Romantic relationships are undeniably one of the most important starting points of fulfillment, expressiveness, love and connection that people can ever get to experience. These relationships are a constant live training for different situations such as negotiations, empathetic connection and the ability to maintain an ongoing relationship. They may be instrumental to some of the biggest experiences we ever get to experience related to love and may be able to trigger some emotions of being afraid.

Today, the society we live in understands relationships to have an adaptable meaning and personal account. This is beneficial in different ways, like less rules set by cultural norms and expectations, less pressure for people to suppress their own personal feelings and bigger freedom for one to consider things by themselves.

However, sometimes freedom can be a serious factor towards boundaries that may become blurred, blurred relationship boundaries, and lack of clarity. There are a number of positives and negatives that people have to deal with with regards to questions relating to the relationships that they may have been involved in.

What Constitutes a casual relationship?

A casual relationship entails a situation where two or more people agree to have a romantic partnership in the "here and now" and not plan where the future of the partnership is heading. The relationship is mainly focused on the present, in the casual state of things. The relationship may only last for a short period of time but sometimes may also last for a longer period. Also, the couple in the relationship may have an agreement to be involved in other romantic or sexual relationships with other people who are not part of this main relationship.

What Constitutes a committed relationship?

A committed relationship entails two or more people agreeing to be in a romantic or sexual relationship and be faithful to that specific relationship. The relationship is focused on both dealing with the current status and issues of the relationship, while simultaneously being interested in planning out the long term. The parties involved in this relationship are interested in making the relationship work, putting effort into ensuring that it works and working on personal imperfections that negatively affect the relationship to make it work.

Social scientists usually use three theories in understanding relationships. These will be discussed below:

Feminist Theory The feminist theory is a line of thought that is related to psychological thought with regards to the value and dignity of every person. It allows people freedom of choice in that people are allowed to choose what kind of life and relationship they would like to have. The feminist theory is interested in empowering people generally and couples in relationships, while not giving much credit to society's norms and definitions.

Today's relationship definitions are understood well with the feminist theory perspective. This line of thought allows people to have more open definitions of relationships while allowing people to understand relationships however it makes sense to them personally. This allows people to have personal definitions that apply and make sense to their individual situations and validates those definitions.

Development Psychology

The developmental psychology is informed by the line of thought that believes in eight different developmental stages that human beings go through during the course of their lives. These stages are essential for one to be an absolutely healthy and well rounded person.

This line of thought holds that in order for one to get to higher stages of life, the lower stages need to be successfully completed. If these are not successfully completed, one will be stuck in that developmental stage of their life until they can develop fully out of that stage. One of the developmental stages is intimacy vs isolation. In this stage, one is either able to progress and be able to move to another stage or gets stuck in that stage. The only way past the stage is through successfully going through it. Therefore, it is a must for one to be a fully well rounded and healthy person, they need to be able to handle intimacy.

Imago relationship Theory

Imago-relationship theory holds that each and every person carries some sort of wound from childhood. This line of thought holds that people have an unconscious mechanism in relationships where the partner will have similar wounds or wound their partner in the same way that is similar to how they were wounded in their childhood.

This line of thought holds that a romantic relationship can be a system that assists couples to heal the wounds they have from childhood. When deciding which relationship is best for you, you can put into consideration what your personal needs are and choose the relationship that will address those needs.