Interpersonal Relations

Question 1

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Answer 1

SELF-ACTUALISATION
ESTEEM
LOVE/BELONGING
SAFETY
PHYSIOLOGICAL

Question 2

Importance of People

Answer 2

• babies orientated towards other humans/human-esque objects than non-social stimuli
• people form bonds easily w/o circumstance need
• need to belong as essential for psychological well-being as thirst/hunger for physicality

Question 3

Social Connections for Healthy

Answer 3

• supporting individuals to create/maintain social connections should be important public health focus
• public health investment/interventions focus more on physicality/medical treatment than on social network quality
• social group ties (ie. community/peers) especially important to protect in certain instances (ie. cognitive decline/TBI)

Question 4

Need to Belong

Answer 4

• humans motivated by fundamental need to belong
• normal psychological functioning maintenance = frequent/positive interactions w/same individuals in framework of long-term/stable/caring concern
• non-satisfaction in an aspect has negative implications of relationships w/o interactions or vice versa
• if social bonds are physically/psychologically rewarding, their dissolution should be painful regardless of meaningfulness; distress can be experienced via rejection from disliked group!

Question 5

Social Exclusion

Answer 5

• neural centres for physical/social pain have co-evolved
• inclusion is basic to social animal survival; organisms that are better socially integrated more likely to survive adulthood/reproduce/successfully raise offspring
• developing mechanism to detect social inclusion threats is evolutionarily advantageous

Question 6

Finding a Connection

Answer 6

• evolutionary psychologists argue that mate choice motivation = “reproductive fitness” (ie. viable offspring opportunity) meaning that attractive qualities should signal fitness
• approach problematic for disregarding experiences of trans/non-binary people

Question 7

Fitness Signals

Answer 7

MEN:
- easy reproduction
- concern of if offspring it theirs
- look for fertility indicators
- quantity over quality 
WOMEN:
- costly reproduction 
- concern of if offspring survives/is provided for
- look for indicators of male provision
- quality over quantity

Question 8

Explaining Gender Differences

Answer 8

• men avoid long-term relationships more than women, who in contrast are more anxious about romantic relationships

Question 9

Similarities

Answer 9

• ARISTOTLE; similarity on friendship basis
• GALTON; married couples often resemble each other somehow
• NEWCOMB (1956); similar attitudes predict liking among transfer students

Question 10

Do Opposites Attract?

Answer 10

• not really lmao
  BYRNE (1971):
• attitudes/values/characteristics/intellect/income
• similarity = attraction
  KWAN (1998):
• importance of similarities holds across topics/gender/age/cultures

Question 11

Repulsion Hypothesis

Answer 11

• similarity doesn’t attract, but dissimilarity repulses

- dissimilarity shown as stronger w/attraction than same info on similarity

Question 12

Summary

Answer 12

• interpersonal relations are essential to our well-being
• relations are formed on most minimal information
• brains are hardwired to connect
• social exclusion is psychologically/physically harmful
• we don’t know what we want from romantic partners but we keep trying