HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS

Question 1

What are the three components of love?

Answer 1

Intimacy, passion, companionship

Question 2

ERQ OPENING

Answer 2

• Evolutionary Theories argue that the purpose of attraction is to procreate.

Question 3

• What does the biological approach to human relationships suggest?

Answer 3

• humans are attracted to traits that would have the greatest advantages for our potential offspring.
• attraction is a pysiological response.

Question 4

limitations to the bio approach?

Answer 4

• cannot establish cause and effect relationship.
• most research is conducted using animal models

Question 5

Outline the neurotransmission explanation for human relationships:

Answer 5

• Helen fisher
• there is a specific attraction systen in the brain that is associated wth dopamine rich areas.
• evolved to help individuals attract mates and focus their mating energy on one specific partner.
• biochemical cocktail: dopamine, noradrenaline, and seratonin.

Question 6

Dopamine

Answer 6

Motivation neurotransmitter

Question 7

Noradrenaline

Answer 7

• Controls emotion and stress
• increases attentiveness and alertness to a new partner.

Question 8

Seratonin (drops when we fall in love):

Answer 8

Calmness, control of emotions, etc..

Question 9

Testosterone

Answer 9

• Increases levels of sexual attraction.

Question 10

Explain the role of neurotransmitters in personal relationships:

Answer 10

• When pleasure is experienced, dopamin produced in the Ventral Tregmental Area in the midbrain is released (to amygdala, NA, hippocampus, and prefrontal c).
• Dopamine enhances impulsive behavior while seratonin reduces it.

Question 11

Fisher (FOR NEUROTRANSMITTERS AND LOVE):

Answer 11

Aim: To test if there are specific neural mechanisms associated with romantic love.
M:
1) self-selected sample of 10 women and 7 men who were intensely in love for an average of 7.4 months.
2) conducted a semi-structured interview to establish duration and intensity of participants love.
3) likert scale on traits they associated with love.
4) particpants were placed on fMRI for 30 seconds while they saw a picture of a loved one.
R:
- great activity in the brain’s reward centers.
F:
- Love is a motivation system/need/craving designed to enable mating.

Question 12

Marazitti (For neurotransmitters) OCD:

Answer 12

Aim: Identify the role of seratonin levels on obsession.
M:
1) 60 participants: 20 in love since 6 months, 20 with obsessive compulsive disorder, and 20 normal.
3) Blood samples from each showed that seratonin levels were similar to those who had obsessive compulsive disorder.
- didnt examine S activity in the brain.

Question 13

Explain the hormones explanation of personal relationships:

Answer 13

• Bowlby proposed that human have specific behavioral and physical responsesknown as attachement behaviors.

Question 14

Vasopressin

Answer 14

• Linked to territorialty.
• linked to sexual behavior, parental behavior, bonding with mates.
• Has receptors in the amygdala (emotional regulation) and the nucleus accumbens (addiction).

Question 15

Winslow et al (for hormones in human relationships and the animal extension) TETHERED VOLES:

Answer 15

• Prairie voles (known for monogamous relationships)
• allocated to 3 conditions: Oxytocin, Vasopressin, or control
• exposed to a reproductive female that was slightly tethered to prevent her from moving.
• those injected with vasopressin spent as much time with the mate as with the stranger, those with not or oxytocin were attracted to the mate.

Question 16

Walum et al (Hormones in personal relationships) GENETIC VARIATION:

Answer 16

Aim: To see if men with higher VPN had more marital satisfaction.
P:
1) sample of 552 males was tested for allele 334 (genetic variation that leads to lower VSP levels).
2) Took a likert scale test about attachement, marital satisfaction, etc..
3) men with the genetic variation were less satisfied with their marriage. were more likely to be single. no such effect was seen on women.

Question 17

Similarity attraction model:

Answer 17

• people tend to be attracted to those similar to them.
• seek validation for their opinions, mannerisms, etc..

Question 17

Markey and Markey (similarity attraction model):

Answer 17

Aim: Investigate the extent to which similarity has a role.
P:
- questionnaire about ideal mate characteristics and their own to see the similarity.
- follow-up study was conducted with young couples.
R:
- those who had more harmonious relationships had more similarities.

