Delhi University New Course To Navigate Students Through Heartbreaks, Red Flags

In order to address the growing emotional problems of young adults in the era of social media, Delhi University is launching a new elective course titled "Negotiating Intimate Relationships" for undergraduate students from the 2025-26 academic session, the Times of India reports.

Developed by the Department of Psychology, the course appears on the university website since 2023. The course aims to allow students to understand the social patterns of friendships and dating relationships in contemporary dating app and social media culture. The four-credit paper is available to all undergraduate students irrespective of discipline and is meant to empower learners to identify red flags, manage emotional involvement, and create healthy interpersonal relationships.

The move comes amid heightened concern over emotional distress and violent behavior linked to abusive relationships among youth. Through structured academic involvement, the university seeks to foster greater emotional literacy and resilience among the students.

It is divided into four main units, beginning from the psychology of close relationships and friendships. It then focuses on different theories of love and sexuality, including Robert Sternberg's triangular theory of love and the two-factor theory. The third unit focuses on warning signs in relationships such as intimate partner violence, emotional manipulation, and jealousy. The final segment addresses strategies for developing meaningful and long-lasting relationships.

There will be three lectures and one tutorial per week. There is no practical, but tutorials will include activities such as movie review, debates on dating culture, group discussion, and social network analysis of social media. Movies Kabir Singh and Titanic will be reviewed to critically analyze love and conflict representations. One's romantic love for a romantic partner will also be assessed based on Sternberg's triangular love scale.

From the syllabus of the course, the key learning objectives are to empower students to understand the roots of close relationships, recognize emotional triggers and conflicts, and acquire the ability of forming meaningful and respectful connections. Upon successful completion of the course, students should be capable of analyzing the psychological causes of love and suffering, and use it in everyday life.

The university believes that such academic intervention is all the more relevant, especially in view of recent cases of emotional instability and interpersonal violence among students. Only students clearing Class 12 examination will be able to take admission in the course.