What was the theory proposed by Freud?
Psychoanalysis.
Psychoanalysis
Theory that first distinguished between the conscious and unconscious mind.
What was the theory proposed by B.F. Skinner?
Radical behaviourism.
Radical Behaviourism
The idea that behaviours are shaped by their consequences. Positive consequences make the behaviour more likely, and negative consequences make the behaviour less likely.
Freud would start his therapy sessions by exploring…
Chlldhood issues.
Skinner would focus on ___ relationship issues.
Current.
Theories
Interconnected set of beliefs, knowledge, and assumptions that relate to understanding a phenomenon.
What are the 3 characteristics of influential theories?
- Tend to be described formally.
- Has inspired research and scholarship.
- Make predictions that withstand multiple tests.
Does accumulating facts entail a theory?
No.
Evolutionary psychology assumes…
That the mind, like any other organ in the body, evolved in response to specific selection pressures.
Sexual Selection
An aspect of natural selection whereby a feature of an organism proves adaptive and therefore is passed on to future generations, not because it increases the organism’s chance of survival but because it helps the organism compete for or attract mates.
Psychological Mechanisms
One of many evolved preferences, capacities, responses, and strategies characterizing the human species that enable the implementation of some function or adaptation; often associated with the evolutionary perspective.
Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness
The period of evolutionary history tens of thousands of years ago during which human species took its current form.
Theory of Parental Investment
Trivers’s observation that sexual selection pressures will vary according to to the amount of energy and resources that each sex must invest to raise surviving offspring.
Cross-Cultural Studies
Research designed to compare and contrast behaviours, beliefs, and values across populations that vary in their culture, ethnicity, or country of origin.
Attachment Theory
An influential theory of intimate relationships proposing that the relationships formed in adulthood are shaped largely by the nature of the bonds formed with primary caregivers in infancy and early childhood.
Attachment theory represented a rejection of…
Classical psychoanalytical theory.
Attachment Figure
Someone who provides the child with comfort and care.
Attachment Behaviour System
A set of behaviours and reactions that helps ensure the developing child’s survival by keeping the child in close physical contact with caregivers.
Felt Security
Behaviour which makes the child feel safe and sheltered from impending threat or harm.
If it is possible to restore closeness or proximity to the caregiver, the system is ___.
Hyperactivated.
What are deactivating strategies?
Strategies that turn off or inhibit the drive to restore closeness with the caregiver.
Working Models
Internal psychological structures representing the conscious and unconscious beliefs, expectations, and feelings people have about themselves, about others, and about relationships.
Can you grow out of your working model?
Yes, if someone who is secure is exposed to unfaithfulness, it can cause them to become more insecure. If someone who is insecure is exposed to unconditional support, it can cause them to become more secure.
What are the two dimensions along which adults differ?
Anxiety and avoidance.
Anxiety is associated with a negative/positive view of ___.
Self.
Avoidance is associated with a negative/positive view of ___.
Others.
What are the four quadrants defined by the dimensions of anxiety and avoidance?
- Secure.
- Preoccupied.
- Dismissing.
- Fearful.
Secure Attachment Style
Low in attachment-related anxiety and avoidance, and have positive views of themselves and others.
___ attachment style individuals are very comfortable with closeness and intimacy, and value relationships while being able to maintain sense of autonomy.
Secure.
Preoccupied Attachment Style
Have positive views of others and thus value closeness. However, their low sense of self-worth leaves them chronically high in anxiety. Preoccupied with their own insecurities and perceived inadequacies.
___ attachment style individuals are needy, and depend on others to prop ip their uncertain sense of who they are and reassure them that they are worthy of attention. Rejection is especially painful, as it confirms doubts about their self-worth while robbing them of security.
Preoccupied.
Dismissing Attachment Style
Have a positive view of themselves and thus are low in attachment-related anxiety, but perceive that others are unlikely to be caring to available.
___ attachment style individuals do not experience attachment-related anxiety or dwell on the possibility of rejection, but to maintain their positive self-view alongside their negative view of others, they tend to avoid closeness, minimize its importance, and dismiss their own need for intimacy.
Dismissing.
Fearful Attachment Style
Have negative views of themselves and others, causing them high anxiety. They struggle with the internalized sense that others are unable to provide the affirmation they need.
___ attachment style individuals begin their quest for intimacy with the expectation of being unworthy if caring and consideration, and at the same time, expect others to be a source of pain and rejection, and tend to avoid intimacy and the discomfort it brings.
Fearful.
The attachment behaviour system motivates virtually everyone to seek ___ and ___.
Comfort, closeness.
What is a strength of the evolutionary perspective?
Its ability to address ultimate questions.
What is a weakness of the evolutionary perspective?
Looks at how relationships begin, not develop. There are also contemporary causes of behaviour.
What is a strength of attachment theory?
Adds a developmental perspective, and offers explanation for continuity. Allows for variability in attitudes of people towards relationships.
What is a weakness of attachment theory?
Does not account for how expectations develop over time. Secure relationships also fail.
Which theories are anchored in the past, and who in the present?
Evolutionary and attachment in the past, social exchange and social learning in the present.
Social Exchange Theory
Partners in all social interactions try to maximize their outcomes through the exchange of social goods like status, approval, and information.
Dyad
A pair, a couple.
Interdependence Theory
A version of the social exchange theory that focuses on the rules predicting how interdependent partners will behave toward each other, and how the partners evaluate the outcomes of their actions.
Rewards
Any of the ways the relationship may fulfill the needs and desires of each partner.
Costs
Any of the consequences of being in a relationship that prevent partners from fulfilling their needs or desires.
Adequate food and protection are ___ rewards.
Material.