Question 17

Explain the Internal Working Model:

Answer 17

• relationships are formed based on mental perceptions from childhood/ from relationships.

Question 17

Hazen and Shafer (Schema in relationships) NEWSPAPER LOVE QUIZ:

Answer 17

• Aim: investigate the role of early attachement figures on relationships.
• Method:
• volunteers took a ‘‘love quiz’’ in a newspaper where they described their feelings about relationships.
• took another quiz where they detailed their parents relationship.
  R
• those who chose: secure, avoidant lovers, ambivalent lovers had the same patterns with their parents.

Question 18

The Halo Effect:

Answer 18

• Tendency for an impression created in one area to influence another area.

Question 19

Dion et al (the Halo effect) ENVELOPE:

Answer 19

Aim: if attractiveness played a role in judgements:
- particpants were given an envelope of three photos (attractive, average, unattractive).
- those who were more attractive were given higher ratings in positive traits.

Question 20

Zajonc, lab experiment (mere exposure effect) shown with different frequencies:

Answer 20

• Showed studnets at MICHSTATE the faces of males with different frequencies.
• asked them to rate their likability on a 7-point scale.
• ## more times seen, higher likability.

Question 21

Moreland and Beach (Mere exposure Effect), confederate female students

Answer 21

• 4 confederated were use dwith different visit numbers of lectures (0,5,10,15).
• students asked to fill a survey and rate the girls.
• those who had 10-15 visits had a higher rating.

Question 22

The role of culture on human relationships:

Answer 22

- Passionate love is mostly a western concept. - Marriage is an outcome of a loving relationship. - opposite relationship in other cultures.

Question 23

Evidence for the role of culture (Levine et al; Buss, lie et al):

Answer 23

- Levine et al: found that individualistic societies found that love was necessary for a marriage and the end of it can justify an end. - Li et al: Wanted to see of there was a difference in mating preferences in singapore and america. - Were given 100 ''mate dollars'' to spend, had to allocate 5 dollars to five traits (looks, social status, creativity, kindness, and liveliness) when considering a short-term/long-term relationship. - Short-term: both men and women of both countries valued looks. - Long-term: men of both countries valued looks, women valued social status. - Evolutionary explanation may be more important than cultural differences.

Question 24

two types of communication patterns:

Answer 24

- relationship-enhancing and distress maintaining patterns.

Question 25

The 12-month old prospective study for attributional styles in communication (the role of communication, attribution styles):

Answer 25

A: The role of communication styles in relationship success. R: - found that relationship enhancing patterns at the beginning of the study were good predictors for marital success by the end. - marital success in the beginning did not which patterns would show up later. F: - Kinds of attribution influence the behavior of couples and vice versa.

Question 26

Bradbury and Fincham (distress maintaining patterns, attribution styles) META-ANALYSIS:

Answer 26

A: Meta-analysis on couples and how they communicated. F: - found that happy relationships engage in relationship-enhancing patterns (no blaming). - unhappy couples engage in distress-maintaining patterns.

Question 27

Counterclaim to attribution styles:

Answer 27

- Arguing that it all comes down to attribution styles is reductionist. - Can lead to excusing violent behavior as negative behaviors are seen as situational instead of dispositional.

Question 28

Social penetration theory

Answer 28

- Close relationships are formed by a process of gradual self-disclosure (sharing personal things with a trusted other). - Based on cost-benefit analysis: if disclosure leads to self-validation, the relationship is valued. - If parter is critical/disinterested, the relationship is avoided.

Question 29

Stages of social penetration theory (Overshare Every Aspect Slowly):

Answer 29

- Orientation: Sharing simple info without vulnerability. - Exploratory: Revealing more but on safe topics. - Affective: Sharing private/personal matters, involves intimate physical relationships. - Stable: Development of trust.

Question 30

Collins and Miller (Social Penetration Theory) liked for exposure:

Answer 30

A: - Meta-analysis to investigate the relationship between self-disclosure and and social likability. F: - Found that those who disclose intimate information about themselves are more liked.

