This article is about the social term for an intimate relationship. For the Limp Bizkit album, see
Significant Other.
Significant other (sig ot ,sigot , sigoth, SigO, or SO) is a gender-blind, politically correct term to refer to a
person's partner in an intimate relationship without disclosing or presuming
anything about his or her marital status or sexual orientation. It is also vague
enough to avoid offence from 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).
Nonetheless, some are offended by the implication that persons with whom one is not having a "primary" sexual relationship are
"insignificant" or would as a matter of course get lesser consideration and emotional disrespect compared to the "significant"
one.
In the United States the term is commonly used in invitations, e.g. to weddings and office parties. In this context, a person
and their significant other might not be cohabiting and might not be engaging in sexual relations. For example, a person's
fiancé(e) would be considered a significant other, without any assumptions regarding living arrangements or sexual activity
before their marriage. Conversely, it is assumed that some sort of steady connection exists between the invitee and their
significant other, i.e. the event for which the invitation is extended won't be their first date.
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.
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".
In social psychology a significant other is the parent, uncle, 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.
See also
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