Friendship and Romantic Relationships Flashcards
Centrality of Contact
Harlow’s (1959) rhesus monkeys
- when the monkeys were put back into their natural environment, they were unable to socialise properly
Human Contact and importance of functioning
- Feral children suffer from social deficits
- Isolation leads to ill-adjustment
- In victors case, we don’t know if he was excluded as a result of feral behaviour or if his behaviour became feral as a result of exclusion
Fundamental human need to belong
Baumeister & Leary (1995)
- evolutionary basis for seeking relationships
- need to belong is universal
- Profound negative consequences if the need is not met
Types of social support
- Emotional - feeling loved
- Evaluation - make mind up
- Information - about factual things
- Instrumental - concrete help
Reasons for affiliating
Hill (1987)
- Reduce uncertainty through comparing with others
- Be positively stimulated
- Obtain confirmation and recognition
- Receive emotional support
Consequences of lack of social support
- psychological problems more common in divorced people
- Suicide rates higher for divorced people
- Cancer patients who belong to support group survive longer
- Men suffer more from a divorce than women as women have greater social support networks
Cohen and Hobermans ‘Buffer Effect’ of social support.
-High stress = high physical symptoms
Schachter, 1959
- seeking social support for anxiety
- participants told they’d be administered shocks, 1/2 told shocks would be strong 1/2 told shocks would be weak.
- Given option of waiting alone or with others, more anxious ps preferred company of others.
- relationships offer social support
Factors fostering interpersonal attraction
- Exposure
- Similarity - common interests
- Reciprocal liking - like people who like us
- Physical attractiveness
Effects of physical attractiveness
- Halo effect, no correlation between being attractive and intelligence, intelligence his overshadowed by attractiveness
- Attractiveness = earn more, judged as happier
Signal & Landy’s (1973)
- when woman in relationship is attractive, the male partner is then rated more attractive as a result of this.
Dutton & Aron (1974)
- When female confederate was present when males were given electric shocks, they rated women more attractive the higher the shock.
- Misattribution of physical arousal.
Factors Fostering Interpersonal attractions
- large eyes, small nose, strong jaw
- Red clothing is attractive
- Ratio between hips and waste is attractive when large difference
- Some cultures long neck is attractive
- Some cultures being pale is attractive
The matching hypothesis
- Relationship aspiration = desire for goal + perceived probability of goal attainment
- Level of physical attractiveness between partners and friends tend to match
- Attracted to those who match us
Types of relationships Clark & Mills (1993)
Exchange relationship: no responsibility e.g. strangers
Communal relationship: Mutual responsibility e.g. family
