Soc Psych Final

The desire to establish and maintain many rewarding interpersonal relationships

Times of stress, fearful, misery loves those also miserable

Inborn personality trait, learned reaction to failed interactions with others

• Consequence of not having interactions
• A feeling of deprivation about existing social relations

• 18-30 are loneliest
• Higher risk of physical and mental problems
• More likely to use drugs and alcohol

others with whom a relationship is directly or indirectly rewarding

All humans exhibit patterns of attraction and mate selection that favor the conception, birth, and survival of their offspring

• Proximity effect
• Mere exposure effect

• Men like: hourglass figures, young, physically attractive, faithful
• Women like: v-shaped bodies, ambition, intelligence, stability

Symmetry, averaged faces

The belief that physically attractive individuals also possess desirable personality characteristics

Pressure to maintain one's appearance

• More friends, better social skills, more active sex life
• Not related to intelligence, personality, self-esteem

• Demographic
• Attitude
• Attractiveness
• Subjective Experience

People are attracted to others who are similar in physical attractiveness

Mutual exchange between what one gives and what one receives

We prefer people who are selective in social choices over those who are more readily available

• Male participants spoke to women over the phone they prejudged as attractive or not.
• Women who were thought to be attractive were rated more confident, friendly, liking of their partner

they are biologically limited in the number of children they can bear and raise in a lifetime whereas men can impregnate an unlimited amount of women

• Feelings of love, attachment, and affection
• Interdependence
• Fulfillment of psychological needs

People are motivated to maximize benefits and minimize costs in the relationship with others

People are most satisfied with a relationship when the ratio between benefits and contributions is similar

• Participants expect and desire strict reciprocity in their interaction
• Strangers, casual relationships

• Participants expect and desire mutual responsiveness but do not keep track because it evens out over time
• Close friends, intimate partner, family

The way a person typically interacts with significant others

Easy to get close to, comfortable depending, do not worry about being abandoned

Somewhat uncomfortable about getting close, difficult to trust others completely, nervous, others want me to be more intimate than I am comfortable with

I want others to be closer, worry that partner does not love me, I want to merge completely but they get scared

• Intimacy: emotional component; feeling of closeness
• Passion: motivational component; sex, attraction
• Commitment: cognitive component; decision making, long term

Liking alone

Intimacy and passion

Passion alone

Passion and commitment

Commitment alone

Intimacy and commitment

Platonic friend

feeling for romantic partner

Romantic love characterized by high arousal intense attraction and fear of rejection

A secure, trusting, stable partnership

Misattribute physiological arousal to passionate love

Sex, money, family

Tit for tat exchange of negative expressions

Behavior intended to harm another individual

Inflicting harm for its own sake; revenge, impulsive

• Inflicting harm in other to obtain something of value
• Can include self-defense

We aggress against others in order to survive

We aggress others to ensure procreation

Tendency to be aggressive is passed down from our parents

Testosterone and aggression are closely related

Impeding one's progress will elicit motives to aggress

Substitute target for aggressive drive

• Emotional susceptibility
• Narcissism
• Type-A goal driven
• Impulsivity

Behavior is learned through the observation of others as well as through the direct experience of rewards and punishments

Exposure to violence through the media makes real violence and aggression less shocking and less physiologically arousing

The mass media shows the world as a violence place making people more on edge and more likely to aggress

• Personal characteristics
• Socioeconomic status
• Stress
• Growing up in a violent home

Actions intended to benefit other people

Increases likelihood that you will be helped

The proposition that empathic concern for someone in need produces an altruistic motive for helping

• Motivated by the desire to increase another's welfare
• Help is given regardless of ease of escape

• Motivated by the desire to increase one's own welfare
• Helping is decreased as escape from situation is easy

Help others to counteract own sadness

• Values
• Understanding (knowledge)
• Personal development
• Community concern
• Esteem enhancement

The presence of others inhibits helping

Those from big cities learn to drown out people lying in streets or hearing screams

• Noticing
• Interpreting
• Taking responsibility
• Deciding how to help
• Providing help

• State in which people mistakenly belief that their own thoughts are different from others when they are the same
• People look at each other to dictate actions

Belief that others will help or should take responsibility for providing assistance to another person

Reluctance to help for fear or making a bad impression on observers

• Economic well-being
• Notion of simpatico: concern or well-being of others

• People are more likely to help others if they are in a good mood
• Maintain good mood, positive thoughts, positive expectation

General rule of conduct reflecting standards of social approval and disapproval

• Attractive people
• Those in bad situations they did not put themselves in
• People similar to us
• Family and friends
• Friendly individuals

Help is self-threatening when recipient feels inferior and overly dependent