Human Relationships learning outcomes Flashcards
Distinguish between altruism and prosocial behaviour.
Prosocial behaviour is behaviour that benefits others. Altruism is a type of prosocial behaviour that occurs without personal benefit as the ultimate goal. There can be cost to oneself.
Contrast two theories explaining altruism in humans.
Definition of altruism.
First theory: the empathy-altruism hypothesis
By Batson.
According to him: Some acts of help are truly altruistic, and the things that affect the altruistic behaviour are:
-closeness/empathy to the victim
-the feeling that the situation could be improved
According to Batson: the person evaluates the situation: is it costly or rewarding.
Study by: Batson et al. 1981
Toi and Batson 182
Second theory: The kin selection hypothesis.
Evolutionary explanation. The gene that makes prosocial behaviour happen wants to be passed on, therefore people are more likely to help those relatives.
Sime 1983: he found that when fleeing from a burning building families sticked together but strangers did not.
Madsen et al. 2007
Using one or more research studies, explain cross-cultural differences in prosocial behaviour.
Whiting and Whiting 1975
Madsen et al 2007
Levine
Examine factors influencing bystanderism.
Bystanderism means the phenomena when a person doesn’t help someone although completely aware of the need. This happens often. Latané and Darley were interested after the murder case of Kitty Genoviese in New York.
The factors that influence are:
Diffusion of responsibility!
study by Latané and Darley 1968: the seizures
If alone, there is 100% responsibility to act or not act. The more people, the less responsibility it feels. This could be caused by audience inhibition: the fear of overreacting or embarrassing oneself.
Or the social influence: if others don’t act, we shouldn’t either?
anothers study by Latané and Darley 1968: the smoke.
Another effect suggested by Piliavin:
The arousal-cost-reward model
-Situations that require help creates and emotional arousal, that might be fear, motivation to help or leave etc.
The person who has this arousal then decides if it costs them to help: embarrassment, danger, harm.
Or if it costs not to help: guilt, social desirability destroyed.
Then they think if there are rewards for helping: rid of guilt, self-esteem, feeling good afterwards, praise from others.
Possible rewards for not helping: not getting harmed, not overreacting etc.
Study by Piliavin et al 1968 subway NY supports the fact that diffusion of responsibility does not always happen, and that there is a different kind of reaction to different situations.
Examine biological origins of attraction.
Neurobiology of love.
Fisher 2004:
According to her the neurotransmitters dopamine, adrenaline and serotonin all play an important role in the feeling of love.
Love is an obsession, a craving, not a feeling. like animals.
Fisher et al. 2003: fMRI study
Marazziti et al. 1999
The partner selection in terms of genes:
Wedekind 1995: the sweaty t-shirt experiment.
Natural selection would favour attraction that would combine genes which are good.
Evaluation of biological explanations:
- There is good research showing that evolutionary factors do affect attraction
- however, they don’t explain same-sex partners because that would not support the production of offspring.
Examine psychological origins of attraction.
Burne 1971 and the similarity-attraction hypothesis
- Theory that assumes that people are likely to be attracted to individuals that they perceive as similar to themselves.
- Validation of oneself, same values, boost of self-esteem
According to him similarity increases attraction.
Markey et al. 2007 The questionnaires and ideal partners.
Self-esteem:
Kiesler and Baral 1970 Self-esteem and attraction
Reciprocity theory:
liking those who we think like us.
Study by Dittes and Kelley 1956
Attraction based on the feeling of familiarity, frequency and predictability of contact etc.
Examine social origins of attraction.
Sociocultural origins:
Physical proximity and attraction
The proximity theory means that those who are physically close will enhance the probability of becoming friends.
Festinger et al. 1950
- those who are closer physically become more familiar and therefore we are attracted to them.
- However, with the internet, there is more of a psychological proximity than geographical proximity: chat rooms etc. enable communication.
Cultural factors in attraction:
Buss et al. 1990
Differences in what is valued in a mate.
Discuss the role of communication in maintaining relationships.
What kind of relationships?? define: marital, friendships etc..?
Communication is found to be the key in maintaining relationships.
Canary and Stafford identified five maintenance strategies that maintain relationships:
- Positivity
- openness
- assurances
- Social networking
- sharing tasks
Attribution style seems to be important:
positive behaviour is attributed to be dispositional and negative situational.
In unhealthy relationships this is the other way around.
Fletcher et al. 1987
Levenson and Gottman 1983: the effect of negative emotions and expressing them in marital satisfaction
Deborah Tannen and the differences in the communication styles of men and women.
-When women say “sorry”, they mean to show empathy,
while men understand it as an apology.
-When someone talks about their negative feelings to women, they tend to show understanding and acceptance,
and to reassure that it’s alright to feel that way.
Women are more likely to share their own story of when they were in a similar situation.
-Men on the other hand feel the disclosure is a complaint and try to find a solution to fix it.
-This may be problematic, when women and men react to their spouses problems in the “wrong” way.
