Chapter 10: Relationships and Attraction

Question 1

define communal relationships

Answer 1

individuals feel a special responsibility for one another and give and receive according to need

Question 2

define exchange relationships

Answer 2

individuals feel little responsibility toward one another; giving and receiving are governed by concerns about equity and reciprocity. Typically short-term

Question 3

define social exchange theory

Answer 3

people seek out relationships that have more rewards than costs

Question 4

define comparison level

Answer 4

people’s expectations about what they deserve/expect from a relationship

Question 5

define comparison level for alternatives

Answer 5

people’s expectations about what they can get out of available other relationships

Question 6

define equity theory

Answer 6

people are motivated to pursue fairness/equity in their relationships

Question 7

define reward principle

Answer 7

we want rewards from our interactions

Question 8

define attachment theory

Answer 8

our early attachments with parents and caregivers shape relationships for a person’s whole life

Question 9

what is The Strange Situation Study (Ainsworth 1978)?

Answer 9

Infants left in room with toys with their caregiver
Stranger enters room and caregiver leaves
Caregiver return after three minutes
Secure infants - comfortable with caregiver
Anxious infants - uncomfortable with both
Caregivers of anxious infants - rejected infant, randomly interrupted them, did not comfort infant

Question 10

define Anxiety dimension of attachment

Answer 10

amount of fear a person feels about rejection and abandonment

Question 11

define avoidance dimension of attachment

Answer 11

amount of discomfort regarding intimacy and dependence

Question 12

what are the attachment styles and their definitions?

Answer 12

Secure - comfortable with relationships (low on both)
Avoidant - difficulty trusting people in relationships
Anxious-ambivalent - worries about scaring people away

Question 13

what is the Longitudinal attachment study (Klohnen and Bera 1998)?

Answer 13

Forty-year long study on attachment styles and home-caregiver attitudes and behavior
Attachment styles stayed relatively similar decades later

Question 14

what is the Attachment styles and outcomes study?

Answer 14

Over a 4-year period, secure participants were less likely to experience breakup (25.6%) than avoidant (52.2%) or anxious (43.6%) participants

Question 15

what is the Westgate West Study (Festinger et al., 1950)?

Answer 15

Researchers asked students who lived in student housing to list their closest friends
Only 5% of students lived in the same building
However, ⅔ of those listed as friends lived in the same building as the participants

Question 16

define physical proximity

Answer 16

being closer (literally) to people leads to becoming closer (figuratively) with people

Question 17

define functional distance

Answer 17

how the layout encourages or inhibits contact between people

Question 18

define mere exposure effect

Answer 18

repeated exposure to a stimulus leads to a greater liking of a stimulus

Question 19

what is the Turkish Word Experiment (Zajonc 1968) ?

Answer 19

Participants shown turkis words kadirga, afworbu, and lokanta 0, 1, 2, 5, 10, or 25 times
Participants then indicated whether they thought the word meant something good or a bad
Words they saw more often were rated as more positive

Question 20

what is the albino rat study?

Answer 20

Rats exposed to either Mozart or Schoenberg
Rats placed in cage in which standing on one side turn on new Mozart music, standing on other side would turn on new Schoenberg
Rats who’d been raised Mozart, and the same was true for Schoenberg-raised rats

Question 21

define complementarity

Answer 21

the idea that opposites attract

-only true if similarities exist

Question 22

define status exchange hypothesis

Answer 22

romantic attraction increases when two individuals complement each other by offering both increased status in different domains

Question 23

define halo effect

Answer 23

the belief that attractive people have other positive qualities

Question 24

what is the telephone study?

Answer 24

Independent raters rated participants on attractiveness
Participants had 5 minute telephone conversations with other participants of opposite sex
More attractive participants rated as more likeable

Question 25

what is the phone study with photo?

Answer 25

Male participants had phone conversations with woman who they believed was attractive or unattractive
Male participants were warmer with attractive woman
Independent raters who only heard the woman’s portion of the conversation rated attractive woman as warmer and more sociable

Question 26

what was the shared self-concept study?

Answer 26

Married couple rated 90 trait adjectives on how accurately they described themselves and spouse
Then did a distracting track
Came back, rated on a computer how much they were “like me” or “not like me”
-romantic partners are faster to label traits like me when they are true of their parenter as well

Question 27

define investment model of commitment

Answer 27

three determinants make romantic partners more committed - relationship satisfaction, alternative partners, and investments

Question 28

what is the *Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Study (Gottman & Levenson 1999) study?

Answer 28

Followed 79 married couples in longitudinal study

Identified four behaviors that predicted divorce:

Question 29

what four behaviors did the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Study reveal?

Answer 29

Criticism: continuously finding fault with the other
Defensiveness: refusing to consider they’re at fault
Contempt: putting the other down
Stonewalling: disengaging from the interaction