Social Psych Chapter 12

passionate love

the strong feelings of longing desire and excitement toward a special person (also known as romantic love)

compassionate love (affectionate love)

mutual understanding and caring to make the relationship succeed

passion

an emotional state characterized by high bodily arousal such as increased heart rate and blood pressure

intimacy

a feeling of closeness mutual understanding and mutual concern for each other’s welfare and happiness

commitment

a conscious decision that remains constant

Sternberg’s triangle

instead of speaking of two different kinds of love, there is a theory that love is composed of three ingredients, passion, intimacy, and commitment

exchange relationships

based on reciprocity and fairness, each person does something for the other mainly in the expectation og getting some direct benefit in return

communal relationships

relationships based on mutual love and concern without expectation of repayment

attachment theory

a theory that classifies people into four attachment styles (secure, preoccupied, dismissing avoidant, and fearful avoidant) based on two dimensions, anxiety and avoidance

secure attachment

style of attachment in which people are low on anxiety and low on avoidance; they trust their partners share their feelings, provide and receive support and comfort and enjoy their relationships

preoccupied (anxious/ambivalent)

style of attachment where people are low on avoidance but high on anxiety; they want and enjoy closeness but worry that their relationship partners will abandon them

dismissing avoidant attachment

style of attachment in which people are low on anxiety but high on avoidance; they tend to view their partners as unreliable, unavailable, and uncaring

fearful avoidant attachment

high anxiety and high avoidance. they have low opinions of themselves and keep others from getting close

self acceptance

regarding yourself as a reasonably good person as you are

investment model

theory that uses three factors, satisfaction, alternatives and investments to explain why people stay with their long term relationship partners

relationship enhancing style of attribution

tendency of happy couples to attribute their partner’s good acts to internal factors and bad acts to external factors

distress-maintaining style of attribution

tendency of unhappy couples to attribute their partners good acts to external factors and bad acts to internal factors

sexual constructionist theories

theories asserting that attitudes and behaviors including sexual desire and sexual behavior are strongly shaped by culture and socialization

evolutionary theory

asserts that the sex drive has been shaped by natural selection and that its forms thus tend to be innate

social exchange theory

seeks to understand social behavior by analyzing the costs and benefits of interacting with each other

stereotypes about gender and sexuality

1. men want sex more than women

2. men separate love and sex more than women

3. women’s sexuality is more natural whereas means reflect more cultural influence

4. women serve as gatekeepers who restrict the total amount of sex and decide whether and when sex will happen

coolidge effect

the sexually arousing power of a new partner (greater than the appeal of a familiar partner)

extradyadic sex

having sex with someone other than one’s regular relationship partner

social reality

beliefs held in common by several or many people; public awareness

paternirty uncertainty

the fact that a man cannot be sure that the children born to his female partner are his

double standard

condemning women more than men for the same sexual behavior

reverse double standard

condemning men more than women for the same sexual behavior