Adult Development: Cognitive Aspects of Thriving Close Relationships
Jan D. Sinnott
Abstract
We currently struggle to create satisfying intimate or close relationships, something we yearn for but often fail to achieve in our evolving world culture. With our changing concepts of and demands on close relationships, we need new ways to understand what facilitates satisfying close relationships. In this book, a new theory, called postformal thought, is presented, along with previously unpublished related studies and research approaches and the idea that complex cognition is useful for co-constructing satisfying intimate relationships. The personal relational aspects of relationships as we ... More
We currently struggle to create satisfying intimate or close relationships, something we yearn for but often fail to achieve in our evolving world culture. With our changing concepts of and demands on close relationships, we need new ways to understand what facilitates satisfying close relationships. In this book, a new theory, called postformal thought, is presented, along with previously unpublished related studies and research approaches and the idea that complex cognition is useful for co-constructing satisfying intimate relationships. The personal relational aspects of relationships as well as cultural, historical, and social factors are combined to give a big-picture view of cognitive aspects of thriving close relationships. The book rests on 30 years of research in adult cognitive development and on other recent empirical research conducted by the author and others. Cases are presented to illustrate the thinking of persons in close and satisfying relationships. Future research and applications are suggested in the final section of the book.
Keywords:
intimate relationships,
adult development,
cognition,
postformal thought,
satisfaction,
cultural factors,
co-constructing relationships,
applications,
research
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2014 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199892815 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: August 2014 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199892815.001.0001 |
