week 8 - interpersonal and romantic relationships Flashcards
Why do people seek to relate with others?
- a fundamental need for human affiliation
- social support and wellbeing
- obtaining social comparison information
- the effects of social exclusion/ostracism
why is ‘a fundamental need for human affiliation’ important?
- evolutionary: affiliation and group living enhanced our prehistoric ancestors’ chances of survival and reproduction, as well as the survival of their offspring
- as a result, natural selection may have forged a strong motive for affiliation as part of the human psyche
Why are interpersonal relations so important for social support and wellbeing?
- a strong association between being in a relationship and overall wellbeing
- mortality studies: (e.g., patients with coronary heart disease)
- patients who were married or had a confidant (vs unmarried without a confidant) have a 30% higher chance of survival after 5 years
- instrumental support - practical assistance
- emotional support
Explain Schachter’s (1959) study on affiliation in distressing situations
study 1
- female participants given choice to wait alone or with other people for a study in which they believe they would receive painful vs non-painful electric shocks
- those who expected painful shocks preferred to wait with others significantly more
study 2
- participants given choices to wait alone vs with women who’re waiting for tthe same study vs with women waiting for an academic tutorial
- “misery loves miserable company”
Why are interpersonal relationships so important?
people affiliate to obtain info about other people’s attitudes and behaviours to:
- reduce uncertainty, ambiguity, and confusion
- provide guidance for how we should respond to the situation
Festinger’s (1954) social comparison theory:
- comparing oneself with others is essential for evaluating and enhancing aspects of life
What are the effects of social exclusion/ostracism/rejection?
- Cyberball (William et al., 2000): a virtual ball-tossing game between a participant and who confederates (or computer-controlled)
- participants are eventually excluded from receiving the ball
- they reported “feeling bad, having less control, loosing a sense of belonging”
- brain activity also showed that being socially excluded corresponded to the same neurological activity as when feeling physical pain
What is the link between loneliness and health?
- loneliess is experienced by a substantial proportion of population
- a meta-analysis of studies between 1980-2014 showed that loneliness and living alone increased the likelihood of mortality by 26/32%
- a more recent meta-analysis showed medium to large effects of loneliness on all health outcomes
physical appearance: what are the strengths and weaknesses of being attractive?
strengths
physically attractive people are more likely to
- be liked more on a first date
- raise higher sums of money for charity
- be successful in a job interview
- earn more money once they have a job
- be treated leniently in the legal system
- be perceived as trustworthy
- sometimes clled the physical attractiveness stereotype
weaknesses
e.g. more attractive people are often the subject of unwanted advancements and resentment from less attractive individuals. attractive children receive less empathy and help than children who are not as attractive
What is the matching phenomenon?
- people are more likely to choose people who are a similar match to themselves (in terms of physical attractivness) as partners
- asset matching: seeking complimentary ‘assets’ (e.g. wealth, intelligence, social circles etc) allows people to exchange what they want from a relationship
do people date others who are ‘out of their league’?
- Berscheid et al., 1971: the salience of possible rejection by the dating choice was varied. For all conditions of choice, people tend to approach people whose attractiveness is fairly close to their own
- Morgan et al., 2010: This study explored online personal ads of 294 heterosexual and homosexual men and women in the United States through a qualitative analysis and comparison of participant-generated “personal” and “preferred partner” narratives. Personal and preferred partner narratives contained similar constellations of characteristics, finding significant correlations on all three variables (i.e., physical, lifestyle, and personality characteristics).
What is ‘asset matching’?
seeking complimentary ‘assets’ (e.g. wealth, intelligence, social circles etc) allows people to exchange what they want from a relationship
How do proximity and attraction link together?
- being in close proximity to others can facilitate attraction - the propinquity effect
- Back et al., (2008) randomly assigned students to sit next to someone, or in the same row as that peron, for one whole term. they found the closer students sat to the person, the more they like them
- spatial proximity also amplifies attractiveness rating (Shin et al., 2018)
How do familiarity and attraction link?
repeated exposure effect on liking
- in a classroom setting, Moreland & Beach (1992) arranged four new female ‘students’ taking part in class on 0, 5, 10, 15 occasions
- they found that the new student was rated as more attractive the more often other students saw her
does familiarity always lead to attraction?
If the initial reaction is negative, repeated exposure may lead to hostility.
A meta-analysis by Montoya et al. (2017) revealed a ‘inverted U’ function that liking increases with repeated exposure but then decreases after a certain number of exposures.
What is the Arousal attraction effect?
its possible for people to make mistakes about what is causing their physical arousal
arousal attraction effect (Dutton & Aron, 1975)
- male participants either crossed the risky Capilano suspension bridge or a safer bridge
- researcher (male vs female) at the end of the bridge asked them to fill out a questionnaire, and gave them a phone number to call in case they had any questions
results show a misattribution of physiological arousal for attraction. with the female experimenter, 40% of participants called when crossing the shaky bridge, vs the 10% who called when crossing the stable bridge.
When the experimenter was male, only 10% called when crossing the shaky bridge, and even less for the stable one.
How does similarity affect attraction?
- similarity of attitudes, interests, and values is one of the most important positive psychological determinants of attraction
- law of attraction: attraction towards a person is linearly related to the proportion of attitudes shared with them
How does mutual liking affect attraction?
in general, we like people who like us and dislike people who dislike up (reciprocity principle)
Who proposed the reinforcement affect model?
Byrne and Clore (1970)
What is the ‘reinforcement affect model’? (Byrne & Clore, 1970)
people can be liked or disliked depending on their association with positive/negative feelings
- liking by association: people associate others with features of the environment
What did Griffitt and Veitch (1971) research about reinforcement in relationships?
heat, population density, and attitude similarity as independent variables - people associated others with features of the environment
What does social exchange theory posit?
relationships work like economic exchanges
e.g. love, status, information, money, goods, and services
According to social exchange theory, what 3 things do people’s evaluation of their relationship depend on?
- rewards gained from relationship
- cost incurred from relationship
- The relationship they expect (comparison levels) and the likelihood they could have a better relationship with another person (comparison levels for alternative)
What is equity theory?
- people are happiest in equitable relationships in which the cost-reward payoff is approx the same for both parties
- oven-benefiting may lead to guilt
- under-benefiting may lead to resentment
What are 4 criticisms of social exchange and equity theory?
- the rule-based system doesnt account for individual differences (e.g. how people perceive reward and cost)
- it doesnt always work as an explanatory model for relationships - parents and children for example don’t follow these equity rules
- in communal relationships, members are motivated to provide benefits without the expectation of receiving benefits in return
What is correlational evidence by Schafer & Keith (1980) for equity theory?
correlational studies of married couples
- people who perceived their relationship to be unfair felt more unhappy and distressed
What is correlational evidence by Stafford and Canary (2006) for equity theory?
- partners who perceived their relationship as fair experienced the most satisfaction, followed by those who over-venefitted, while under-benefitted partners showed the lowest satisfaction