-Women might only want empathy, while men might be offended if women answers that she has felt the same way, somehow diminishing the uniqueness of their feelings
-Also, men tend to interrupt each other while speaking, while women wait for their turns with more patience
-These differences could create problems
Gottman’s theory of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse that predict marital dissatisfaction:
- Criticism: making dispositional attributions
- Contempt: Attacking the participants self with the intention to insult: mockery, sarcasm, hostility
- Defensiveness: Seeing yourself as a victim, making excuses, cross-complaining
- Stonewalling: Withdrawing from the relationship as a way to avoid conflict: silent treatment, short responses etc.
Conclusion: of course, there are many things that affect how relationships are maintained but communication seems to be one of the most important.
Explain the role that culture plays in the formation and maintenance of relationships.
Differences between individualistic and collectivistic cultures: define these
FORMATION of relationships:
Arranged marriages in many cultures. The formation of these is different from the western love marriages.
According to some, Western tend to be individualistic, temporary and voluntary.
Non-Western cultures tend to be collectivistic, involuntary and permanent.
The marriages are arranged for: social position, wealth, religion, opportunities and class etc.
Gupta and Singh 1992, India: those who were in arranged marriages reported higher feelings of love after five years than those who married for love.
Buss et al. 1990: what is important to different cultures is not for others. This makes the maintenance and formation very different, as people seek for different things
Xiahe and Whyte 1990: Females in arranged marriages in China were less satisfied with their marital relationship than those who married for love.
MAINTENANCE of relationships:
- Large proportion of marriages in Western cultures end up in divorce.
- For example in China, almost none.
WHAT OTHER STUDIES TO PUT TO THE MAINTENANCE OF RELATIONSHIPS?????????
Analyse why relationships may change or end.
Failure in communication:
-None of the things Canary and Stafford (1994) suggested to be important.
Also:
-Gottman’s theory of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse that predict marital dissatisfaction:
-Criticism: making dispositional attributions
-Contempt: Attacking the participants self with the intention to insult: mockery, sarcasm, hostility
-Defensiveness: Seeing yourself as a victim, making excuses, cross-complaining
-Stonewalling: Withdrawing from the relationship as a way to avoid conflict: silent treatment, short responses etc.
Also, if there is a lot of dispositional attributions to negative things:
-Fletcher et al. 1987
If these things are wrong in communication, there is a risk for an end for the relationship.
Also, the Equity theory by Walster 1978
- There must be a perception of equality in a relationship
- People should feel that the gains they get from the relationship are fair compared to the gains of the partner
- E.g. If the other partner invests a lot of their energy into making the other feel good, but not the other way around, the relationships might not be balanced
-In research, those who felt under-benefitted OR over-benefitted were least likely to think and the relationship will last
This could also explain infidelity, which can in turn end relationships:
-if a person feels they put more into the relationship than the partner, they might feel that when they cheating the relationship is fair
The investment model of commitment (Theory)
- Rusbult et al. 1991
- Suggested that the concept of accommodation as an important strategy in maintaining a relationship
- Accommodation means that the person is willing to adopt a constructive approach and inhibit the impulse to react destructively
- High levels of accommodation are linked with well-being
Evaluate sociocultural explanations of the origins of violence.
Social learning theory
Albert Bandura:
Vicarious learning and vicarious reinforcement
SLT in the form of observation, mainly: television and environment.
Steps needed in SLT: Attention, retention, reproduction, motivation
Study by Bandura 1965 shows that children did seem to act more violently when they saw an adult being rewarded for violent behaviour. Also, they all could reproduce the violent behaviour.
Another study by Huesman et al. 1984: longitudinal study in New York shows how boys who had a preference for violent tv at 8 correlation with their aggression at 18 and later comitting crimes.
–> these studies show the potential effect of social environment and learning the violence from there.
Argument against by Charlton et al. 2002
Also, study by Bandura lacks ecological validity, and all violence can’t be explained by SLT. also cloa and bloa explanations.
Other sloa explanations for violence:
- usually used to acquire something.. linked to Social identity theory (Tajfel and Turner 1979)
- need to be similar to others in ingroup: if they are violent.. then I have to be. Ingroup bias, ingroup favoritism, positive distinctiveness
- May be linked to getting sex, sense of pride, material, approval
- Social desirability, wanting to please someone, fearing disapproval by ingroup
-Situational factors: Milgram 1963: participants behaved in a violent matter indirectly because of an authorative figure.
Diffusion of responsibility
Also, culture of honor suggested by Cohen: in an experiment participants from southern USA were more likely to show aggression towards a confederate than participants from northern usa. They also completed a story more aggressively.
Cohen argues that in some parts of the world a culture of honor exists, where even the smallest insults have to be faced with violence.
Discuss the relative effectiveness of two strategies for reducing violence.
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Discuss the effects of short-term and long-term exposure to violence.
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Evaluate psychological research (that is theories and/or studies) relevant to the study of human relationships.
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To what extent do biological, cognitive and sociocultural factors influence human relationships.
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