Postmodern couples, characteristics, types and affective-emotional psychopathologies

Abstract

Introduction: the impact of postmodernity in society is evident inhuman behavior where individualism, hedonism, lack of commitment and immediate satisfaction of pleasure occur due to the development of Information and Communication Technologies (TICS) and social networks, in which there is a growing variation of changes in communication and conformation of various types of couples. Objective: to describe postmodern couples according to their characteristics, types and psychopathologies from an affective-emotional perspective. Methodology: bibliographic review of the scientific and academic literature obtained from databases such as: Scopus, Web of Science, Scielo, Redalyc, and Google Scholar by using the keywords: Postmodernism, types of couples, couple relationships, communication, psychopathology. A total of 275 articles were obtained, to which inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied, and through the use of the PRISMA method, a purification of 30 articles that contemplated the variables of this research work was obtained as a result.  Results: after the analysis of the selected scientific articles, it was found that postmodern couples maintain the tendency to move away from traditional models, have flexibility in sexual matters, are independent, liberal, hedonistic, promulgate gender equality, maintain a marked tendency to remain connected to social networks with a permanent search for social validation. They form different types of couples such as open, swinger, polyamorous, and also show greater tolerance to homosexual, hybrid and flexible sexual relationships. In relation to psychopathology from an affective-emotional perspective they present emotional dependence, constant need for attention and social validation, sexual risk behaviors, hostile and ambivalent sexism with high level of psychological violence, cyberbullying, extreme jealousy, social stress, substance abuse addictions, somatic diseases. Conclusion: postmodern couples are mostly individualistic, hedonistic, less traditional, try to move away from romantic love, present greater sexual flexibility, are more tolerant to new forms of couple conformation, present affective-emotional alterations basically linked to the need for validation through social networks, loneliness, risky sexual behaviors, cyberbullying and substance abuse.