Human relationships Flashcards
Formation of relationships: biological orgins
Pheromones and Human Attraction
Pheromone- a chemical substance produced and released into the environment by an animal affecting the behavior or physiology of others of its own species.
Signaling pheromones- produced rapid behavioral effects in animals specifically leads to mating behavior.
Darwin’s theory of evolution - protect gene pool, survival of the fittest, natural selection.
natural selection- member of a species who have characteristics which are better suited to the environment. They will more likely to breed healthy offspring spring.
Wedekind: Sweaty T-Shirt study
Aim- determine whether one’s MHC would affect mate choice.
Procedure- around 40 women and 40 men with a wide range of MHC genes.
- Major Histocompatibility Complex- series of molecules on body cells, helps Immune system identify pathogens and activate immune system.
Each man was given a clean T-shirt and asked to wear it for 2 nights, remain odor neutral. Women were presented 7 boxes with 3 MHC similar, 3 MHC different and one unknown, then women rated T-shirt.
*double blind experiment.
Results- women rated the scent of men with dissimilar MHC as more pleasant.
Biological orgins:
Testosterone(hormone) - 10x more in males and females. Explains behavioral differences between the sexes. Cause aggression, competition, dominant behaviors.
Ronay and von Hippel: The Skateboard study
Aim- to determine if men would take greater risks in the presence of a male. See if testosterone played a role in behavior.
Procedure- Around 90 male Australian skateboarders. Around 21 years old. One group was controlled with a male researcher. Other group was a female researcher. Skateboarders were asked to do one easy trick and one difficult trick. Asked to do it 10 times. Then 10 mores time but this time in front of attractive female researcher. Rated tricks with success, crash landing, and aborted attempt. Saliva was also collected.
Results- Participants took greater risks in front of a female researcher. And testosterone levels were higher in the men when infront of female.
- Greater risks show sign of potential mate. And testosterone behaviors
Attraction in personal relationships
Markey and Markey: Similarity Attraction Model
Aim- investigate the extent to which similarity is a factor in the way people choose a partner.
Procedure- using questionnaires the researchers asked a large self selected sample of undergraduate students to describe the psychological characteristics, values, and attitudes of their ideal romantic partner, without thinking of anyone in particular. Afterward, they asked to describe themselves.
Results- showed that the way the participants described themselves was similar to what they were seeking in their ideal partner
Why relationships end?
Why do so many marriages end I. Divorce, in the United States 50% of them end. Go from happy to divorce
Gottman, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Criticism- attacking someone’s character putting the blame on the other person, commenting on their actions.
Contempt- most destructive, attacking someone’s character with insults or abuse, mocking, looking down on them.
Defensiveness- see yourself as the victim.
Stonewalling- silent responses, withdrawing from convo to avoid conflict.
Gottmans: love lab
Apartment in Seattle, designed to look at normal as possible, Couples invited to spend the weekend, cameras in apartment.
AIM- find the correlations between the couples staying together or divorcing and the data from the observations and their physiological responses.
Procedure- couples arrived at the lab after not seeing each other for eight hours. Conversed for 15 mins on 3 topics. Events of their day, something good in relationship, current idea of conflict.
Results: the happy couples made five positive pieces of communication for every negative. By final observation 21 out of 81 had divorced after.
Communication: social penetration theory Altman and Taylor
-argues that close relationships are formed by a process of gradual self disclosure. Self disclosure= self validation.
Stage 1: orientation stage,small talk , simple info
Stage 2: Exploration stage, personal feeling and opinions, friendship, still safe.
Stage 3: affection stage, share private, intimate physical reactions.
Stage 4: Stable stage, strong trust, predict emotions
Collin’s and Miller:
Aim- investing the relationship between self-disclosure, liking, and intimacy.
Procedure- carried out a meta-analysis of 94 studies on the topic of self-disclosure, variety of research designs.
Results- share more intimate facts= more liked. Like someone more after disclosing something. Self disclosure= positive feedback loop.
Large amount of data
Fatal Attraction Theory: Felmbee
1. Fun to foolish
2. Strong to domineering
3. Spontaneous to upreductable
Felmbee
Aim- investigate what attracted us to our partner in the first place may end up being the reason that the relationship ends.
Procedure- 301 university students answered, most reason romantic relationships ended. Qualities that attracted them to person and qualities that caused breakup
Result- 88/301 attractive trait —> break up.
Halo effect - cornice bias which our overall impression of a person influences how we feel and think about their character, perception of si gel trait can carry over to how people perceive other aspects.
Nisbett and Wilson
Aim- address and find an answer to the question regarding people’s awareness of the halo effect.
Procedure- college students were asked to evaluate a psychology instructor in a videotape. 2 groups, both instructive native French speaker with accent. Group 1 instructor likable, respect students, Group 2 = unlikeable , cold, distrustful.
Students rate lecture on physical appearance, mannerism and accents
Results- ask one group on scale. How much characteristics affected rating.
Students were clueless
