Interpersonal Science has just added a section for professionals (researchers, clinicians, educators, etc.) on our website. This section includes our recent presentations relevant to relationship formation and minimal dating, and we plan to add more resources in the future. The professional page can be found at int.sc/profs.

We are also very excited to announce the creation of an online forum for professionals to discuss and share information about dating research and clinical interventions. The forum is free and open to all professionals. Log on to forum.int.sc to join!

With all the dire news regarding the global financial situation dominating the headlines, the difficulties facing individuals’ (and couples’) finances may have unforeseen consequences for the relationships of many people throughout the world. Research has shown that money is one of the most (if not the most) common factor contributing to married couples’ arguments. The worsening economic picture in many countries is likely to put a great deal of additional stress on a large number of relationships.

Although the immediate fallout of the global economic problems on couples may not be evident for years, there is the possibility of what scientists call a “cohort effect,” in which there is a group of people with a common experience due to the events taking place at a specific time in their lives. For example, GIs returning to the United States and Canada after WWII were very ready to settle down and start families: many desired a return to a sense of “normalcy” that was given up when they went off to fight in Europe or the Pacific. This resulted in a strong spike in birthrates which we often call the “baby boom” generation. Many men who might not otherwise have married or had children (at least not at that specific time) ended up doing so within the span of a few years.

It does not take too much imagination to think about the effects that the weakened economy could have on couples today. Perhaps years from now, we’ll look back to see a large proportion of divorces and/or breakups; relationships that would not otherwise have ended (at least not at the specific time they did) had they not been exposed to the stresses of the current financial environment.

In her book Hooking Up, Kathleen Bogle discusses the transition from college to post-collegiate life and the changes in the dating scene that take place. According to Bogle, young adults’ expectations for physical and emotional intimacy change; casual relationships become more formal as social norms dictate longer-term relationships. The idea of needing to adjust one’s outlook to fit with the “rules of the game” for dating at a specific stage of life (e.g., high school, college, young adulthood, middle age) is an important thing to keep in mind at any age.

One question this raises is how a recently-single man or woman can cope with starting to date again. A person who has been in a long-term relationship may all of a sudden find them self in unfamiliar territory. This could be the plight of the middle-aged recent divorcee (as in Tom Hanks’ character in Sleepless in Seattle; now there’s an old movie reference), or a younger person at the end of a relationship that bridged their transition from high school to college, or from college to “real life.” This sort of “dating culture shock” involves the need to rapidly learn the new, unspoken rules of a process that was once very familiar. Although this may seem daunting, our brains are designed to learn and adapt to a changing social world. Like anything else, it just takes time.

Readers will note that there are many (hundreds, in fact) books on the market for coping with anxiety. One need only visit the “Self-Help” section of your local bookstore to find a wide array of different offerings, each promising to help ease your anxious mind. The Mindful Way through Anxiety by Susan Orsillo and Lisabeth Roemer (both professors of clinical psychology with years of experience researching and treating anxiety), stands out among them for its solid scientific foundation and pragmatic approach. The book focuses on scientifically-supported principles for coping with anxiety, developed form the authors’ own program of research. (This is not to say that all other self-help books for anxiety are non-scientific; there are actually a number of very good offerings written by experienced scientists and clinicians. There are, however, many more that are not.)

What The Mindful Way through Anxiety offers is not only based on cutting-edge research, it’s also very approachable. The authors present a solid rationale for using Mindfulness, which involves noticing and accepting feelings of anxiety (as opposed to avoiding and judging them), to help live a rich and fulfilling life in spite of anxiety. They also provide a program of mindfulness exercises which grows increasingly specific and challenging throughout the book. Instead of focusing only on theory (as many similar books have done), Orsillo and Roemer provide many tangible examples from their own practice. This combination of practical exercises and real-world examples makes for a book that is both interesting and easily understood by non-therapists.

Mindfulness has shown great promise in treating anxiety; multiple clinical studies have show its efficacy in treating a variety of anxiety disorders. Many of the examples provided in this book are specific to social anxiety (and some even touch on anxiety in dating situations). Although the focus of the book is more general, people who struggle to interact with potential romantic partners (both in initial meetings and on dates) can benefit from the authors’ approach. As a bonus, the exercises described in the book are available for free as mp3 files at the accompanying website.