Returning for its third week is psychologist Lyn Worsley's series on the functions of relationships, which last week dealt with the complex relationships that form between a young child and a parent.
The focus in this latest instalment is couples, and the neural pathways left over from interactions with parents that can continue to affect people in relationships. As Lyn explains, our behaviour in a close relationship can depend on how comfortable we feel with being ourselves with the other person. Here we see a prevelance of 'Functional Behaviour', which forms the basis of our interactions by providing explanations for why we do the things we do.
The common response to negative behaviour in a relationship is to 'stamp it out', though this can be a dangerous option without knowing the function of a certain behaviour that could be an automatic response left over from childhood. Gender roles can affect our behaviour in this way; Women are known to communicate verbally with greater frequency than necessary, while males will retreat into the proverbial 'man-cave' as a response.
Lyn states the sad fact that many people do not possess the skills to stay together, and she encourages women to take action in the relationship, as well as showing genuine affection. This will in turn elicit a positive reponse from the male, who will be more willingly compliant, and this can lead to the all-important step of the couple being less protected around each other.
Photo credit: Tetra Pak