Interpersonal Processes

Question 1

What makes people more or less likely to help people in dangerous situations?
(2 variables)

Answer 1

Situational variables: the situations in which people find themselves

Dis positional variables: their personalities and attitudes

Question 2

Why interpersonal attraction is important.

+

Factors leading to interpersonal attraction: (4)

Answer 2

Most people thrive on relationships with others, social psychologists believe that humans have a great ‘need to belong’ - to be involved in relationships with others.

• Proximity: people tending to chose their friends and lovers from individuals nearby.
• Interpersonal rewards: the degree to which interaction with another person is rewarding.
• Similarity: people tend to choose relationships on the basis of shared attitudes, values and beliefs.
• Physical attractiveness: (even in non sexual relationships) physically attractive people are magnets. Has greater impact on romantic relationships.

Question 3

Social exchange theories

Answer 3

Based on behaviourist principles: consider reciprocal reward the foundation of relationships.

Question 4

Matching hypothesis

Answer 4

Choosing partners perceived to be as equally attractive to oneself, not necessarily the most beautiful or handsome person.

Question 5

Classifying love:

Passionate and companionate love

Answer 5

The two kinds of love generally coexist.

Passionate love: wildly emotional condition, marked by intense physiological arousal and absorption in another person. (Does not last forever)

Companionate love: involves deep affection, friendship and emotional intimacy. Grows over time through shared experiences and increasingly takes the place of passionate love.

Question 6

Evolutionary perspective of love

Answer 6

The feelings and behaviours we associate with the concept of love are evolved mechanisms that tend to lead to reproductive success.

Question 7

Sexual strategies

What is it and what are the male and female strategies - long and short term

Answer 7

Tactics used in selecting mates

Females maximise their reproductive success by forcing males with resources to commit to them in return for sexual access. Long and short term strategies are similar.

Males: short term = female with the greatest reproductive value who is both fertile (young) and readily available. Long term = commuted relationships provide exclusive sexual access to a female, allowing male contribute to offspring without parental uncertainty.

Question 8

Romantic love as attachment

Similarities and differences

Answer 8

Romantic love relationships share several features with attachment relationships in infancy and childhood.

Similarities:
• adults feel security in lovers arms
• adults respond to job related separations (eg. Army) with the same patterns of depression, anger and anxiety observed in childhood separation.

Differences:
• care for offspring
• sexuality

Question 9

Maintaining relationships

• characteristics of long term relationships
• dark characteristics of relationships

Answer 9

People in satisfying long term relationships trend to avoid negative spirals, give their partners the benefit of the doubt and hold slightly idealised views of their partners.

All relationships have a dark side characterised by pet peeves and annoyances.

Question 10

Altruism

Answer 10

Refers to behaviours that help other people with no apparent gain or potential cost to oneself.

Question 11

Ethical hedonism

Answer 11

No matter how apparently altruistic is - and should be - designed to increase ones own pleasure or reduce ones own pain.

Question 12

Evolutionary perspective of altruism

Answer 12

Evolutionary psychologists propose that people act in ways that maximise their inclusive fitness and more likely to behave altruistically towards relatives than others.

Question 13

Reciprocal altruism

Answer 13

Natural selection also favours animals that behave altruistically towards unrelated others if the likely benefit to each individual over time exceeds the likely cost.

Question 14

Bystander Intervention

Answer 14

Individuals do not often help in a crisis in the presence of other people. To intervene, a person must notice the event, define it as an emergency and assume personal responsibility for intervening.

Question 15

Diffusion of responsibility

+ what else causes people not to help

Answer 15

A diminished sense of personal responsibility to act. - one important reason people do not help.

Individual difference variables, such as gender, determines when helping will occur.

Question 16

Aggression (definition)

+ 2 types of aggression and their meaning

+ instances of conflicted aggression

Answer 16

Verbal or physical behaviour aimed at harming another person or living being.

Hostile aggression: aggression elicited by anger. Eg. When someone lashes out at a perceived injustice. But can also be carried out for practical purposes without anger - such as beeping horn at reckless driving.

