Lecture 1 Flashcards
What is the need to belong?
We have a foundational need to belong, want frequent interactions, suffer if they don’t have close contact & why relationships are formed
What is the psychological definition of relationship?
mutual influence on a person’s thoughts, feelings, & behavior on another person’s thoughts, feelings, & behaviors (interdependence of people over time)
What is interdependence?
two (or more) people influence one another
What is an intimate relationship?
High levels of knowledge, caring, trust, responsiveness, commitment, & mutuality
What is knowledge?
Intimate partners have extensive personal, usually confidential information about each other
What is mutuality?
Intimate partners tend to think of themselves as a couple instead pf 2 separate people, index of perceived closeness
What is caring?
Intimate partners have more affection for one another than for most other people
What is trust?
Intimate partners expect fair & honorable treatment
What is responsiveness?
Intimate partners are attentive to each other’s needs & support each other better than they do most others
What is commitment?
Intimate partners expect their relationship to continue, and they work to realize that goal
Are mutuality, knowledge, caring, trust, responsiveness, & commitment required for an intimate relationship?
No, think about couples in therapy, temporary separations, & intimate partner violence. However, the most satisfying & meaningful relationships are high in these aspects
What are the major influences on relationships?
History & culture, learning & personal experiences, gender tendencies & individual differences and evolution & biology
What are some of the changes that have occurred in North America?
Fewer marriages, waiting longer to marry, living together before marriage, kids before marriage, more divorce, and 2 income families are the normal
Why has there been a change in norms?
Increasing socioeconomic development, feminism (women favoring education & employment delays sexual behavior, relationship formation, and reproduction), increasing individualism, pursuit of personal fulfilment, Technological innovations (the pill, porn, the internet/phones), Increasing visibility & emancipation of LGBTQ2SA+ & nonmonogamies, & changes in the sex ratio
What are the implications of a culture having a high sex ratio?
Cultures with high sex ratio (more men) tend to be more sexually conservative & traditional in gender roles
What are the implications of cultures having a low sex ratio?
Cultures with a low sex ratio (more women) tend to be more sexually permissive & egalitarian (equality)
What is social comparison theory?
learn about our own & our partners abilities, attitudes, assets, & traits by comparing ourselves and partners with other people
What are upward social comparisons?
happens when comparing ourselves or our parents to a target that is superior, diminishes our or our partner’s perceived value but can motivate effort to improve
What are downward social comparisons?
happens when comparing us or our partner to a target that is inferior to us, increase our or our partner’s perceived value
What are some individual differences?
sex/gender differences, personality, self-esteem, and sexual orientation
What are sex differences?
biological distinctions between men, women, & intersex people
What are gender differences?
Social & psychological distinctions created by our cultures and upbringing
What is biological sex?
Defined by genetics, gonads, endocrinology, internal morphology, & external morphology
What is gender?
Defined by birth assigned sex/gender, identity, self-presentation/expression, & internalized social roles
What are gender roles?
Patterns of behavior that are expected of “normal” men & women (expect men to be “masculine” by exhibiting expressive traits such as assertiveness, self-reliance, decisiveness, & competitiveness and expect women to be “feminine” by having expressive traits such as warmth, sensitivity, emotional expressiveness, & kindness)
What is androgynous?
High in both instrument & expressive traits, people who are most likely to have satisfied partners and are desirable partners
What are the big five traits?
Openness, conscientious, extraversion, agreeable, & neuroticism
Which of the big five traits are influential in an intimate relationship?
1 is neuroticism
#2 is agreeable
How do selfishness impacts relationships?
people low in selfishness are attentive to other’s needs & are generally considerate and charitable
How does humility influence relationships?
people high in humility don’t take offense when other disagree with them & are more forgiving
How does sociosexuality influence relationships?
people high in sociosexuality increases interest one has in sex without commitment & are more likely to cheat
What is self-esteem?
refers to degree that we like or value ourselves
What is the sociometer theory?
argues that self-esteem is a gauge that measures the quality of our relationship with others, when others like us, we like ourselves (doesn’t offer a satisfying explanation for impacts of social comparison)
What is Self-determination theory?
argues that well-being & self-esteem are the product of meeting basic needs for autonomy, relatedness, & competence
What is low self-esteem?
underestimate their partners’ love for them, less optimistic that relationships will last, perceive disregard where none exists, and respond less constructively to conflicts. People with high anxiety about abandonment tend to have low self-esteem
What is sexual orientation?
Attraction, identity, or behavior but these 3 things don’t = each other
What is sexual configurations theory?
beyond traditional approaches to sexual orientation by incorporating additional parameters such as gender/sex sexuality, partner number sexuality, & sexual parameter n
What is Sexual parameter n?
placeholder for sexual interests that exist, have existed, may not yet be expressed, or may yet come
Do consensually non-monogamous relationships experience less jealousy?
Yes
What is Natural selection?
forces such as competition, disease, and climate tend to eliminate weaker individuals that are less adapted to a specific environment and favor survival & reproduction of better adapted individuals, changing the nature of a population over generations
What is sexual selection?
theoretical mechanism for the evolution of anatomical & behavioral differences between males and females based on mate selection. How evolution shapes sex-specific traits that help individuals access mates and arose from the observation that some animals evolve traits that reduce their survival but increase their reproductive success
What is intrasexual selection (parallel process)?
Competition among members of one sex
What is Intersexual selection (parallel process)?
being more attractive to the opposite sex
What is parental investment?
men invest far less than women in the minimum time & biological effort that is needed to produce each child (it may be adaptive for men to be especially careful when choosing their mates than men)
What is paternity uncertainty?
men but not women, may face doubts about whether a specific child is theirs (it may be adaptive for men to be careful toward the threat of sexual infidelity which has implications for experiences of jealously)
What are the styles of attachment orientation?
Secure attachment, anxious attachment, avoidant attachment, & anxiety about abandonment
What is a secure attachment style?
characterized by high trust in others and the belief that one is worthy & appreciated because parents responded appropriately to their needs
What is Anxious ambivalent attachment style?
characterized by fear that others will not respond to their needs, high anxiety, & combinations of anger and proximity seeking because parents responded to their needs inconsistently
What is avoidant attachment style?
characterized by a suppression or denial of attachment needs, few signs of negative emotions, & withdrawal from parental figures because did not respond to their needs
What is Anxiety about abandonment?
worry that other will think we are unworthy & leave us
What is avoidance of intimacy?
challenges with trust & the acceptance of interdependent intimacy with others
What is Singlism?
prejudice & discrimination against people that choose to stay single causing a culture that married people benefit from and single people do not
What is technoference?
frequent interruptions of interactions because of technological devices
What is phubbing?
when one partner “snubs” another by focusing on their phone instead
What is a sex ratio?
count of the number of men for every 100 women in a specific population
What is life history theory?
harsh environments cause young adults to pursue “fast” mating strategies such as maturing & having sex sooner, whereas comfortable environments support slow strategies, reaching puberty later, having sex later, having fewer partners, & fewer children
