4, March, 1996.