Companionship, validation, and security are ___ rewards.
Social.
Opportunity Costs
In social exchange theory, the idea that pursuing one regarding experience supplants the ability to pursue other potential rewards.
Subjective Probability
Your own sense about the likelihood about its occurrence.
What explains why we look for relationships in our social circles, and not with celebrities?
Subjective probability.
Comparison Level
The standard against which individuals compare their outcomes to decide whether they are satisfied with them.
Comparison Level for alternatives
Expectations of the likely outcomes available from the potential alternatives to a current relationship; individuals compare their relationship outcomes to the expected alternatives to determine their dependence on the relationship.
The correlation between how satisfied people are and how likely they are to stay together (stability) is ___.
Small to moderate.
Dependence
How feel a person feels to leave the relationship.
Alternatives
All of the likely consequences of leaving a relationship.
Barriers
All the forces external to a relationship that act to keep partners together.
Investments
Number and magnitude of resources that are tied to a relationship.
Commitment
Intention to remain in, and feel connected to, a relationship.
Satisfaction, dependence, and commitment are all ___.
Distinct.
What is the main limitation to social exchange theory?
It tends to focus on rewards, costs, and alternatives at a single moment, and cannot explain how perceptions of rewards and costs may change over time, nor how relationships that start out satisfying may deteriorate.
Social Learning Theory
A theoretical perspective outlining how rewarding and costly interpersonal experiences influence how people evaluate themselves and their relationships.
Coercion Theory
An offshoot of social learning theory that explains how partner may inadvertently reinforce each other’s negative behaviours by giving in only when the partner’s negative behaviour has grown particularly intense.
Escape Conditioning
An offshoot of social learning theory that explains how negative behaviours may be inadvertently reinforced to the extent that their occurrence is associated with the end of an aversive stimulus; for example, if breaking into tears predicts the end of an uncomfortable argument, then breaking into tears is reinforced.
Negative Reciprocity
Responding to negativity with negativity.
Social Ecology
A range of models emphasizing the interplay between people and their environments.
Social Ecological Model
Explains how the stresses, supports, and constraints in the environment of a couple may affect the way partners think, feel, and act in their relationships.
Microsystem
Contains just family and friends.
Mesosystem
Contains the neighbourhood, social system, religion, and culture.
Macrosystem
National and historic forces affecting the relationship.
ABC-X Model
One of the earliest social ecological models of intimate relationships developed by Reuben Hill to explain how stressors (A), a family’s resources (B), and their interpretation of the event (C) all combine to affect the outcome of a criss (X).
ABC-X model is also known as…
Crisis theory.
Stressor
Any event requiring some sort of behavioural response.
Resources
All the assets a couple may use in coping with the stressor.
Interpretation of the Event
Whether the couple defines the stressor as a challenge to be overcome or a catastrophe to be endured.
Crisis
The couple’s experience of and response to the stressful event.
Double ABC-X Model
A revision of Hill’s original ABC-X model that recognizes how each element in the original model mat change over time as a couple copes with a stressful event.
Stress Pile-up
Domino effect of a stressful event.
Lifespan Studies
Studies which may assess individuals repeatedly over a house of 50 years or more.
Effect of SES on relationships.
Higher divorce rates for those of lower SES.
Benefits of the social ecological models.
Explores areas that other theories overlook, such as what happens when problems occur.
Drawbacks of the social ecological models.
Failure to specify how resources and coping styles may change over time, and why some couples develop skills to meet their challenges when others do not.
Study Table 3.2 of textbook (128).
Questions will follow.
Mating behaviours are evolved solutions to reproductive problems that humans faced in ancestral times.
Evolutionary perspective.
Adult relationships are shaped by the kids of bonds we form with caregivers during infancy.
Attachment theory.
In relationships, partners week to maximize rewards and minimize costs.
Social exchange theory.
The behaviours that partners exchange with each other determine their satisfaction with the relationship.
Social learning theory.
The environment of a relationship can enhance or constrain relationship processes.
Social ecological models.
What are key variables in the evolutionary perspective?
Gender differences, mate preferences.
What are key variables in attachment theory?
Attachment styles, internal working models.
What are key variables in social exchange theory?
Comparison level, comparison level for alternatives, barriers, investments, commitment.
What are key variables in social learning theory?
Problem solving, communication, negative reciprocity.
What are key variables in the social ecological models?
Stress, resources, social networks, culture.
What is the strength of the evolutionary perspective?
- Examines adaptive functions of mating behaviours.
- Links current behaviours to biological and historical forces.
What is the strength of attachment theory?
Accounts for relationships patterns across lifespan.
What is the strength of social exchange theory?
- Distinguishes between satisfaction and dependence.
- Encompasses a wide variety of variables.
What is the strength of social learning theory?
Provides a specific mechanism for change in initially satisfying relationships.
What is the strength of the social ecological models?
Accounts for when vulnerable couples may experience declines.
What is the weakness of the evolutionary perspective?
Can overlook more immediate causes of the relationship.
What is the weakness of attachment theory?
Does not address sources of variability among couples with the same attachment style.
What is the weakness of social exchange theory?
Does not explain how perceptions of rewards and costs may change over time.
What is the weakness of social learning theory?
Does not explain where relationship skills and behaviour come from.
What is the weakness of the social ecological models?
Does not provide a mechanism to link environmental demands to relationship processes.
What are the three themes brought up by the theories?
- Dyadic interaction.
- Individual differences.
- External circumstances.
Dyadic Interaction
Intimate relationships must take the way partners behave and interact with each other into account.
Individual Differences
Every individual enter their relationships with previous experiences.
External Circumstances
Intimate relationships are affected by external circumstances around them.
