Relationships Flashcards
How does human contact lead to human functioning?
Feral children suffer from social deficits
Isolation leads to ill-adjustment
What is a case study for human contact helping human functioning?
Victor, the wild boy of Aveyron
Who is Victor the wild boy of aveyron?
Feral child discovered in the late 18th century in France
Victor was non-verbal, appeared to have lived in isolation for much of his childhood, and displayed behaviours suggesting he had little to no human socialisation.
Victor made some progress—such as recognising basic words and forming emotional bonds—he never fully acquired speech or adapted to typical societal norms.
Who looked at attachment?
Harlow
What did Harlow do?
Harlow conducted a series of experiments in which infant rhesus monkeys were separated from their mothers and given surrogate mothers made of either:
Wire mesh that provided milk.
Soft cloth that provided no food but was warm and comforting.
What did Harlow find?
The monkeys consistently preferred the soft, cloth mother, seeking comfort from it even when the wire mother provided nourishment.
Contact comfort is essential for emotional development.
Lack of maternal care leads to severe social and emotional deficits
Early social deprivation has long-term consequences.
What are the implications from Harlow?
Shaped understanding of human attachment
Ethical applications
What are the statistics for the prevalence of loneliness?
11% of young people aged 16-24 felt lonely often or
always (ONS data from 20/21)
Adolescents and young adults report being loneliest
No direct R between contact time and feelings
of loneliness
Who looked at the fundamental human need to belong?
Baumeister & Leary, 1995
What did Baumeister & Leary, 1995, find?
An evolutionary basis for seeking relationships
Profound negative consequences if the need is not met
There are 3 needs to belong that are universal, guides social cog + satiable
Who looked at the types of social support?
Stroebe
What are the 4 social supports?
Emotional, evaluation, information + instrumental
Who looked at the reasons for affiliating?
Hill 1987
What are the reasons for affiliating?
Reduce uncertainty through comparing with others
Be positively stimulated
Obtain confirmation and recognition
Receive emotional support
What are the consequences to a lack of social support?
Mortality rates higher for single (divorced, unmarried,
and widowed) people
Psychological problems more common in divorced people
Suicide rates higher for divorced people
Who looked at lack of social support (the consequences)?
Cohen & Hoberman (1983)
What is the Cohen & Hoberman buffer effect of social support?
A graph: physical symptoms are higher for no support during high stress in comparison to having support
Who looked at seeking social support to deal with anxiety?
Schachter 1959
What did Schachter 1959 do?
Participants were told they would be administered
shocks
½ were told the shocks would be strong (high anxiety
condition), ½ were told the shocks would be weak (low
anxiety condition)
They were given the option of waiting alone or with
others
What did Schachter 1959 find?
More anxious people preferred to company of others
What are the factors that foster interpersonal attraction?
Proximity/ Exposure
Similarity
Reciprocal liking
Physical attractiveness
What are the effects of physical attractiveness?
Interpersonal liking
Judged to produce better work
Earn more
Lighter sentences in court
Judged to be happier
Attractive infants get more attention
When is the effect on liking more pronounced?
For women
Early on in relationship
What is the Halo effect?
Our overall impression of a person, brand, or thing influences how we perceive their specific traits or abilities. Essentially, if we see someone in a positive light, we’re more likely to assume they have other good qualities, even without evidence.
Why does the Halo effect occur?
The halo effect is a mental shortcut (heuristic) that helps us make quick judgments, but it often leads to bias and inaccurate assessments.
What is the reverse of the Halo effect?
The Horn effect
What is the Horn effect?
The horn effect is the opposite of the halo effect, if we have a negative impression of someone, we assume they have other negative qualities
Who looked at physical attractiveness of a partner?
Sigall & Landy 1973
What did Sigall & Landy do?
Male college students
Procedure: They were shown a photograph of a man along with a description of his personality. In some cases, the man was pictured with an attractive woman, in others, he was with an unattractive woman, and in some cases, he was shown alone.
Task: Participants were then asked to rate the man on various traits, such as intelligence, success, and overall likeability.
What did Sigall & Landy find?
When the man was pictured with an attractive woman, he was rated as more successful, likeable, and intelligent.
When the man was with an unattractive woman, his ratings were lower.
When he was alone, the ratings fell somewhere in between.
Due to Halo effect
Who looked at physical arousal?
Dutton & Aron, 1974)
What did Dutton & Aron, 1974 do?
PPs were told that they would be given electrical
shocks
A female confederate was present
What did Dutton & Aron, 1974 find?
Men who expected severe rather than light shocks
thought the woman was more attractive due to misattribution of arousal
What is misattribution of physical arousal?
Misattribution of physical arousal is a psychological phenomenon where people mistake the source of their physiological arousal, attributing it to something other than its actual cause.
This often happens when someone experiences heightened physical responses, such as increased heart rate, but links them to an incorrect emotional or situational cause.
What is perceived as attractive for faces?
Bilateral symmetry
What is perceived as attractive (non-faces)?
Waist to hip ratio
Red
What is the good genes hypothesis?
Hourglass indicates youthfulness, health and fertility
What is perceived as physically attractive for females?
Neotenous features (large eyes and small nose)
What is perceived as physically attractive for men?
Strong jaw
Who looked at attractive people and how they are treated?
Langlois et al (2000)
What did Langlois et al (2000) say?
