Social Psychology Flashcards
(31 cards)
Interpersonal processes explore the impact that social interactions within groups of people (min. 2 people) have on the motives, emotions and behaviour of individuals
.
Interpersonal attraction refers to
the desire to affiliate (i.e. seek out the company of other people and spend time with) other people
We affiliate or become attracted to other people because of
our own need to belong (i.e. to behave in ways that will include us in groups we consider important and to in ways that avoid being excluded by them)
We affiliate or become attracted to people who are
.in physical proximity, are rewarding to be around, are similar in values, attitudes and attractiveness and are physical attractive
Proximity facilitates
familiarity, which in turn facilitates liking (or attraction); ‘interaction accessibility’ is another important component of proximity influencing attraction
We tend to be attracted to people that are similar attitudes, values and interests because
they validate our world view; but we are also attracted to people different to ourselves if the difference is complementary
We tend to be attracted to people who are
similar to ourselves in physical attractiveness (‘matching hypothesis’)
We tend to be attracted to people who are physical attractive because it is rewarding or pleasing to look at them, and it rewarding to be associated with them
Interpersonal attraction underlies all social relationships including love relationships and friendships
.
Two common theories of love are:
(i) Hatfield (1988) and (ii) Sternberg (1988)
Hatfield (1988) argues that there are two types of love:
(i) Passionate love (wildly emotional, marked by intense physiological arousal and complete absorption in the other person) and (ii) Companionate love (a deep affection, friendship and emotional intimacy)
Sternberg’s(1988)
‘triangular theory of love’ argues that there are love is made up of three components: (i) Intimacy (feelings of closeness), (ii) Passion (sensual arousal) and (iii) Commitment (dedication to the other person and the relationship)
When all three components are present, the relationship in known as
‘consummate love’
; If there is only intimacy, the relationship is known as a
liking relationship’
; If there is only passion, the relationship is an
‘infatuated relationship
; If you have only commitment, the relationship is
‘empty
; If you have only intimacy and passion
, the relationship is ‘romantic
; I you have only intimacy and commitment, the relationship is
‘compassionate
and if you have only passion and commitment, the relationship is
‘fatuous’
According to the evolutionary perspective, there are significant gender differences in what men and women find attractive when looking for a long term relationship/mate:
i) Females generally prefer males with more resources and older males because they are more likely to have resources, as well as for their emotional and mental maturity,
(ii) Males, generally prefer attractive females to elicit sufficient arousal over the long term and to increase their own status and younger females because they are likely to be more fertile
The bystander effect (Darley & Latané, 1968):
we are less likely to help (or ‘intervene’) if other people (‘bystanders’) are present, because there is a diffusion of responsibility over all the bystanders present
There are three steps required before a person will help:
(i) Step 1: Notice the event,
(ii) Step 2: Decide of the event is an emergency,
(iii) Step 3: Assume personality responsibility to offer help; if any of these steps have not occurred, a bystander will not intervene
Being the only one available to help does not guarantee that we will; prosocial (or helping) behaviour depends on a number of other factors:
(i) mood (people in a good mood are likely to help because it maintains their good mood; people in a mild to moderately bad mood are also likely to help because helping makes you feel good about yourself and so this can alleviate your negative mood state; people in an intensely bad mood are generally not likely to help and that is because they are distracted by their negative mood state),
ii) they possess the specific skills and capacity required for the helping task
(iii) personality (people higher on empathy, self-efficacy, self-monitoring and emotionality are more likely to help – people high on empathy tend to feel more responsibility to offer help; people high on self efficacy tend to feel more capable of offering help; people high on self-monitoring are those who are concerned with making a good impression on other people, so they will help others if it makes them look good; and people high on emotionality are more likely to interpret an ambiguous situation as an emergency and thus offer help) and
(iv) whether you know the person in need of help (especially if they are related to)
According to the evolutionary perspective
we are more likely to help those we are biologically related to than those we are not because then our genes will survive; thus, the implication is that all human behaviour is inherently self-interested
According to Batson (1991
, people behave altruistically
