1
Q
Interpersonal attraction is…
A
The study of attraction or liking between two or more people.
* Focus here on dyadic relationships (between 2 people)
2
Q
What factors determine attraction?
A
- Proximity
- Similarity
- Physical attractiveness
3
Q
Proximity
A
- A determinant of whether people become friends or lovers.
- people who are closer and more likely to become close friends
- can also result in enemies
4
Q
What is functional distance?
A
Degree to which the arrangement or configuration of residential facilities influences the probability of unplanned social interaction.
- physical distance isn’t as important as functional distance
- e.g. people who are directly below one another have a lower chance of becoming close friends than those with the same distance but have stairs in front of their room.
5
Q
What are some explanations behind the effects of proximity?
A
- Availability: Can only become friends with people we communicate with.
- Anticipating interaction: When we anticipate interacting with someone we make effort to make sure our interactions go well (if we believe we’ll continue to cross paths in the future)
- E.g., Ps liked profile of person they expected to meet more.
- Mere exposure effect
6
Q
What is the Mere exposure effect
A
The phenomenon whereby the more often people are exposed to a stimulus, the more positively they evaluate that stimulus
- even effect if unconsciously exposed
7
Q
What is the anticipating interaction effect?
A
When we anticipate interacting with someone we make effort to make sure our interactions go well (if we believe we’ll continue to cross paths in the future)
- E.g., Ps liked profile of person they expected to meet more.
8
Q
What are some potential reasons behind the mere exposure effect?
A
- Fluency –> the more we are exposed to something the easier it is to process
- Conditioning –> the more we are exposed to something and that thing is associated with positive/neutral outcomes the more we like it
9
Q
Similarity-Attraction
A
People tend to like others who are more similar to themselves
- More similar a stranger is, the more participants like them (‘bogus stranger paradigm’).
10
Q
What dimensions can people have similarities in that people find attractive?
A
- Attitudinal: People tend to like others who share similar attitudes, interests, and world views.
- Demographic: Similarity on various demographic dimensions related to greater attraction.
- e.g. religion, socio-economic status, ethnicity
- Personality: Similarity on certain dimensions like extraversion, sensitivity, and genuineness also related to long term satisfaction, but to a lesser extent.
- Physical attractiveness:
- Matching hypothesis: Proposition that people are attracted to others who are similar in physical attractiveness.
11
Q
Do opposites attract?
A
- Lack of evidence for complementarity.
- Even in couples that appear to demonstrate it, complementarity on few features, but similarities on most.
- Similarity appears to be the rule and complementarity the exception. (can be good in terms of personality traits e.g. extrovert + introvert)
12
Q
Why does similarity promote attraction
A
- Similar others validate our own beliefs and orientation.
- Similarity facilitates smooth interactions.
- We expect similar others to like us.
- Similar others possess qualities we like and values we cherish.
13
Q
Physical Attractiveness importance?
A
- Physical attractiveness rated as important by both men AND women
14
Q
Advantages of Physical attractiveness?
A
- Attractiveness objectively related to popularity, social skills, active sex life, and sense of control
- Physical attractiveness related to popularity, dating frequency, and friendship ratings.
- Quality of work and higher pay allocated for more attractive individuals.
- People more likely to help an attractive person.
- Attractive criminals receive lighter sentences and smaller fines than unattractive criminals.
15
Q
What is beautiful is good stereotype or the halo effect is…
A
Belief that attractive people possess a host of other desirable traits
- E.g., good looking judged happier, more socially skilled, intelligent, popular, have desirable personality traits, and success.
- Transgression (unlawful act) seen as less serious and less likely to repeat when committed by a good looking child
16
Q
Media and Attractiveness?
A
Media reinforces this belief about attractiveness and desirable traits
* E.g., content analysis of top movies showed more attractive characters also portrayed as virtuous, romantically active, and successful.
- This can also reinforce biases people have for beauty
- E.g., Ps who watched movie reinforcing beautiful is good stereotype more likely to favour attractive applicant.
17
Q
Attractiveness and culture?
A
Culture shape traits deemed ‘good’
* E.g., beautiful targets in North America and Korea both perceived to be socially skilled, likable, friendly, and happier.
- However Korean participants judged attractive targets to be higher in integrity and
concern for others, while North American participants judged them as
strong and assertive. (cultural difference)
18
Q
Why Are We Influenced By Beauty?
A
- Inherently rewarding: Beautiful faces are rewarding
- E.g., fMRI study found that area of brain responding to rewards activated by facial beauty as well.
- External rewards: Expect that being around beautiful others will benefit us and raise our own social standing
- E.g., average looking rated more attractive when in company of attractive others.
- Being with attractive woman boosts man’s image.
- Immediacy: Appearance usually one of the first things we notice
19
Q
Downsides of Physical Attractiveness?
A
- Attributional Ambiguity
- Attractive people may also feel pressure to maintain appearance.
