Attraction, Love, & Communication Flashcards

1
Q

Attraction

A

Immediate and
positive emotional
and/or behavioural
response to someone

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2
Q

Physical Attractiveness

A
  • When given a choice, the hotter the better
  • Heterosexual men tend to value it more than women (youth,beuty = fertility)
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3
Q

Physical Attractiveness

A
  • Symmetry
  • Body size/proportions
  • Facial attractiveness
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4
Q

What causes certain characteristics to be
considered attractive?

A
  • Biology
  • Culture
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5
Q

Sexual Selection

A
  • Evolution of adaptive traits to increase reproductive advantage
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6
Q

Parental Investment Theory

A
  • Women have greater minimal obligatory investment when having children:

-women are more ‘‘chosier’’
-because when women decide to have a child they have more in the line that man do : they cant move to much,they become infertile (during pregnancy) ,their energy decreses,have to take care of the child while man dont have the same problems (with ejaculation)

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7
Q

Sexual Strategies Theory

A
  • Men and women face different adaptive problems in reproduction

-men : choosing a healthy/fertile womren to reproduce with

-women: needs a partner who is commited and will help provide resources for her and the child ( time,support,money etc)

  • As a result, they evolved in different ways to overcome these problems

-Men then look for women who look young and have a hourgless chape,they might want to have as much sex with others so their chances of reproducing becomes higher

-women become choosier,have resources, financial statues, and man who provides assistant , men who look commited

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8
Q

Culture

A

Historically:

  • Female voluptuousness associated with femininity and fertility
  • Male muscularity associated with lower class – labourers and farmers
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9
Q

Culture

A

More recently:
* Femininity → sexuality without the ties of motherhood, career
ex:skinnier

  • Masculinity and affluence associated with strength and muscularity
    ex:mascular
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10
Q

Male Attractiveness: Physical Attractiveness

A
  • Women rate appearance as less important than men do
  • However, women report being more sexually attracted to taller men

-correlated to the preference for males who demonstrate confidence, physical strength, and a powerful bearing

-shorter men are viewed as unattractive for both casual and intended long-term relationships

  • Women do have a preference for muscularity (man overstimates how much women like muscularity)
  • Women prefer more masculine men during the fertile period(genetics) of the menstrual cycle and more feminine men during other parts of the cycle(nurturance and emotional support)
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11
Q

Female Attractiveness
: Physical Attractiveness

A
  • Men report being more attracted to younger women
  • Across 37 cultures, prefer mate who is, on average, 2.5 years younger than them
  • Preference of youthful-appearing features: full lips, clear smooth skin, clear eyes, lustrous hair, and good muscle tone
  • Larger breasts – signal reproductive maturity and fertility

However, in the United States, women overestimate:
1. men’s preferences for thinness in a mate
2. men’s preferences for large breasts

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12
Q

Female Attractiveness:Waist to Hip Ratio

A

On average (and in Western cultures, more specifically), a female WHR of 0.7 is rated as most attractive by heterosexual men and lesbians

Health
* Optimal ratio (for general health and fertility):
women: 0.7
men: 0.9

  • Variation among cultures:
    China: 0.6
    South America and Africa: 0.8 – 0.9 from front; 0.6 from side
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13
Q

Male Attractiveness:Waist to Shoulder Ratio

A
  • ** .75** or lower
  • Broad shoulders and muscles perceived to be associated with increased testosterone, masculinity
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14
Q

Facial Symmetry

A
  • **Indicator of genetic fitness(health,)
  • Perceptual bias( we just like symetric in general :people,objects etc.)
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15
Q

Facial Sexual Dimorphism

A
  • Theory: preference for traits that best exhibit sexual maturation and reproductive fitness
  • For women – big eyes, small nose, small chin, full lips and prominent cheekbones, narrow cheeks, broad
    smile
  • In men – strong jaws and broad foreheads, slightly more feminized and baby faced men are more attractive too
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16
Q

Facial Averaging

A

faces that are just avarage/common

  • theory: non-ordinary fetures might be related to abnormalities in their genetics
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17
Q

Culture vs. Evolution

A

Culture
* Western beauty ideals are being exported

  • Cosmetic surgery industry
18
Q

The Dark Side: focusing in fitness and beuty

A
  • In cultures where thinness is idealized, people associate being overweight with laziness, softness and weakness
  • Still a socially acceptable prejudice
    Culture vs. Evolution
    —————————–
  • Mixed messages
  • we are obsses with Food
  • In Canada more men than women are overweight, but more women than men diet
  • Canadian teenagers: 69% of girls would like to lose weight and 54% of boys would like to gain weight
  • Eating disorders
19
Q

Factors Influencing Physical
Attractiveness: Dutton & Aron (1974)

A
  • Male participants crossed either a stable bridge or an unstable one to meet female confederate on the other side
  • Female confederate had them look at a picture and make up a story, gave her phone number in case any questions about the study

what was found: is that more men crossed the unstable bridge called back

  • Misattribution of arousal
  • being scared/arousal made them think they were attraacted to the women
20
Q

Factors Influencing Physical
Attractiveness: Swami et al. (2010)

A

personality matters!

