Exam 3 Flashcards
(157 cards)
Social Behavior is Adaptive
- Cooperation – coordination of efforts to achieve common goals and sharing of resources
- Kin selection, reciprocity, helping, protection, shared care for young
- Personal and inclusive fitness
Functions of Social Emotions
- Intrapersonal – support health, cognitive functioning and well-being; social isolation/exclusion disrupts these
- Interpersonal – emotional responses help regulate relationships, fostering
interdependence and group functioning
What is Attachment?
lasting emotional bond between individual and significant others
Critical Period
Optimal period life when experience produces normal development
Imprinting
Certain animals form strong attachments early in life
Open Behavior Program
Program (potential for behavior) is innate but must be completed through environmental input
Functions of Food: Food or Emotional Security
F. Skinner: attachment = food
2. John Bowlby: attachment = security
3. Harry Harlow (1958)
a. Wire-food versus cloth “mothers”
b. Spent most time with cloth “mother” even if wire mother held food
c. High anxiety/panic into adulthood
d. Helped start animal rights movement
The Deprivation of Attachment
- Problem caused by high birthrate encouraged by government
- Children outnumber caregivers in orphanages – left on their own
- Multitude of problems – anxiety, impulse control, social withdrawal, emotional regulation, low self-esteem, poor intellectual functioning low academic achievement
(Weir, 2014)
D. Infant Attachment to Parents
Infant Attachment to Parents: Proximity Seeking
Desire to be near the figure
Infant Attachment to Parents: Safe Haven
Turn to figure when threatened/hurt
Infant Attachment to Parents: Secure Base
Sense of security, confidence exploring away from parents
Infant Attachment to Parents: Function
Balances needs to explore independently with the need to stay near protective caregivers
Disorganized Attachment
he infant displays intense anxiety even when the caregiver is
present; frightened, yet unable to turn to the caregiver for comfort
Infant Attachment to Parents: The Strange Situation
Infant & parent enter unfamiliar toy-filled room; infant allowed to play
b. Stranger enters, talks with the parent and infant (3 min)
c. Parent leaves, stranger remains (3 min), parent returns (3 min)
d. Both stranger and parent leave the room.
e. Stranger returns alone, tries to comfort & play with infant.
f. Parent returns
What Causes Attachment Styles?
Temperament (Nature) & Caregiving Style (Nurture)
Temperament (Nature)
Style linked to serotonin receptor gene (Fraley et al., 2013; Gillath et al., 2008)
b. Style is moderately consistent over time (into adulthood) and across caregivers
Caregiving Styles: Secure
responsive to baby’s signals – allows independent exploration but
responds quickly to danger, distress
Caregiving Styles: Anxious-Ambivalent
intrusive, ignoring need for independence
Caregiving Styles: Avoidant
distant, unresponsive to infant cues
Adult Attachment Hazan & Shaver (1987)
- Local newspaper: “which paragraph best describes you?” Followed by a survey about
relationships:
a. Secure – I find it relatively easy to get close to others and am comfortable depending on them and having them depend on me. I don’t often worry about being abandoned or about someone getting too close to me.
b. Avoidant – I am somewhat uncomfortable being close to others; I find it difficult to trust them completely and difficult to allow myself to depend on them. I am nervous when anyone gets too close, and often love partners want me to be more intimate than I feel comfortable being.
c. Anxious – I find that others are reluctant to get as close as I would like. I often worry that my partner doesn’t really love me or won’t want to stay with me. I want to merge completely with another person, and this desire sometimes scares
people away
Hazan & Shaver (1987) Results
a. Secure (56%)
− Longest relationships, least likely to have been divorced
− Describe most important love as happy, friendly, trusting
− Believe ups & downs are normal in relationships
b. Avoidant (25%)
− Report fear of closeness, inability to accept imperfections
− Most likely to agree romantic love does not last forever
− Most likely to describe selves as independent
c. Anxious (19%)
− Obsessively preoccupied with partners; intense highs & lows
− Most likely to report ”love at first sight”
− Most likely to say they fall in love easily, often
− Most likely to feel misunderstood, unappreciated, self-doubting
Familiarity
Liking increases with familiarity
Familiarity: Function & Examples
Familiarity signals safety – uncertainty is associated with danger
Examples
a. Mere Exposure (Zajonc, 1968) – Conscious and subliminal exposure to stimuli
increases liking
b. Proximity – decreases actual or functional distance increases liking
Similarity: Function & Examples
Function – Similarity linked to kinship cognitions (Park & Schaller 2005) and we favor family
2. Can lead from liking to attraction
- Examples
a. Demographics, attitudes, attractiveness, subjective experiences
b. Matching Hypothesis – relationships with others of similar desirability