Lecture 4 - Interpersonal Relations Flashcards
What is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?
- Self-actualisation
- Esteem
- Love/belonging
- Safety
- Physiological
How do people form social bonds?
→ Proximity (Festinger et al., 1950)
→ Familiarity (Moreland & Beach, 1992)
Festinger, Schachter and Back (1950) study on proximity
- Examined friendships between students living in dorms
- Students who lived in rooms next t one another were more likely to be friends that those further apart
What is the familiarity effect?
Physical proximity - it is easier to access people closer to us in physical space and form bonds through conversation and shared experience
What is the importance of other people?
Need to belong as essential for psychological well-being as hunger and thirst are for physical well-being. Not belonging to groups or holding interpersonal relationships can be extremely detrimental for mental and physical well-being.
Cohen et al (1997) study on social connections for health
Exposed 276 healthy adults to the cold virus under quarantined conditions and explored infection rates
Prior to exposure, participants reported on their social networks…
For each of the following, have you spoken to them in the last 2 weeks:
- Family
- Friend
- Neighbours
- Workmates
- Group members
→ These bonds are not only important for mental well-being, but have measurable benefits for physical health
- Over a number of different illness criteria, participants who had moderate or high levels of prior contact were less likely to record illness than those who had low levels of prior social contact
- Forming interpersonal bonds essential for PHYSICAL HEALTH
To maintain normal psychological functioning, what do we need?
- Frequent, affectively pleasant or positive interactions with the same individuals
- That occur in a framework of long-term, stable caring and concern
Non-satisfaction of one or both components has negative implications:
- Relationships without interaction
- Interaction without relationships
What is future belonging?
You’re the type who has rewarding relationships throughout life. You’re likely to have a long and stable marriage and have friendships that will last into your later years. The odds are that you’ll always have friends and people who care about you.
What is future misfortune?
You’re likely to be accident prone later in life—you might break an arm or a leg a few times, or maybe be injured in car accidents. Even if you haven’t been accident prone before, these things will show up later in life, and the odds are you will have a lot of accidents.
What is future alone?
You’re the type who will end up alone later in life. You may have friends and relationships now, but by your mid-20s most of these will have drifted away. You may even marry or have several marriages, but these are likely to be short-lived and not continue into your 30s. Relationships don’t last, and when you’re past the age where people are constantly forming new relationships, the odds are you’ll end up being alone more and more
What is Baumeister et al (2002) study on social exclusion?
Explored the effects of anticipated social exclusion on cognitive functioning and compared this to other negative outcomes
Participants: 40 undergraduates
- Participants were asked to take a bogus personality test and then given feedback in one of three conditions – either future belonging, future misfortune, or future alone
- Crucially, this experiment allowed Baumeister and colleagues to test whether a future alone (anticipated social exclusion) differed in its consequences as compared to another negative state (future misfortune)
- Then measured general mental abilities with an intelligence test – participants in the future alone condition attempted fewer questions in this test and answered fewer correct!
- Anticipated social exclusion has negative consequences for cognitive processes, and differs quantitatively from anticipating other kinds of aversive experience (e.g. future misfortune)
Are there neurological correlated to social exclusion?
- Participants were scanned while playing a virtual balltossing game in which they were ultimately excluded.
- Paralleling results from physical pain studies, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) was more active during exclusion than during inclusion and correlated positively with self-reported distress.
- Right ventral prefrontal cortex (RVPFC) was active during exclusion and correlated negatively with self-reported distress.
- ACC – neural “alarm system” detects when an automatic response is inappropriate or in conflict with current goals. Pain activates the ACC and the dorsal ACC is associated with affective distress rather than sensory. Social attachment system ‘piggybacked’ on to ACC to promote social connectedness?
- RVPFC – implicated in regulation of pain distress and negative affect. Heightened RVPFC activation improves pain symptoms – defence against pain
Do men and women look for different qualities? - Wiederman (1993)
- Men seek younger partner – evolutionary explanation related to fertility? Women seek longevity and security?
→ Men seek attractiveness, women offer it
→ Men seek photograph
→ Women seek financial resources, men offer them - These elements could possibly fit with an evolutionary perspective on attractiveness – but again, take with a large pinch of salt as they are 30 years old, our understanding of gender as a social construct has shifted substantially in this time, and there are other possible explanations for these differences (e.g. social norms of presentation)
Do opposites attract?
- Byrne (1971) - Attitudes, values, personality characteristics, bad habits, intellectual ability, income level, choice of cinema aisle…
- In all cases, similarity → attraction
- Importance of attitude similarity holds for important/trivial topics, gender, age, education and across cultures (Kwan, 1998; Michinov & Michinov, 2001)
- Even in areas where differences might be complimentary the findings are mixed (e.g. dominance/submissiveness – Palmer & Byrne, 1970; for exception based on gender dyads see Market, Funder & Ozer, 2003; Sadler & Woody, 2003; Tiedens & Fragale, 2003)
What is the repulsion hypothesis?
- Not similarity that makes you attracted to someone, but dissimilarity that repulses you
- Information about dissimilarity has been shown to have a slightly stronger effect on attraction than the same amount of information about similarity
What is the balance theory?
people naturally organise their likes and dislikes symmetrically. Two people who like each other based on similarity are balanced – cognitively pleasing experience. Dissimilarity leads to imbalance – emotionally unpleasant.
What is the social comparison theory?
we compare our attitudes/beliefs with others to evaluate the accuracy and normalcy of our own views. Search for consensual validation. Dissimilarity problematic for this process (unless it is from an out-group member who we want to distance ourselves from anyway)
