Significant other

Close relationships
Types of relationships Family · Marriage Husband · Wife Soulmate · Significant other Siblings · Cousin Domestic partnership Widowhood Boyfriend · Girlfriend Cohabitation · Casual Romantic friendship · Sexual partner Friendship · Kinship Monogamy · Same-sex relationship · Non-monogamy · Polyamory · Polyfidelity · Polygamy · Mistress (lover) · Cicisbeo · Concubinage · Courtesan · Romantic relationship events Bonding · Breaking up · Courtship · Dating · Divorce · Infidelity · Mating · Meet market  · Romance · Separation · Singles event  · Transgressing · Wedding Feelings and emotions Affinity · Attachment · Compersion · Intimacy · Jealousy · Limerence · Love · Passion · Platonic love · Polyamory · Psychology of sexual monogamy Human practices Bride price (Dower · Dowry) · Hypergamy · Infidelity · Sexuality Relationship abuse Child abuse · Elder abuse · Dating abuse · Infidelity · Spousal abuse ·
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Significant other (or SO) is a generic term used to refer to any person who has great importance to an individual's life such as a family member or close friend.^[1] It can also be used as a gender-blind term for a person's lover in an intimate relationship^[1] without disclosing or presuming anything about their marital status or sexual orientation as it is vague enough to avoid offence by using a term that an individual might consider inappropriate (e.g. lover when he or she considers him a boyfriend, or her a girlfriend when he or she considers her a life partner).

In the United States the term is sometimes used in invitations, e.g., to weddings and office parties.

Contents 1 Social science 2 First use 3 Notes 4 References 5 See also

Social science

Its usage in both psychology and sociology is very different from its colloquial use. In psychology, a significant other is any person who has great importance to an individual's life or well-being. In sociology, it describes any person or persons with a strong influence on an individual's self-evaluation, which are important to this individual, as well as reception of particular social norms. This usage is synonymous with the term "relevant other" and can also be found in plural form. "significant others". This use of the term has become common in the UK in correspondence from hospitals e.g. "you may be accompanied for your appointment by a significant other"

In social psychology a significant other is the parent, uncle/aunt, grandparent, or teacher — the person that guides and takes care of a child during primary socialization. The significant other protects, rewards and punishes the child as a way of aiding the child's development. This usually takes about six or seven years, and after that the significant other is no longer needed, the child moves on to a general other which is not a real person, but an abstract notion of what society deems good or bad.

First use

The first known occurrence of the term was in 1953 by U.S. psychiatrist, Harry Stack Sullivan, a former editor of the journal Psychiatry, in his posthumously published work, The Interpersonal Theory of Psychiatry^[2]. While the term currently enjoys use and familiarity, greatest use of the term peaked in the late 80s to mid 90s and has generally declined since then in favor of other terminology as deemed appropriate.

Notes

References

• Sullivan, Harry. The Interpersonal Theory of Psychiatry. , USA: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.. ISBN 0-393-00138-5. 

See also

• Engagement
• Domestic partnership
• Civil union
• POSSLQ