Instrumental aggression: used by institutions such as the judicial system to punish wrongdoers.

Instances like suicide bombings and kamikaze plots involve blends of aggression and altruism, depending upon ones point of view.

Question 17

Foundations of aggression

2 approaches - instinctual and evolutionary

Answer 17

Instinctual theorists view aggression as in inborn potential usually activated by frustration of anger. Arguing that aggressive motives can blend with other motives and be triggered unconsciously.

Evolutionary theorists similarly view aggression as an inborn human potential that gets activated under conditions that affect reproductive success, such as competing for territory or mates and protecting self or others.

Question 18

Biological aspect of aggression

Answer 18

The neural control of aggression is hierarchically organised, with the amygdala, hypothalamus and cortex (particularly the frontal lobes) playing prominent roles.

Aggression is also partially controlled by hormones, particularly testosterone and serotonin.

Question 19

Frustration aggression hypothesis

Answer 19

When people are frustrated at achieving a goal, they become aggressive.

Question 20

Cognitive social root of aggression

Answer 20

Cognitive social theories suggest that the roots of aggressive behaviour lie in social rewards and punishments, and cognitive processes such as attributions and observational learning.

Question 21

The general aggression model

Answer 21

States that person variables interact with situational inputs to determine aggressive output. The capacity for aggression appears to be innate, but the activation and inhibition of aggression depends on culture and learning.

Question 22

Social influence (definition)

Obedience (definition and example)

Conformity (definition, example and variations of conformity)

Answer 22

Social influence refers to the effects of the presence of others on the way people think, feel and behave.

Obedience refers to the compliance with authority. The Milgram experiments demonstrated that most people obey, without limitation of conscience. When they believe an order comes from a legitimate authority.

Conformity means challenging attitudes or behaviour to accommodate the standards of peers or groups. The Asch experiments demonstrated that people tend to conform rather than to be the lone dissenting voice.
Conformity varies across and within cultures and tend to reflect economic and ecological demands.

Question 23

Group (definition)

Norms (definition)

Roles (definition and influence)

Answer 23

A group is a collection of people whose actions affect the other group members.

Norms = standards of behaviour

Roles = positions in the group that have norms specifying appropriate behaviour for their occupants.

Roles can have dramatic influences on behaviours, (as demonstrated in Zimbardo’s experiment) if people become too immersed in assigned roles.

Question 24

Social facilitation (definition)

Group polarisation (definition)

Group cohesiveness (definition)

Groupthink (definition)

Answer 24

The influence of groups on individuals as well as individual performance within groups.

A movement towards a decision that is an extreme position. Decisions made by a group tend to be either conservative or risky.

People tend to cluster together to be viewed more favourably by members of their ingroup.

Another characteristic of group decision making.
Groupthink occurs when members of a group make decisions based more on maintaining group harmony and cohesiveness than a critical analysis of the realities of a situation.

Question 25

Leaders (definition and how they vary)

Task leaders (definition)

Social emotional leaders (definition)

Answer 25

People who exercise greater influence than the average member of the group. Leaders tend to vary in the extent to which they are task orientated or relationship orientated.

Task leaders take responsibility for seeing that the group completes it tasks.

Social - Emotional leaders try to keep the group working cohesively and with minimal conflict.

Question 26

Fiedler’s contingency theory of leadership

+ 3 situational variables

Answer 26

Outlines the 3 situational variables that together influence what style of leadership will be most effective: task structure, leader member relationships and position power.

Question 27

Everyday social influence: Door in the face technique

Answer 27

When we intentionally make a request that we know will be turned down, so when we back down from our request, the other individual should reciprocate with a concession.

Question 28

Everyday social influence: foot in the door technique

Answer 28

Refers to this process by which people get us to commit to a small request are much more likely to get us to commit to a larger request.

Question 29

Everyday social influence technique: low balling

Answer 29

People who low ball others get a commitment to a request and then they change the conditions of the request. (Car dealers are infamous for low balling their customers)