ch. 13: interpersonal attraction & close relationships

matching hypothesis

people’s tendency to seek & find partners who are roughly at their own level of physical attractiveness

reciprocity

initiated response to the behaviour of others

companionate love

a stable, calm, & dependable kind of love that may include quite intimacy, stability, shared attitudes/values/life experiences, & high levels of self-disclosure

excitation transfer

when the arousal by one stimulus is added to the arousal from a second stimulus & the combined arousal is erroneously attributed to the second stimulus

passionate love

an intense, exciting, and all-consuming type of love, which includes constant thoughts about the person, powerful physical attraction, & intense communication

attachment styles

the expectations that a person has about a relationship partner, based largely on the person’s early experiences with their caregivers

positive illusions

the notion that people tend to see their romantic partners as well as their relationships in highly idealized ways

social exchange theory

the theory that people’s satisfaction in a relationship is detemined by the costs & rewards of the relationship

comparison level

the expected outcome of a relationship— the extent to which a person expects their relationship to be rewarding

comparison level for alternatives (CLalt)

a calculation regarding the expected benefits & costs that a person could receive from having a relationship with various other partners

investment

the resources devoted to a relationship that cannot be retrieved

equity theory

the theory that relationship satisfaction depends on the ratio of costs & benefits for each partner in a relationship

demand/withdraw interaction pattern

a relatively common situation in which one partner is nagging, critical, and insistent about discussing the relationship problems, while the other is withdrawn, silent, & defensive