Relationships hold the world together; they include the relationships within families, within couples, businesses or countries. Relationships is a broad topic of conversation, but a very popular one, since time began, relationships between people have cause a variety of consequences all over the planet, involving both good and loving relationships, as well as bad and hateful ones. Relationships between people can involved a wide variety of different outcomes, one would be a loving family unit would develop, but in extreme cases, bad relationships can lead to disagreements, estrangements or in country to country cases, war.

Interpersonal Relationships

An Interpersonal relationship is an association between two or more people that may range from fleeting to enduring. This association may be based on limerence, love and liking, regular business interactions, or some other type of social commitment. Interpersonal relationships take place in a great variety of context, such as family, friends, marriage, associates, work, clubs, neighborhoods and churches. They may be regulated by law, custom or mutual agreement, and are the basis of social groups and society as a whole. Although humans are fundamentally social creatures, interpersonal relationships are not always healthy. Examples of unhealthy relationships include abusive relationships and co dependence.

What is a relationship?

A relationship is normally viewed as a connection between two individuals, such as a romantic or intimate relationship, or a parent-child relationship. Individuals can also have relationships with groups of people, such as the relation between a pastor and his congregation, an uncle and a family, or a mayor and a town. Finally, groups or even nations may have relations with each other, though this is a much broader domain than that covered under the topic of interpersonal relationships. Most scholarly work on relationships focuses on romantic partners, in pairs or dyads. These intimate relationships are, however, only a small subset of interpersonal relationships. Interpersonal relationships also can include friendships, such as relationships involving individuals providing relational care to marginalized persons.

Interdependence within relationships

Often, relationships usually involve some level or interdependence. People in a relationship tend to influence each other, share their thoughts and feelings, and engage in activities together. Because of this interdependence, most things that change or impact one member of the relationship will have some level of impact on the other member. The study of interpersonal relationships involved several branches of the social sciences, including such disciplines as sociology, psychology, anthropology, and social work.

Intimate Relationships

An intimate relationship is a particularly close interpersonal relationship. It can be defined by a range of different characteristics, including enduring behavioral interdependence, repeated interactions, emotional attachment and need fulfillment.

Intimate relationships play a central role in the overall human experience. Humans have a universal need to belong which is satisfied when intimate relationships are formed. Intimate relationships consist of the people that we are attracted to, whom we like and love, share a romantic or sexual relationship, and those who we marry and provide emotion and personal support. Intimate relationships provide people with a social network of people that provide strong emotional attachments and fulfil our universal needs of belongingness and the need to be cared for.