Question 31

Limitations of Social Penetration Theory:

Answer 31

- Difficult to determine a cause-and-effect relationship between disclosure and healthy relationships. - bidirectionally ambiguous. - Sampling bias: Western Women. - Overly simplistic: men and women have different disclosure patterns. - Reductionist if used alone.

Question 32

Relationships Ending - ERQ Opening:

Answer 32

- Relationships offer predictability, and end when this predictability is disrupted. - Relationships work based on agreements between partners to minimize the potential for conflict. - When rules are violated, they end.

Question 33

Social Exchange Theory (Kelley and Thibaut):

Answer 33

- Cost-benefit analysis. - the more ''invested'', the more in return. - will endure only as it is profitable. -

Question 34

Counterclaim for Social Exchange Theory:

Answer 34

- Elaine walster: ''too simplistic'' - no reliable way of measuring costs and benefits (lacks construct validity) - the ''perception'' of equity is what determines whether a relationship will be maintained.

Question 35

Equity Theory

Answer 35

- used to explain infidelity - when a partner does not have enough affection, the seek it elsewhere. - they feel guilty that they now owe them loyalty, rebalancing the sense of equity

Question 36

Hatefield et al (1979) - Equity Theory (INFIDELS)

Answer 36

A: study on 2000 couples M: those who felt deprived/under-benefited had extramarital sex sooner after marriage than those over-benefited. - those over-benefited were just as doubtful as those under-benefited.

Question 37

Limitations of Exchange Theories:

Answer 37

- Fail to take into account emotions that can override ''profit motive''. - lacks cross-cultural validity - difficult to quantify costs and rewards to hard to test the theory.

Question 38

Term for Being applied to more than one culture:

Answer 38

Cross-culture validity

Question 39

Flora and Sergin the (similarity attraction model, research methods) TRIPLE VARIABLE:

Answer 39

A: Test the role of (common interests, desire to spend time, negative feelings) in the well-being of a relationship. M: - 66 couples that dated for 6 months, 65 couples married for 4 years. - self-reported data. - interviewed 262 participants on the degree of -ve/+ve feelings, contentment, dissapointment with their partner. - Contacted them after 1 year, no married couples split up, 1/4 of couples split up. - Still together asked to fill out a questionnaire to get an idea of their relationship satisfaction and personal well-being. F: - positive correlation between common interests, activities, and desire to spend time together in males and females. - frequency of negative feelings at the beginning of the study was a predictor for women (the more -ve feelings, the less satisfied). - gender difference in men and women's idea of good relationship.

Question 40

Fatal Attraction Theory (Femlee - 1995):

Answer 40

- What attracts us to our partner in the first place may end up being the reason that the relationship ends.

Question 41

Femlee (1995) (eli gabny gara7ny):

Answer 41

- 301 Male and Female university students. - asked to think about the most recent relationship that ended. - asked to list qualities that attracted them to their former partner. - asked which qualities led to the break up. - in 88/301 cases, what had been seen as attractive is what ended the relationship.

Question 42

Most common fatal attraction patterns:

Answer 42

- Fun to Foolish - Strong to Domineering - Spontaneous to Unpredictable

Question 43

Communication as an Ending Factor for Relationships (Gottman):

Answer 43

- Negative communication style would lead to the break-up of a relationship. - Four communication styles that threaten a relationship: critism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling.

Question 44

Buss et al (YARABBB)

Answer 44

A: To test 3 evolution-based assumptions about human mating selection in a large cross-cultural sample. (Men prefer youth/looks, women prefer resourceful men, men value chastity). M: Completed 2 surveys: 1) Biographical data and mate preferences. 2) Ranking 13 characteristics for desirability in a mate. 3) Surveys were back-translated in english to ensure accuracy. R: - women overall valued good financial security. - men preffered younger mates; peak fertility. - women preferred older mates. - a little more than half valued chastity. F: - Chastity was not widely supported, may have been a cultural construct rather than a biological one.