Relationships Flashcards
Why we form relationships according to Baumeister & Leary?
Why are relationships important? (2)
Need to belong (frequent interaction w/ others in stable bind and drive to maintain intimate connections)
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- Well-being (happiness, subjective/psych well-being)
- Provision of social support (instrumental, advice, emotional, esteem)
Attachment
Why are infants biologically-biased to develop attachments to caregivers?
Attachment behavioural system (Bowlby)
- Primary and secondary strategies
A lasting emotional bind between individual and a few regular caregivers
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Bcuz behavs (crying, suckling, clinging, smiling) elicited response in adults increased infant’s likelihood of survival (and successful reproduction)
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Inborn, preset program that functions to protect a person from danger by ensuring proximity to caring, supportive others is maintained
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Primary:
- Proximity seeking (Secure and comfort if successful, distress if fail)
Secondary
- Hyperactivation: Increase intensity of attachment behavioural system (screaming, wailing)
- Deactivation: Decrease intensity of system (suppressing need to maintain attachment)
Internal working models (IWMs)
Mental representation of person-environment interactions
- Exps internalized and integrated w/ representations of self and others
- Repeated activation of systems stabilizes and generalizes it
Ainsworth’s attachment theory (strange situation) and connection to Bowlby’s attachment behavioural system:
- Secure
- Insecure avoidant
- Insecure resistant
- Disorganized/Disoriented
SECURE:
- Moderate lvl of proximity seeking to mother, upset and separation, easily consoled at return
- History of primary strat being successful, attachment figure seen as safe haven and secure base
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DISORGANIZED/DISORIENTED:
- Infant confused, undirected/misdirected behav, freezing/stilling
- Breakdown if organized primary and secondary strats
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INSECURE AVOIDANT:
- Avoids contact w/ mother, doesn’t become upset at separation; ignores mother at reunion
- Primary strat unsuccessful, used secondary deactivation strat
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INSECURE RESISTANT:
- High lvl of proximity to mother, becomes upset at separation, not easily consoled/proximity seeking and resisting at return
- Primary strat unsuccessful, use secondary hyperactivation strat (IWM disrupted)
Causes of diffs in infant attachment style (3)
- Genetic influence (can impact personality)
- Caregiving style
- Secure: Responsive to baby’s signals; allows independent exploration but responds quickly to danger/distress
- Anxious-ambivalent: Intrusive, ignoring need for independence
- Avoidant: Distant, unresponsive to infant cues
- Culture (some have diff emphasis on independence)
How do we measure adult attachment?
- Adult attachment interview (Main et al.)
- Dimensional approach (Bartholomew and Fraley et al.)
Ask questions about past relationships, current relationships, and expectations about future relationships; focus on how you talk about them
- Autonomous: Securely attached, open and honest, consistent
- Dismissing: Not involved in close relationships, talk about relationships in idealized manner (dismiss bad things)
- Preoccupied: Experience intense bonds, display anxiety and negative affect towards relationships, get caught up in negative part of relationship
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Axes on views of self (anxiety about abandonment) and views of caregiver (avoidance of intimacy)
- Secure: Low anxiety, low avoidance
- Dismissing: Low anxiety, high avoidance
- Preoccupied: High anxiety, low avoidance
- Fearful: High anxiety, high avoidance (Fearful of rejection/mistrustful of others, suspicious and shy)
What is love according to Fredrickson?
- Positivity resonance story study
Moment-to moment emotional exp characterized by warm and mutual caring (investment in other person’s well-being)
- An interpersonal emotion that involves shared positivity (Positivity resonance w/ love can occur anywhere w/ anyone)
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- Story played in english or turkish w/ images, neural activity taken of participants who were monolingual or bilingual
- When participants can understand story teller, neural activity was similar, showing sign of positivity resonance
Self-expansion model of love
- Reaction time w/ partner’s traits
- Love reflects what; what happens to rate over time?
We’re motivated to expand the self by including others in our self-concept
- Relationships are natural byproduct of self-expansion (Reaction time slow for words of personality traits that describe partner; We have to think about answer more bcuz we’ve erroneously included partner’s traits in our self-concept)
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- Love reflects out ability to use a relationship for self-expansion purposes
- Self-expansion rate slows over time
Sternberg’s triangular theory of love:
- Intimacy
- Passion
- Commitment
Types of love combos:
- Companionate
- Fatuous
- Romantic
- Consummate
- Intimacy: Feelings of warmth, understanding, communication, support, sharing; affectively based
- Passion: Physical arousal and desire, motive or drive
- Commitment: Decisions to devote oneself to a relationship, cognitively based
— - Companionate: Intimacy, commitment (no romantic)
- Fatuous: Passion, commitment (no intimacy)
- Romantic: Intimacy, passion (no commitment)
- Consummate: All three (Hardest love)
What does intimacy include? (8)
- Knowledge about partner (self-disclosure)
- Care towards each other
- Trust
- Interdependency (extent to which intimate partners need and influence each other)
- Mutuality
- Commitment
- Responsiveness
Intimacy process model (Reis & Shaver)
- Intimacy as daily exchanges between partners thru which a person comes to believe that? (3)
- Partner understands core aspects of their inner self
- Partner validates/respects core aspects
- Partner cares for and displays concern for their welfare
*Look at pic of diagram
Capitalization
- Types of responses (4)
Process of informing another person about the occurrence of a personal positive event and thereby deriving additional benefit from it
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- Active-constructive: Responsive, enthusiastic + positive
- Passive-constructive: Not responsive, passive and more ambiguous
- Active-destructive: Responsive, negative response
- Passive-destructive: Not responsive or showing care
Happy vs Unhappy relationships’ relationship enhancing and distress maintaining attributional patterns (Brehm & Kassin)
HAPPY (Relationship enhancing):
- Positive behaviour -> Attribute to internal, stable, global explanation
- Negative behaviour -> Attribute to external, unstable, specific explanation
UNHAPPY (distress maintaining):
- Opposite of happy
What enhances relationships? (6)
- Keep 5:1 ratio of positive:negative interactions
- Show appreciation
- Do new activities together
- See partner as whole
- Equity, no scorekeeping
- Communicate openly
What is forgiveness according to McCullough
- Benefits (3)
- Negative effects
Increase in prosocial motivation toward another such that there is
- Less desire to avoid transgressing person and harm/seek revenge
- Increase desire to act positively to transgressor
* But depends on context/transgressor’s genuine apology and age/culture
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- Less rumination and depression
- More longevity
- Satisfaction and relationship maintenance
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- Too much forgiveness can cause partner to abuse you