  • Male subjects viewed female figures ranging from very thin to very large
  • Three conditions:
    (1) positive personality;
    (2)negative personality;
    (3) no information
  • Group 1 rated a much wider range of figures as attractive; opposite effect for group 2

meaning: if u think/hear someone is really nice it makes the variety of their bodies attractive

21
Q

Factors Influencing Physical
Attractiveness:Germine et al. (2015)

A
  • Twin study (identical/fraternal)
  • Rated attractiveness of 200 faces
  • Common Preference = 48%
  • Individual Preference = 52%

not due to genes but the enviromment

22
Q

Germine et al. (2015)

A

The types of environments that are important are not those that are shared by those who grow up in the same family, but are much more subtle and individual, potentially including things such as one’s unique, highly personal experiences with friends or peers, as well as social and popular media.

23
Q

The Final Word

A

their is a very big variety in attraction

24
Q

partner choice

A

women and man when choosing a sexual partner are **more alike ** then when they are choosing marriage partners

sexual partner: attractivness,attentivness,healthiness and personality are the most important

marriage partner
- women attractiveness,healthness is way less important then for men but attentivness is more important for women then for men

25
Q

Partner Choice

A
  • Key predictors of partner choice:

 Proximity
 Mere exposure
 Homophily
 Similarity
 Matching phenomenon
 Reciprocal liking
Relationships

26
Q

1.Proximity

A
  • Greater attraction to those in closer proximity to us - in our immediate surroundings
27
Q

2.Familiarity

A

Mere exposure effect: Greater attraction the more exposure
we have to them

true in not liking them also make u hate them more

28
Q

3.Similarity

A
  • Assortative Mating – the tendency to choose a partner who is similar to oneself on one or more characteristics
  • Homophily – tendency to have contact with people equal in social status
  • **Ethnicity **– the most consistent similarity for people in relationships (most consistent)
  • why?
    -people from specific groups live close to eachother(but not always)
29
Q

What About in Vancouver?

A
  • Canada = 3.9% are in “mixed unions”
  • Vancouver = 9.6%
  • Conflicting views
  • so as ethinic groups increses the marriage between groups increses
30
Q

Similarity

A
  • Opposites attract =
    false
  • Liking for those similar
    to us
31
Q

Matching Phenomenon

A

We tend to choose partners who match us in quality

  • people will mostly end up with someone who is just as attractive then them

 Self-esteem plays a
role

32
Q

Reciprocal Liking

A

 We like those who like us and we dislike those who dislike us

 Speed dating study (Luo & Zhang, 2009)

33
Q

Love: Sternberg’s triangular theory of love

A
  • intimacy:emotional part of love
  • decision/commitment: short term,long term (what makes the relationship last)
  • passion: physical attractivness

intimacy is what predicts sexual satisfaction

34
Q

Love: Sternberg’s triangular theory of love

A

Intimacy + commitment+ passion = Consummate Love

Intimacy + pasion = romantic love

intimacy + commitment = compassionate love

commitment + passion = fatuous love

love can change over time : most common passionate love > companiote love like in marriages

35
Q

Love as a Story

A

Love as a story (Sternberg): what love
should be/is like

  • Contains characters, a plot, and a theme
  • Some examples of love stories:

 War Story – constant fighting, two warriors

 Love is a Mystery – ambiguous, mysterious, a partner that you can
never really know

 House and Home – home is the centre of the relationship

 Garden Story – love needs constant work/tending

people tend to leave/be unhappy relationships when they dont match the stories in their head

36
Q

Romantic Beliefs

A

 Notion of ‘one true love’

 73% Americans believe in soul mate

 Romantic beliefs associated with greater risk of relationship collapse

37
Q

Arranged vs. Love Marriages

A
  • love marriages: satisfaction starts high but go down over time
  • arrange marriages: satisfaction start low and increses overtime
38
Q

Predictors of Long Term Relationship
Satisfaction

A

communication!

  • Feeling loved/appreciated
  • Emotional closeness
  • Sexual satisfaction (quantity, type, context, etc.)
  • Self-disclosure
  • Ability to resolve conflict
  • Skilled communication (relationship/sex)
  • Mindfulness (being present, identifying and communicating emotions)
39
Q

Communication

A

Important for romantic relationships, sex included

 Poorer communication at the start of a relationship linked to relationship problems (breakup) later on

40
Q

How to communicate poorly: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
(Gottman)

A
  1. Criticism
  2. Contempt
    -attacking the other
  3. Defensiveness
    -not accepting responsability
  4. Stonewalling

more likely to divorce