attraction Flashcards
a desire to approach another individual and seek them out for interaction, critical to friendships and romantic relationships =
interpersonal attraction
what are the attributes people have that make them attractive to us?
physical characteristics, similarity to self, complementary characteristics
what is the main cultural difference of physical characteristics?
larger women preferred in Ghana compared to US, maybe because slim women preferred where reliable food supply
what are the physical characteristic commonalities across cultures?
wait to hip ratio of 0.7, youthfulness, health, fertility, face symmetry, average faces, face maturity (immature features for females are more attractive and mature features are more attractive for males)
according to evolutionary psychologists what does a symmetrical face indicate?
physical health that is important to produce healthy offspring
what has research found with slightly feminised male faces?
perceived as most attractive
what has research (Dion et al) shown that attractive people are assumed to have?
more socially desirable personality traits and better future prospects (idea of ‘what is beautiful is good’)
attractive people may be more confident and have better social skills because the people they interact with treat them as such =
self fulfilling prophecy
people are generally attracted to those who are _____ to us
similar (similar demographics and beliefs)
what is the matching hypothesis
we don’t just have a tendency to be drawn to those who are physically attractive but tendency to prefer those who are SIMILAR IN ATTRACTIVENESS
why might people prefer those who are similar to them in attractiveness?
may estimate those who are similarly attractive have similar attitudes to them which reduces risk of dealing with rejection
Murstein (1972) found that physically similar couples are _____ intimate and report _____ love than dissimilar looking couples
more, greater
what did Carli et al (1991) find about roommates?
people have a preference for similarly attractive roommates
what are the explanations for the matching hypothesis and similarity to self?
balance theory, social comparison, evolutionary explanation
people try to maintain a sense of balance or cognitive consistency in their thoughts, feelings and social relationships =
balance theory
how might social comparisons explain why people prefer those similar to themselves?
we prefer those who agree to us as people who disagree with us may cause us to doubt our beliefs and therefore our sense of self
how might the evolutionary explanation explain why we prefer those similar to ourselves?
unconsciously attracted to similar others because they share similar genes > increasing the probability that genes similar to our own will be passed on to future generations
what is the evidence for complementary characteristics?
we are attracted to those with traits we don’t have but would like to have e.g. confidence
which factor has evidence for being most important in attractiveness for men?
beauty
which factor has evidence for being most important in attractiveness for women?
social status
what are the 5 stages in the development of a relationship?
initiation > experimenting > intensifying > integrating > bonding
first interaction with partner = which stage of Knapp’s relationship development model?
initiation
testing suitability and reducing uncertainty = which stage of Knapp’s relationship development model?
experimenting
self disclosure increases, starting to get more serious, use the word ‘us’ = which stage of Knapp’s relationship development model?
intensifying
when a couple have a shared identity = which stage of Knapp’s relationship development model?
integrating
becoming officially in a relationship = which stage of Knapp’s relationship development model?
bonding
