Week 1: Course Overview: Relationships as a Two-Party System
What the model is and isn't, why a two-party framing beats a first-person one, and what a case review actually asks of you
22 February 2027
The model is not a substitute for judgement. It is a shared vocabulary for a domain most people only ever discuss in the first person — how I feel, what I want — which is precise about experience and useless for comparing one situation to another. This course treats a relationship the way a systems course treats any two-party arrangement: two agents, each holding information the other doesn’t, transacting under uncertainty.
That reframe is the whole first move. “Do they like me” is a first-person question with no stable answer. “What is the current state of information asymmetry between these two parties” is a systems question, and it has a method.
Outline#
- what counts as a “position” versus a feeling, and why the distinction matters
- the two-party frame: each side holds private information the other is pricing in
- the semester’s arc — attraction, dependency, commitment, monitoring, risk — and how each week adds one variable to the model, never two
- what a case review is: bring a real or composite situation, leave with a clearer statement of it, not a verdict
Teaching team
- Marisol Quaye — convenor