- Attractiveness not related to greater satisfaction in marriage or overall life
- Beauty has advantages, but is not destiny
20
Q
What is Attributional Ambiguity?
A
The difficulty that members of stigmatized or negatively stereotyped groups may have in interpreting feedback.
e.g. an attractive person may not know whether they are receiving positive feedback because they actually did good, or because people are being biased and giving positive feedback because the person is attractive
21
Q
Objective Attractiveness?
A
- Evidence that perceptions of beauty for faces are objective
- consistency of what faces are seen as attractive across cultures
- Average faces are considered attractive (average composition of a bunch of faces).
- Similarly, symmetrical faces seen as more attractive.
- Finally, infants more drawn to attractive faces than less attractive ones.
22
Q
Subjective Attractiveness?
A
- Cultural variations in body shape preferences:
- In cultures with relatively uncertain food supply, moderate to heavy women preferred
- But in cultures with stable food supply, relatively thin women preferred.
- Standards for beauty also vary across time
- Models in magazine centerfolds became thinner.
- Perceptions of beauty also influenced by contextual cues.
- If we like someone => we rate them higher, vice versa
- we like people similar to us (even in facial features)
- we are also influenced by color e.g. red => more attractive
23
Q
Relationships
A
Relationships have powerful influence on our physical and emotional well-being.
* They also shape who we are
24
Q
Attachment Styles
A
The way a person typically interacts with significant others.
- Early interest in infant attachment styles and later translated into adult relationships
25
What are the two dimensions of adult attachment?
* Anxiety
* Avoidance
26
What are the four attachment styles?
* Secure: Comfortable with intimacy and autonomy (independence).
- (Low avoidance and Low anxiety)
* Anxious-Preoccupied: Dependency and ‘clinginess’
- (Low avoidance and High anxiety)
* Dismissing-Avoidant: Dismissing of intimacy (counterdependent).
- (High avoidance and Low anxiety)
* Fearful-Avoidant: Desire closeness but feel unworthy of affection
- (High avoidance and High anxiety)
27
Secure attachment style..
* Secure: Comfortable with intimacy and autonomy (independence).
- (Low avoidance and Low anxiety)
* Secure attachment predictive of positive life outcomes
* E.g., securely attached individuals report greatest satisfaction.
* Secure individuals less likely to break up relative to anxious and avoidant individuals
28
Avoidant men and anxious women relationship pairing
Avoidant men and anxious women tend to benefit from gender attributions.
e.g. "Men/Women are supposed to be like that" => attachment styles fit the respective gender stereotype
29
Anxious and avoidant attachment styles...
* People with anxious and avoidant styles shown to experience greater negative emotions in daily interactions.
30
Are people with insecure attachment styles doomed?
No,
* Although early attachment predictive of later style, not fixed
- About 30% of people showed change in attachment style across time.
* Attachment styles are not constant across all relationships
- Almost 50% of people characterised three different styles across ten important relationships in their lives.
* We might be able to experimentally prime security into relationships
- E.g., priming attachment security increases emphatic reactions and lowers personal distress.
31
What is Love?
Three primary variables found to create various types of love:
* Passion
* Intimacy
* Commitment
32
What is Passion?
* Passion: Characterised by high arousal and intense attraction.
- Captured by metaphors
- Passion diminishes over time, but mostly obsessional aspect (e.g. "I can't focus")
33
What is Excitation transfer or misattribution of arousal?
Process by which arousal caused by one stimulus is added to arousal from a second stimulus and attributed to the second stimulus
- can create more extreme reactions on both ends of the spectrum => rate attractive person as more attractive or rate unattractive person as even more unattractive
e.g. walking on a scary bridge with someone --> aroused by fear => misattribution of arousal as attraction towards person you're with => call the person / see more sexual imagery
34
What is Intimacy?
Comfort and security in sense of being close, knowing each other, and feeling identities merge
* Intimacy more stable and can grow with time
35
What are different aspects of intimacy?
* Understanding: Ability to comprehend another’s perspective.
* Responsiveness: Being able to respond to the other’s needs and feelings.
* Self-disclosure: Revealing intimate facts and feelings about oneself to others
- Self disclosure related to greater emotional closeness and satisfaction
- Gender differences: women tend to engage in more self-disclosure than men
36
What is Commitment?
Decision to remain connected with another.
* Involves sacrifices of some things and coordination of resources, values, social connections, careers, and recreation.
* Commitment promotes a sense of merged identities
- More committed partners tend to use ‘we’ pronouns.
- Romantic partners are faster to label traits as true of themselves when traits are true of their partner.
Highly committed partners more likely to engage in self-sacrifice and
accommodation
37
What is the Triangle Theory of Love?
The theory that love can be understood in terms of three components:
- Passion
- Intimacy
- Commitment
38
Do men and women look for different things in a mate?
* Evolutionary psychology argues that gender differences in mate preference would be as follows:
- Men are motivated to find a fertile mate and threatened by paternal uncertainty.
