Week 1: Building Blocks of R/s + Research Methods

Question 1

What is social psychology?

Answer 1

The scientific study of how our thoughts, feelings and behaviour are affected by the real, imagined, or implied presence of others

Question 2

What is the effect of relationships on well-being?

Answer 2

Social networks and physical health
- Larger quantity of social networks, better physical health (Alameda County Study, 1979; The Cold Study, 1997)

Relationship quality and health
- Higher relationship quality, better health (Heart disease study, 2001)

Question 3

What are the results of the Alameda County Study (1979)?

Answer 3

Crude measure of social network: 1) married, 2) close friend/relative, 3) religious membership, 4) informal group membership

Results: Across age groups, the most isolated Ps were 2-3 times more likely to die over the next 9 years than the least isolated Ps

Question 4

What are the results of The Cold Study (1997)?

Answer 4

Social network measure: Diversity of social roles

Results: Ps with fewest roles were 4 times more likely to develop a cold than Ps with the most roles

Question 5

What are the results of The Heart Disease Study (2001)?

Answer 5

Measured r/s quality through surveys and objective coding of a lab-based conflict discussion

Results: Ps with congestive heart failure were more likely to die over the ensuing 4 years if they had a worse marriage

Question 6

What is the need to belong?

Answer 6

The powerful drive to establish intimate connections to others

Question 7

What are the 6 components of intimacy?

Answer 7

1) Knowledge
2) Caring
3) Interdependence
4) Mutuality
5) Trust
6) Commitment

Question 8

What are the characteristics of interdependence for intimate partners?

Answer 8

Intimate partners have 
- strong
- diverse
- endearing 
influence on each other

Question 9

What are the three relationship challenges?

Answer 9

1. The porcupine challenge
2. The naive realism challenge
3. The commitment challenge

Question 10

What is the porcupine challenge?

Answer 10

How to balance the need for connection with the fear of rejection?

Question 11

What is the naive realism challenge?

Answer 11

How to reconcile the tendency to believe our reality is objectively time with the fact that building a successful r/s requires that we acknowledge our cognitive distortions

Question 12

What are the 3 tenets of naive realism?

Answer 12

1. I perceive things accurately
2. Other fair-minded people would share my view if armed with the same facts
3. If others deviate from my views, they are biased, stupid, or characterised by bad motives

Question 13

What is the commitment challenge?

Answer 13

How to develop and sustain a loving, time-consuming r/s despite the existence of so many alternative partners in the world

Question 14

What is the influence of interaction?

Answer 14

R/s emerge from the combination of the partners’ experiences and talents

Often much more than the sum of those parts

Unique r/s

Fluid, dynamic processes (vs. static, changeless)

Question 15

What are the methods to develop a question?

Answer 15

• Personal experience
• R/s norms
• Social problems
• Previous research
• Theories

Question 16

What are the methods for obtaining participants?

Answer 16

• Convenience sample
• Representative sample

Potential problem: Volunteer bias

Question 17

What is volunteer bias?

Answer 17

Ppl who agree to participate may differ from those who refuse

Question 18

Why are convenient samples used in relationship science?

Answer 18

Many processes studied by r/s scientists are so basic that they don’t differ much from group to group

Question 19

What are the types of research design used in relationship science?

Answer 19

• Correlational
• Experimental
• Developmental
  > Cross-sectional
  > Longitudinal
  > Retrospective

Question 20

What are correlational designs?

Answer 20

Measure naturally-occurring events, looking for associations between them

Question 21

What are experimental designs?

Answer 21

Manipulate events to delineate clearly the causal connections between them, to illuminate cause and effect

Question 22

What are developmental designs?

Answer 22

Study the manner in which events change over time

Question 23

What are cross-sectional designs?

Answer 23

Compares diff. group of people who are at different stages or eyes over a period of time

Question 24

What are longitudinal designs?

Answer 24

Studies the same group of people with repeated measurements over a period of time

Question 25

What are retrospective designs?

Answer 25

• Asks people about their past experience

Question 26

What are the types of data collected in r/s science?

Answer 26

• Self-reports
• Observations
• Couples’ report
• Physio measures
• Archival evidence

Question 27

What are self-reports?

Answer 27

• Asking ppl about their feelings and behaviour
• Inexpensive, easy to obtain
• Helps us to u’stand personal points of view, giving immaculate info to help us understand the workings of r/s

Question 28

What are observations?

Answer 28

• Watching behaviour directly
• Highly trained observers, highly detailed watching
• Experience-sampling: Use short, intermittent periods of obv. to capture samples of behaviour that occur over longer periods of time

Question 29

What are physiological measures?

Answer 29

• Assess partner’s autonomic and biochemical responses

Question 30

What are couples’ reports (dyadic data)?

Answer 30

Involve self-reports of one’s own behaviour and obv. of the other’s behaviour from both

–> Compare for accuracy

Question 31

What are the 3 sources of variance for interdependence?

Answer 31

1) Actor
2) Partner
3) Relationship

–> Can be disentangled by: speed-dating

Question 32

How are the results in r/s science interpreted?

Answer 32

Paired, interdependent data
> Partners infl. e/o, their responses are not indpt

Diff levels of analysis

3 sources of influence: Indiv partner, idiosyncratic partnership

Question 33

What are meta-analyses?

Answer 33

Studies that statistically combine the results from prior studies to identify themes they contain

Question 34

What is the power of social reality?

Answer 34

• The way we think we’ll respond to romantic situations differ from how we actually respond
• Our motivations colour our perceived reality