View source for Significant other

[[fa:شریک زندگی]]
{{italic title}}
{{Short description|Person's partner in an intimate relationship}}
{{Other uses|Significant Others (disambiguation)}}
{{redirect|Life partner}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
[[File:7th ESB Det. Deploys to Afghanistan DVIDS217636.jpg|thumb|A United States Marine kisses a woman described as his "significant other" before going to Afghanistan.<ref name="DIVDS">{{cite web |title=7th ESB Det. Deploys to Afghanistan |url=https://www.dvidshub.net/image/217636/7th-esb-det-deploys-afghanistan |website=DVIDS |access-date=4 August 2022 |language=en |date=2009-10-25}}</ref>|alt=A white man in [[digital camouflage]] kisses a white woman in civilian clothes.]]
{{Close relationships}}

The term '''significant other''' ('''SO''') has different uses in psychology and colloquial language. [[colloquialism|Colloquially]], "significant other" is used as a [[gender-neutral language|gender-neutral]] term for a person's partner in an [[intimate relationship]]{{r|farlex}} without disclosing or presuming anything about [[marital status]], relationship status, [[gender identity]], or [[sexual orientation]]. Synonyms with similar properties include sweetheart, other half, better half, [[spouse]], [[Domestic partnership|domestic partner]], lover, [[Wiktionary:paramour|paramour]], [[soulmate]], and life partner.

==Scientific use==
Its usage in [[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 [[quality of life|well-being]]. In sociology, it describes any person or persons with a strong influence on an individual's [[self-concept]]. Although the influence of significant others on individuals was long theorized, the first actual measurements of the influence of significant others on individuals were made by Archie O. Haller, Edward L. Fink, and [[Joseph Woelfel]] at the University of Wisconsin.{{r|haller-1972}}

Haller, Fink, and Woelfel are associates of the [[Wisconsin model]] of status attainment. They surveyed 100 Wisconsin adolescents, measured their educational and occupational aspirations, and identified the set of other individuals who communicated with the students and served as examples for them. They then contacted the significant others directly measured their expectations for the adolescent's educational and occupational attainments, and calculated the impact of these expectations on the aspirations of the students. Results of the research showed that the expectations of significant others were the single most potent influences on the student's aspirations.{{r|woelfel-1971}} This usage is synonymous with the term "relevant other" and can also be found in plural form, "significant others".

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, after which the significant other is no longer needed, and 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 use of the terms "significant other person" and "significant other people" is by the U.S. [[Psychiatry|psychiatrist]] [[Harry Stack Sullivan]] in the article "Conceptions of Modern Psychiatry" in the journal: ''Psychiatry: Journal of the Biology and Pathology of Interpersonal Relations'', published in 1940.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sullivan |first1=Harry Stack |title=Conceptions of Modern Psychiatry: The First William Alanson White Memorial Lectures, Volume 3, Issue 1 of Psychiatry, journal of the biology and pathology of interpersonal relations|date=1940 |publisher=William Alanson White Psychiatric Foundation |page=10 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WnFSrtwVsMYC&q=%22significant+other%22}}</ref> The phrase was popularised in the United States by [[Armistead Maupin]]'s 1987 book ''[[Significant Others (novel)|Significant Others]]'', and in the UK by the 1989 TV series ''[[Only Fools and Horses]]'', in which [[Derek Trotter]] uses the phrase a number of times when referring to his long-term partner [[Raquel Turner]].{{r|cryer-2011}}

==See also==
* [[POSSLQ]]
* [[Spouse]]

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="cryer-2011">
  {{cite book
    |title      = Who Said That First?: The Curious Origins of Common Words and Phrases
    |last       = Cryer
    |first      = Max
    |date       = 1 October 2011
    |url        = https://books.google.com/books?id=shibngEACAAJ
    |publisher  = Summersdale Publishers
    |isbn       = 9781849531917
    |access-date = 1 April 2014
  }}
</ref>
<ref name="farlex">
  {{cite web
    |title      = Significant other
    |last       = Anon
    |work       = The Free Dictionary
    |publisher  = Farlex Inc
    |url        = http://www.thefreedictionary.com/significant+other
    |access-date = 25 January 2010
  }}
</ref>

<ref name="haller-1972">Haller, A. & Woelfel, J. (1972) Significant others and their expectations: Concepts and instruments to measure interpersonal influence on status aspirations. ''Rural Sociology'', 37(4), 591–622</ref>

<!-- <ref name="sullivan-1953">{{cite book |last=Sullivan |first=Harry Stack |author-link=Harry Stack Sullivan |year=1953 |title=The Interpersonal Theory of Psychiatry |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company, Inc |location=New York |oclc=204035 |isbn=0-393-00138-5 |ref=Sul53 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/interpersonalthe00sull }} page 9?</ref> -->

<ref name="woelfel-1971">Woelfel, J. & Haller, A. (1971) Significant others: The self-reflexive act and the attitude formation process [http://www.asanet.org/journals/asr/ American Sociological Review] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119230113/http://www2.asanet.org/journals/asr/ |date=19 January 2012 }}. ''American Sociological Association'', 36(1), 74–87</ref>
}}

== External links ==

{{Interpersonal relationships footer}}
[[Category:Marriage, unions and partnerships]]
[[Category:Social philosophy]]
[[Category:Gender-neutral language]]