Lecture 10 - All you need is love (and friendship) Flashcards
(34 cards)
What is the need to affiliate?
Need to affiliate – desire to seek/maintain personal relationships = fundamental human motive to psychological wellbeing
Affiliation is a necessary first step in forming a relationship
What is attraction?
Necessary for friendships to form; can be precursor to an intimate relationship
What are factors related to attraction and liking?
- Evolution & attraction
- Ideals (Fletcher et al., 2004)
- Similarity
- Proximity
- Familiarity
How does evolution and attraction influence attraction and liking?
- Physical appearance influences judgements of attractiveness or interpersonal attraction
- Reproductive fitness (capacity to pass genes on) - cues to guess whether a prospective mate has good genes (e.g., physical health, youthful appearance, body and facial symmetry)
- Physical features signal health and reproductive fitness
Who developed ideals which influence attraction and liking?
Fletcher et al. (2004)
What are ideals?
Ideals/standards college students look for in a partner - social, cognitive, evolutionary
What are the 3 ideals?
- Warmth-trustworthiness = showing care and intimacy towards other person
- Vitality-attractiveness – signs of health and reproductive fitness (physical and personality e.g. energetic)
- Status-resources = being socially prominent and financially sound
How does proximity influence attraction and liking?
- Proximity facilitates attraction
- Living close by = important role in early stages of forming friendships/relationships
What did Festinger et al. (1950) find about the relationship between proximity and attraction and liking?
- Festinger, Schachter & Back (1950) – looked at friendship formation in a housing complex = more likely to choose as friends those living in same building, same floor
- Architectural features influenced social contact e.g. apartments that shared a staircase – more likely to report being friends with those individuals
- Interact more with people and makes contact more likely – less effort to interact with such individuals
- Proximity can lead to more familiarity = feel more comfortable
How does familiarity influence attraction and liking?
- Mere exposure effect
- Repeated exposure facilitate liking/greater attraction
How does similarity of attitudes influence attraction and liking?
- How similar your attitudes or beliefs are towards other people
- Things other people may agree with e.g. how you view things, perceptions can be seen as rewarding
- Like people who agree with you
What is self-disclosure?
- Social penetration theory (Altman & Taylor, 1973)
- Self-disclosure = “sharing of intimate information and feelings with another person” (Hogg & Vaughan, 2014, p. 547)
How does self-disclosure affect the development and maintenance of relationships?
- Disclosing personal info & sensitive and responsive to partner’s disclosures – central processes in developing & maintaining relationships
- People tend to like people who reveal more and people tend to reveal more to those they like and trust – important in building trust in a relationship, feel safe and secure
- Increase attraction and central to maintenance of intimate relationship
What happens to self-disclosure as the relationship advances?
- As relationship advances, increase in breadth/depth of shared information e.g. feelings, attitudes, ambitions etc.
- Sensitive and responsive to other person’s disclosures
What is love?
- Combination of emotions/actions that are powerful and associated with intimate relationships
- Loving is not equal to liking (Rubin, 1973)
What are the two categories of love?
Passionate/romantic love and companionate love
What is passionate love?
- Intense emotional state, intense feelings for another person
- E.g. think about you all the time, want to spend all my time with you, become a major focus of their life
- Feel more positive, increase in self-esteem
What is companionate love?
- Less intense than passionate love
- Feelings of friendly affection and deep attachment
- Caring and affection for the other person
Who came up with the 3-factor theory of love?
Hatfield and Walster (1981)
What is the 3 factor theory of love?
- Romantic/passionate love product of three interacting variables
- Three components necessary, but not always sufficient for love to occur
What are the three variables in the 3-factor theory of love?
- (1) Cultural concept of love – cultural determinant that acknowledges love as a state and this is based on past learning of the concept
- (2) Appropriate person to love
- (3) Emotional arousal, self-labelled ‘love’, felt when interacting/thinking about appropriate person
What was the procedure of Dutton and Aron’s (1974) field study?
- Male participants crossed either:
- A wobbly suspension bridge high over a canyon (fear-arousing suspension bridge), or
- A lower solid bridge above small rivulet (non-fear-arousing bridge)
- Attractive female researcher approached, administered questionnaire & gave name and phone number (for contact for follow-up questions etc. about the study)
What were the results and interpretations of Dutton and Aron’s (1974) study?
- Ppts on fear-arousing suspension bridge – greater tendency to contact researcher
- Arousal felt was transferred to researcher, to whom they then felt more attracted to (explained by Zillman’s excitation transfer theory)
Who came up with the triangular theory of love?
Sternberg (1986)
