Week 5 Flashcards
3 types of interdependence in close relationships
Cognitive
Behaviour
Affective
What are often initial feelings of attraction?
Physical attractiveness
Similarity
Interaction (pleasant vs not pleasant)
What research is used in close relationships?
- Non-experimental designs.
- Focus on romantic relationships between heterosexual couples/ in individualistic cultures.
Top quality for attractiveness
Symmetry
What do women prefer in attraction?
Athletic prowess, strong physical appearance and health.
How do women in developing countries seek in relationships compared to developed countries?
Women in developing countries will rate a potential partner’s health as more important than those in more developed countries.
What is the matching phenomenon?
People tend to be attracted to others who are about the same levels of physical attractiveness as themselves. Matched couples tend to have longer-lasting relationships.
What aspects can people compensate physical attractiveness for?
Wealth, humour, good social circle.
Why does similarity increase attraction and liking?
We see anything connected to self as positive.
What does similarity signal?
- in-group membership - encouraged positive interaction over common interests.
- familarity - leads to liking (mere exposure effect).
- mastery - useful to us in dealing with the world, socially comparing.
- connectedness - similar others validate or beliefs and attitudes.
What does interaction do?
- increases liking - like people with whom they have positive interactions.
- physical proximity
- interactions make others familiar (mere exposure effect).
- help us feel connected - mimic
What is the mutually reinforcing process?
1) Similarity encourages interaction.
2) The more we interact with others, the more similarities we discover.
3) The more we interact with someone, the more attractive that person appears to us, the more we continue interacting with them.
4) We find those who are similar to us to be more physically attractive, and the more attractive people are, the more we want to be like them.
5) Once liking develops, it feeds back on the other factors to develop and reinforce the connections.
Self-disclosure differences in gender and cultures?
Gender - women tend to disclose more than men.
Cultures - individualistic cultures tend to disclose more than those from collectivist cultures.
3 sub-categories about self-concept?
- Self-disclosure
- Perspective (think from partners POV).
- Control (can influence partners actions as well as one’s own).
What are self-serving attributions?
Inflate (minimise) partner’s positive (negative) behaviours.
