Psychology Flashcards - Intimate Relationships, Attraction, and Aggression

A collection of vocabulary flashcards covering definitions related to intimate relationships, attraction, prosocial behavior, aggression, and prejudice in psychology.

Intimate Relationship

A close relationship that includes mutual sexual interest and consummation.

Close Relationship

A personal relationship in which the partners have strong and frequent influence on each other across a variety of activities.

Interdependent Relationship

A relationship in which the behavior of each participant affects the other.

Personal Relationship

An interdependent relationship in which the partners consider each other special and unique.

Intimacy

Closeness and connection with another person; can be physical, emotional, and intellectual.

Disclosure Reciprocity

We reveal more to those who have been open with us.

Interdependence

Mutual influence two people have on each other.

Uniqueness

The feeling that another person is special; separates close relationships from casual ones.

Sexual Attraction

Desiring another person as a sexual partner.

Implicit Egotism

Tendency to like things you associate with yourself.
EX: Dennis the dentist

Mere Exposure Effect

The more frequently you are exposed to a stimulus, the more you will like it.

Proximity

Living or working near someone increases liking.

Accessibility

How easy it is to interact with a person.

Similarity

We like those who are similar to us (personalities, interests/hobbies, attitudes).

Misattribution of Arousal

Mistaking the source of your physiological arousal, which can lead us to find someone we are with more attractive.

EX: finding someone more attractive after crossing a scary bridge together

Parental Investment Theory

Men and women's mate preferences are motivated by how much they invest in producing offspring.

EX: women value resources over looks due to higher investment in offspring

Love as an Attitude

Conceptualizing love as having three components: affect, behavior, and cognition.

Sternberg's Theory of Love

Theory stating that love has three components: intimacy, passion, and commitment.
Intimacy: closeness + warmth towards another person
Passion: Drives of romantic and sexual attraction
Commitment: Desire to maintain a relationship

Non-Love

Low levels of intimacy, passion, and commitment.

Liking

High intimacy, low passion, low commitment.
EX: a friend, someone you “click” with

Infatuation

High passion, low intimacy, low commitment.
EX: a fling or hookup

Empty Love

High commitment, low intimacy, low passion.
EX: end of long-term relationships

Romantic Love

High intimacy, high passion, low commitment.
EX: beginning of a good relationship, “friends with benefits”

Companionate Love

High intimacy, high commitment, low passion.
EX: endpoint of many successful marriages

Fatuous Love

High passion, high commitment, low intimacy.
EX: Love at first sight, stalkers, young marriages

Consummate Love

High levels of intimacy, passion, and commitment.
EX: the “perfect” relationship

The Four Horsemen

Four habits identified by the Gottmans that lead to relationship failure: criticism, defensiveness, contempt, and stonewalling.

Criticism

Critiquing your partner globally with “you always” or “you never” statements

Altruism

Unselfish behavior that benefits others without regard to consequences for oneself.

Egoistic Helping

Helping motivated by selfish concern; goal is to get rewards.

Altruistic Helping

Helping motivated by selfless concern; goal is to make the other person feel better.

Social Exchange Theory

Behaviors are based on minimizing cost and maximizing benefit.

Social reward

Helping others often has social/tangible benefits

Personal distress

Seeing a distressed person (or animal) makes us anxious, we help them to reduce this anxiety
EX: giving money to a homeless person

Empathy-altruism model

Helping behavior is determined by how much we empathize
This is helping because you feel the other person’s pain, not to reduce your own discomfort

Bystander Effect

A group of bystanders are less likely to provide assistance than a single individual.

Informational influence

We look to others to see how we should react in novel/confusing situations

Normative influence

Fear of social judgement for helping behaviors

Diffusion of responsibility

Tendency to feel less social responsibility in a group
(Not calling 911 because you think someone else will, etc.)

Pluralistic ignorance

People think others around them view a situation differently than they do
EX: no one helps because they assume everyone else thinks help isn’t necessary

5 steps of helping

1. Notice something unusual

2. Interpret as an emergency

3. Take responsibility

4. Decide how to help

5. Provide assistance

Aggression

Physical or social behavior intended to cause harm.

Hostile Aggression

Aggression motivated by emotion; intention is to inflict harm.

Instrumental Aggression

Aggression motivated by a goal; intention is to accomplish a goal via aggression.

Relational Aggression

Aggression aimed at psychological or emotional wellbeing.

Alcohol Myopia

Effect of alcohol to narrow a person's focus; only immediate situational cues are interpreted.

Weapons Effect

Mere presence of weapons increases aggression.

Frustration-Aggression Model

Frustration causes people to be aggressive.

Frustation

Negative emotion caused by being blocked from a goal.

Social learning theory (aggression)

Aggression is learned by observing others.
EX: Bobo doll experiment where children saw violent play were themselves 2x as violent

Prejudice

A preconceived negative judgment of a group and its individual members.

Scripts

Patterns of behavior for particular situations

Cognitive association model

Whether aggressive primes make someone aggressive is determined by their interpretation of events

General Aggression Model (GAM)

Aggression is determined by personal and situational factors, which influence affect, thoughts, and arousal. These influence appraisals of a situation and decisions about whether to behave aggressively.

Stereotype

A set of beliefs or expectations based solely upon group membership.

Discrimination

Positive/negative actions towards a group or individual based on group membership.

Individual discrimination

Actions from an individual, both intentional/unintentional

Institutional discrimination

Social institutions being structured to advantage or disadvantage a certain group, intentionally or unintentionally

the ABCs of prejudice

Affective: emotional reaction about a group/members

Behavioral: Actions towards group/members

Cognitive: Thoughts/beliefs about group/members

Group conflict theory

Prejudice arises from competition for scarce resources

Descriptive stereotypes

Describes (perceived) what group members are LIKE
EX: men are strong, women are emotional

Prescriptive stereotype

Describes (perceived) what group members “should be like”

Stereotype threat

Anxiety stemming from the concern that you will be judged on a negative stereotype

Outgroup homogeneity effect

Tendency to perceive the outgroup as similar / all the same

Prototypicality effect

Outgroup homogeneity based on prototype

Group serving bias

Self-serving bias at the group level
EX: when your brothers get into a fight, you say “boys will be boys”, but when two strangers get into a fight, you think they’re violent and scary

Just-world belief

Belief that good things happen to good people (and vise versa)

One-shot illusory correlations

Group-behavior links drawn from a single connotation — we attribute a person’s behavior to their group membership