Attractive people differ in how they behave, judged and treated
Attractive children receive higher grades from teachers, show higher intellectual competence, more popular and better adjusted
Attractive adults are more successful in their jobs, liked more, physically health and more sexually experienced, had more traditional attitudes, self confidence, self esteem, higher intelligence and mental health
Who looked at children and attractiveness?
Slater et al 1998
What did Slater et al (1998) find?
If you are female babies will look at you longer
Who made the matching hypothesis?
Goffman
What is the matching hypothesis?
The matching hypothesis is a psychological theory that suggests people are more likely to form romantic relationships with others who are similar to them in physical attractiveness and other social traits.
What are the key ideas of the matching hypothesis?
People seek partners of similar attractiveness
Fear of rejection
People match in social status, intelligence, values and traits
What are exceptions of the matching hypothesis?
Some couples seem mismatched in attractiveness, but this is often compensated by other traits
Studies show that people often aim higher in attractiveness online, though long-term relationships still often fit the matching principle.
Who looked at the matching hypothesis for attractiveness?
Forgas 1993
Who made the relational self theory?
Andersen & Chen (2002)
What is the relational self theory?
Relational selves are build in interactions (together
with associated beliefs, feelings, etc.)
People who remind us of prior significant others
activate these relational selves
We start behaving and feeling towards them as we
did to the prior significant other
Who looked at attachment styles?
Ainsworth
What did Ainsworth do?
A child and their caregiver entering a room with toys.
A stranger entering and interacting with the child.
The caregiver leaving the room, leaving the child alone or with the stranger.
The caregiver returning and comforting the child.
What are the three attachments?
Secure, avoidant and anxious
What is a secure attachment?
Finds it easy to get close to others, comfortable with mutual dependence,
doesn’t worry about being abandoned
What is an avoidant attachment?
Uncomfortable being close, difficult to trust, doesn’t like to depend on others
What is an anxious attachment?
Feels others are reluctant to get as close as one would like, worries that the partner doesn’t really love them, extreme desire to
merge with other which might put other off
Who created social exchange theory?
Homans, 1958
What is social exchange theory?
Maximisation of own utility (rewards exceeding costs)
Satisfaction depends on comparison level
(past, significant others (friends, parents), perceived
options)
Who created imago theory?
Hendrix
What is imago theory?
Explains why we choose a specific partner
Resemblance with our parents
Chance to heal childhood wounds
Who looked at the types of love?
Aronson
What are the types of love?
Limerance and companionate
What is limerance?
Intense longing
Physiological arousal Feelings of great fulfilment and ecstasy when reciprocated
New romantic relationships
What is companionate?
Intimacy and affection
Deep care for the other
Not necessarily passion or arousal in their presence
Mature romantic relationships
What is the Sternberg’s triangular theory of love (1986)?
Commitment, passion and intimacy
What is intimacy + passion together?
Romantic/passionate love
What is intimacy + commitment together?
Companionate love
What is I+C+P together?
Consummate love
Who looked at marital quality and health?
Robles et al (2014)
What did Robles et al (2014) do?
Meta analysis to see relationship between marital quality and physical health
Looked at 43 studies
Subjective and objective health measures
What did Robles et al (2014) find?
Significant positive relationship between marital quality and physical health. Individuals who reported higher marital satisfaction or better relationship quality were more likely to report better physical health.
There are psych mechanisms of marital quality
High quality marriage can reduce health damaging behaviours
High marital satisfaction= lower stress, better immune functions + better cardiovascular health
What are the limitations of Robles et al (2014)?
Meta does not provide causal evidence
Who looked at attitude similarity and interpersonal liking?
Zorn et al (2021)
What did Zorn et al do?
Investigates how attitude similarity influences interpersonal liking
PP from different backgrounds and tested responses to different attitudes in social situations
Asked to evaluate others based on attitude
Attitudes were either pos or neg
Measured the like
What did Zorn et al find?
When individuals share pos attitudes it increased interpersonal attraction and liking
People feel a stronger bond when they find out they have the same positive views
Sharing neg attitudes= effect of interpersonal liking is weaker
Suggests that neg views may not promote bonding as they carry a sense of judgement
Shared pos beliefs and prefs tool for good cohesion
Individuals may form relationships based on common ground of appreciation
Who looked at predictors of how often people fall in love?
Galperin & Haselton (2010)
What did Galperin & Haselton (2010) do?
Participants completed assessments measuring their experiences of falling in love, their perceptions of others’ sexual interest, the importance they place on physical attractiveness in potential partners, and their own sex drive.
What did Galperin & Haselton (2010) find?
Inconsistency results regarding sex differences in love proneness
Men who tended to overestimate women’s sexual interest were more likely to report falling in love frequently
Men who placed a high value on physical attractiveness in potential partners were more prone to falling in love= evolutionary perspective of love
Women with a stronger sex drive reported falling in love more often.
Who looked at attractiveness in mixed sex couples?
Webster et al (2024)
What did Webster et al (2024) do?
Goal was to determine whether individuals in opposite-sex romantic relationships exhibit similar levels of physical attractiveness
Secondary meta analysis= 27 samples with 1295 couples
Analytic approach
What did Webster et al (2024) find?
Individuals tend to form romantic relationships with partners who have similar levels of physical attractiveness
Men and women demonstrated a significant positive correlation between their self-reported attractiveness and evaluations made by external observers,
Couples share a common level of attractiveness beyond individual assessments
