patriarchal authority:Belief men have authority over women and children and are
responsible for their behavior.
patrilineal family:Ancestry is traced through the father’s bloodline.
perimenopause:Signaling the approach of menopause, these hormonal changes can occur in
women as early as their mid-thirties.
personality-based conflict:Blames a conflict on a personality flaw. The assumption is if that
person will change, the conflict will disappear.
philia:A Greek word describing friendship love, as in intimacy.
polychronic:Time is nonlinear, circular, or cyclical. It is looser in structure; many things can
be done at once.
polygamy:Marriage in which there are multiple spouses. There are two types:
polyandry:One woman married to more than one husband.
polygyny:One man married to more than one wife.
prejudice: discrimination carried out by individuals.
Progressive Reform Movement:In the early 1900s, this movement inspired laws to restore
the embattled family. Examples included compulsory school attendance, child labor
restrictions, and the Pure Milk Act.
propinquity:Physical proximity.
psychodynamic theory of mate selection:Suggests we search for those who most closely fit
what we experienced in our early childhood. This is an attempt to get what we feel we
needed or missed as we were growing up.
psychosocial crisis:In Erickson’s developmental theory, this is a challenge which must be
overcome before a person can move from one stage to the next.
Puritans:Settled in New England and were the strictest of the religious groups in the New
World.
pursuer–distancer marriage: The most common type of marriage that has the highest
divorce rate. One partner seeks more intimacy and the other partner becomes more aloof.
Quakers:Established colonies in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey, the least patriarchal
and most liberal of the Colonies.
racial group:A group of people who share a common biological heritage which results in
distinctive physical attributes.
racism:Discrimination carried out by institutions (courts, schools, businesses, etc) that
reflect the dominant culture.
Glossary