- Women must be selective because biologically limited in child bearing and look for men who possess resources or traits predictive of it.
* A large survey found that men and women BOTH valued kindness as one of the most important traits along with other ones such as dependability and sense of humour.
39
Well-replicated mate selection differences between genders?
Men:
- Give more importance to attractiveness
- Give less importance on status and resources
- More interested in sexual variety
- More interested in younger women
- More interested in casual sex
- Stress their own levels of status and resources in mate selection contexts
Women:
- Give LESS importance to attractiveness
- Give MORE importance on status and resources
- LESS interested in sexual variety
- MORE interested in OLDER MEN
- LESS interested in casual sex
- Stress their own levels of ATTRACTIVENESS in mate selection contexts
40
Why do we have gender differences in mate selection?
* Evolutionary reasons
* Women’s preference for status may be driven by their lack of access to resources
- Supported by evidence that preference lower in countries with more equal distribution of economic resources.
* Not that evolutionary or sociocultural explanations are all correct or wrong, but rather both may interactively be at play.
41
What is the Investment Model of Romantic Satisfaction and the 3 components that contribute towards commitment to the relationship?
A model of interpersonal relationships that maintains that three things make partners more committed to each other
* Satisfaction: Satisfaction influenced by rewards relative to costs and expectations in the relationship.
* Alternatives: Alternatives and perceived promise of those also influence commitment and satisfaction.
* Investment: Investment can be direct like time, effort, care, love, or indirect such as shared memories, mutual friends, and shared possessions.
The model is well supported and predictive of married couples, same-sex couples, cross-culturally, and even battered women returning to abusive husbands.
42
Interaction Dynamics Approach
Approach to studying behaviours and conversations of couples with a focus on both positive and negative behaviours
* Studies Couples’ positive and negative behaviours in a lab during 15-minute conversation on tough topic and specific coding is used to figure out whether the couple will last or not.
- Couples' are equipped with equipment that record biological markers (e.g. sweat, HR, etc) and the coding looks for ques that predict longevity of relationship
43
What are the 4 toxic ques that the Interaction Dynamics Approach look for in how a couple handles a conflict to predict the longevity of the relationship?
4 ques, called: Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse:
1. Criticism: Finding fault and being very critical of partner is problematic.
2. Defensiveness: Refusing to consider possibility that something they are doing is contributing to conflict problematic (especially among men).
3. Stone-Walling: Resisting dealing with problems and emotional withdrawal from interaction problematic (especially among men).
4. Contempt: Feelings of superiority and rejecting partner can be problematic (especially among women).
* Researchers can predict with 93% accuracy if they will be divorced in 14 years by studying these ques through a 15-30 minute observation of conflict between couples (AMAZING!)
44
What is the recommended positive to negative interactions ratio per day for a healthy relationship?
* Recommended 5 to 1 ratio of positive to negative behaviours
45
What has been found about attribution types for healthy relationships vs unhealthy?
Healthy relationship:
- Good behaviour is explained by personal attributions ("he's doing that because he's a kind person)
- Bad behaviour is explained by situational attribution ("he must be late because of traffic")
For Unhealthy relationship the opposite is true:
- Good behaviour is explained by situational attributions ("he's just being nice because someone is over")
- Bad behaviour is explained by personal attribution ("he's late because he's lazy")
46
Factors that contribute to relationship satisfaction?
* Attributions about partner’s behaviour important in predicting relationship satisfaction
- personal attributions for good behaviour, situational for bad
* Construing (seeing) sacrifices as means to get closer to partner = more beneficial for relationship satisfaction
* Recent large scale analysis showed perceptions of relationship via appreciation, sexual satisfaction, conflict, and partner’s commitment and responsiveness explain relationship satisfaction => determined by our own perceptions of these aspects (how our partners think about us has little impact on our own satisfaction) => so relationship satisfaction is mainly based on your own perceptions
47
Culture differences for Relationships
Concept of romantic love in many cultures
* Cultures vary in emphasis on passionate vs. companionate love.
- e.g. western world -> passionate vs asia -> companionate
* Variability in extent to which people see love as necessary for marriage.
- Variability is even seen in same culture across time.
- e.g. In western cultures it is becoming increasing necessary for love in marriage
* Some more likely to consider devotion to parents and relationships as network of connections in decision to marry than others (approval of parents more common in collectivistic cultures)
* Concept of romantic love nearly universal, but culture shapes how we express, value, and remember it.
48
In troubled relationships, people can engage in:
* Destructive behaviors: These can involve actively harming the relationship or passively harming it.
* Constructive behaviors: These can involve actively trying to improve the relationship or passively remaining committed to the relationship
49
End of a relationship
* Life satisfaction declines towards end of a relationship, but increases slightly after divorce and doesn’t fully recover.
* Factors that contribute to endurance of relationship are same factors that make coping especially difficult after break up.
PSYC213
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