Chapter 9 Relationships and Attraction

Question 1

What is one downside researchers face when studying relationships?

Answer 1

Very hard to be true experiments with random assignment

Question 2

What are some universal features of relationships on an evolutionary basis? List 4.

Answer 2

1. Caregiving between mother and child
2. Wrestling between siblings
3. Affection between romantic partners
4. Grieving the loss of loved ones

Question 3

What is a high risk factor for people’s health in modern society?

Answer 3

Loneliness. The effect of social isolation on mortality is greater than the effect of obesity or physical inactivity and comparable with that of smoking.

Question 4

Many species including humans, monkeys, and elephants need what to survive?

Answer 4

Belonging

Question 5

What is the difference between communal relationship and exchange relationship?

Answer 5

1. long term vs short term
2. specific responsibility to each other vs. no responsibility for one another’s wellbeing
3. give and receive according to which person has the most pressing need at any time vs. give and receive governed by concerns of equity and reciprocity
4. examples: close friends & family members vs. salespeople & workers and supervisors

Question 6

What does the social exchange theory suggest about how rewards shape our relationships?

Answer 6

The theory suggests that people seek relationships in which the benefits/rewards outweigh the costs.

Question 7

What are two standards people use in social exchange theory?

Answer 7

1. Comparison level - expectations people have about what they should get out of a relationships
2. Comparison level for alternatives - the outcomes people think they can get out of alternative relationships

Question 8

What does the equity theory suggest about relationships?

Answer 8

This theory suggests that people are motivated to pursue fairness in their relationships, to make sure the ratio of rewards to costs is similar for both partners.

Question 9

Which theory suggests that early attachments with caregivers and parents can shape our relationships for the rest of our lives?

Answer 9

Attachment theory

Question 10

What are three types of adults’ attachment styles?

Answer 10

secure
avoidant
anxious-ambivalent

Question 11

How do you define the anxiety dimension of attachment and the avoidance dimension of attachment?

Answer 11

Anxiety dimension: the amount of fear a person feels about rejection and abandonment within close relationships
Avoidance dimension: the degree to which a person is comfortable with intimacy and dependence in adult relationships or finds them aversive

Question 12

What is functional distance?

Answer 12

The influence of the layout of a physical space that encourages or discourages contact between people.

Question 13

What is the notion that the more you are exposed to something, the more you tend to like it?

Answer 13

The mere exposure effect

Question 14

What are some studies that demonstrate the mere exposure effect?

Answer 14

People rate the unfamiliar Turkish-sounding words as good if they see them more often.
Rats are choosing Mozart or Schoenberg.

Question 15

What does the mere exposure effect work with, and what doesn’t?

Answer 15

Work with: paintings, photos, geometric shapes, and meaningful and meaningless words
Doesn’t work with: auditory stimuli such as brief sounds, musical pieces, or stimuli that you initially dislike

Question 16

Similarity or complementarity? Which one is more important?

Answer 16

Similarity. For individuals who are opposite, it may be true that a person who is dependent wants a partner who is nurturing, or the status exchange hypothesis- romantic attraction increases when two individuals offer each other elevated status where they themselves are lacking.

Question 17

What effect describes the phenomenon that people who are appealing to look at have a host of positive qualities beyond their physical appearance?

Answer 17

The halo effect.

Question 18

What are three components of the investment model of commitment?

Answer 18

1. Satisfaction
2. The relative absence or poor quality of alternative partners
3. Investments in the relationship

Question 19

Four horsemen of apocalypse

Answer 19

1. criticism
2. stonewalling
3. defensiveness
4. contempt

Question 20

How do you define reproductive fitness?

Answer 20

The capacity to pass one’s genes on to future generations.