IB Psychology SL - Human Relationships Review

Biological approach to relationships

Biological approach to relationships

Role of neurotransmitters, love cocktail

Fisher et al - found that the brain’s reward system was particularly active when the lovers looked at pictures of the object of their love - that is, increased activity in the areas of the brain with high levels of dopamine neurons also found that the more passionate they were, the more active the brain’s reward circuitry was.

Marazziti - Levels of serotonin in both the obsessives' blood and the lovers' blood were 40 percent lower than those in her normal subjects

Cognitive Approach to Relationships

Similarity Attraction model, role of self-esteem

Markey and Markey - the way the participants described themselves was similar to what their ideal partner looked like.

Kiesler and Baral - Men who had self-esteem boost from high scores engaged in conversation with woman more quickly than men with low scores; people seek a partner that is similar to them; self esteem plays a large role

Sociocultural Approach to Relationships

Mere Exposure Effect

Zajonc - When the participants were exposed to the image more frequently, their rating of the likeability of the man in the photo was significantly greater than when they had only seen the image once; mere exposure increased sense of trust

Moreland and Beach - The participants did not find the women familiar, however, the more classes a woman attended, the more positive traits she was believed to have; mere expsure effect affected their perception of woman

Role of Communication

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Communication, Social Penetration Theory, Patterns of Attribution

Gottman and Levenson - it is primarily our state of arousal that occurs during conflict – when our heartbeat exceeds 100 beats per minute – and our oral communication which is predictive of a failing relationship.

Bradbury and Fincham - when couples engaged in relationship enhancing patterns at the beginning of the study, it was a good predictor of marital satisfaction at the end of the study.

Why relationships change or end

Social Exchange Theory, Equity Theory

Gottman and Levenson - Happy couples provided an average of 5 positive comments for every negative; Unhappy couples (many who had divorced) demonstrated a much higher ratio of negative to positive communications;it is primarily our state of arousal that occurs during conflict – when our heartbeat exceeds 100 beats per minute – and our oral communication which is predictive of a failing relationship.

Bradbury and Fincham - Unhappy couples use distress-maintaining patterns; they blame their partners for what happens and don't give them credit for positive events;n highly dysfunctional relationships - for example, cases of domestic violence - a pattern of seeing the negative behaviors of a partner as only situational and not potentially dispositional can lead to excusing violent behaviors.

Bystanderism

Diffusion of responsibility, Arousal cost reward model of prosocial behaviour, social exhancge theory, cost-reward model of helping

Latane and Darley - 85% rushed to help if they thought they were alone (average time of 52 seconds); 31% helped if they thought 4 other people were there (average time of 166 seconds); demonstrates diffusion of responsibility – believing someone else will help lowers probability that we will take responsibility

Piliavin et al -costs of not helping (self-blame or blame from others) - higher with cane victim; costs of helping (effort, embarrassment, physical harm) - higher with drunk victim; did not support diffusion of responsibility - in fact, the larger the group, the quicker the help; does support arousal - cost-reward model

Bio Approach to Social Responsibility

Kin selection theory, inclusive fitness

Simmons et al - in surveys, potential kidney recipients felt very close to 63% of those who agreed to donate but only 42% of those who did not agree; siblings who agreed to donate were closer in age and more likely to be of the same sex than those who did not

Warnekan et al - In both cases, on average the chimps and the children helped the researcher more than 50% of the time; an evolutionary basis of altruism and even point towards the idea that humans and chimpanzees are both hardwired for helping behavior

Cognitive Approach to Social Responsibility

empathy-altruism model, negative-state relief model

Batson et al - Most in high empathy condition helped regardless of the cost; most in low empathy condition withdrew in the easy escape situation; more helped in the difficult escape condition; empathy is more likely to be the cause of prosocial behavior

Piliavin et al - costs of not helping (self-blame or blame from others) - higher with cane victim; costs of helping (effort, embarrassment, physical harm) - higher with drunk victim; According to this model, we are motivated to help people not by altruism, but as a way of reducing unpleasant feelings of arousal

Sociocultural Approach to Social Responsibility

SCT, cultural dimensions

Whiting and Whiting - Kenyan children - 100% of children in the sample demonstrated prosocial behavior; US children scored lowest - 8% demonstrated helping behavior - most egoistic sample; degree of modernization in a culture influences prosocial behavior

Nadler - Children raised on communal famr had higher scores and mroe generous donations; Demonstrates the importance of socialization in prosocial behavior

Promoting prosocial behavior

SCT

Sprafkin -children in prosocial condition spend more time comforting puppies; watching a helpful model can create a social norm which encourages prosocial behavior

Greitmeyer and Osswald - significant correlation btwn type of video game and the frequency of helping; 56% of City Crisis intervened, 22% of Tetris intervened

Research methods : Personal Relationships

demand characteristics, sampling bias, problems of operationalization, ability to replicate, true experiment, questionnaire

Kiesler and Baral - true experiment; IV - Told to have high or low IQ; DV - Behavior around female confederate

Markey and Markey - in a questionnarie asked people their ideal traits in a partner, and asked to describe themselves

Ethics : Personal Relationships

informed consent, anonymity, right to withdraw, deception, undue stress or harm, and debriefing

Gottman - informed consent; Infomed consent and using couples in therapy to gather data

Kiesler and Baral - debriefing; Important to debrief to ensure that those who were told they had low IQ's didn't leave actually believeing that

Research methods - Social Responsibility

demand characteristics, sampling bias, problems of operationalization, ability to replicate, true experiment, quasi experiment

Latane and Darley - true experiment; IV: number of people participant thought were in on the conversation; DV: whether or not the participant helped and the time it took until participant contacted the experimenter

Nadler - quasi; Independent variable (raised on farm vs. trad. home) not manipulated by the researchers

Ethics - Social Responsibility

informed consent, anonymity, right to withdraw, deception, undue stress or harm, and debriefing

Piliavin - undue stress or harm; Participants may have been stressed about the confederate struggling on the ground, may have been afraid to help due to fear of being harmed

Latane and Darley - deception; Participants were deceived to think that someone was having a seizure