Interpersonal Relationships, Prosocial Behavior, Aggression, and Prejudice

Flashcards for reviewing key vocabulary and concepts from lecture notes on interpersonal relationships, prosocial behavior, aggression, and prejudice.

Interpersonal Attraction

Mutual interest and liking between two or more individuals.

Romantic Attraction

The process of finding someone desirable as a romantic partner.

Propinquity Effect (Proximity)

The tendency to become friends with people you are physically close to.

Mere Exposure Effect (Familiarity)

Repeated contact with someone makes you like them more.

Similarity

Match between interests, attitudes, values, background, or personality.

Byrne's Law of Attraction

Attraction is related to the proportion of attitude similarity.

Reciprocal Liking

We like those who like us (connection to self-fulfilling prophecy).

Misattribution of Arousal

Mistaken interpretation of feelings and physiological responses of attraction.

Halo Effect

Physically attractive people assumed to possess more socially desirable characteristics.

Parental Investment Hypothesis

Men and women have adapted differently to reproductive constraints in evolutionary past.

Companionate Love

Feelings of intimacy and affection that are not accompanied by passion/physiological arousal.

Passionate Love

Love accompanied by passion.

Intimacy

Feelings of closeness.

Commitment

Staying together over time.

Eros

Passionate Love

Ludus

Game-playing Love

Storge

Friendship Love

Pragma

Logical Love

Mania

Possessive Love

Agape

Selfless Love

Destiny Beliefs

Relationship partners are meant to be together or not.

Growth Beliefs

Successful relationships are developed and cultivated.

Secure Attachment

Trust, lack of concern about abandonment and view that one is worthy and well liked.

Avoidant Attachment

Difficulties in developing relationships because previous attempts to be intimate have been unsuccessful.

Anxious/Ambivalent Attachment

Concern that others will not reciprocate one’s desire for intimacy, resulting in high levels of anxiety.

Social Exchange Theory

Feelings about relationships depends on perceptions of rewards and costs, kind of relationship they deserve, and chances of having a better relationship with someone else.

Comparison Level

Expectations about the level of rewards and costs they receive in a relationship.

Comparison Level for Alternatives

Expectations about the level of rewards and costs they would receive in an alternative relationship.

Investment

Commitment to a relationship depends on how much they have invested in the relationship that would be lost by ending it.

Equity Theory

People are happiest with relationships in which the rewards and costs are experienced by both parties are equal.

Exchange Relationship

Governed by need for equity.

Communal Relationship

Concern is being responsive to other people’s needs.

Destructive Behaviors (Relationship Dissolution)

Active hurting, passive deterioration (ignoring partner).

Prosocial Behavior

Any act performed with the goal of benefiting another person.

Altruism

Desire to help another person with no benefit to oneself and even cost to oneself.

Egoism

Desire to help another person to increase one’s own welfare.

Kin Selection

Behaviors that help a genetic relative are favored by natural selection.

Reciprocal Altruism

The expectation that helping others will increase the likelihood that they will help us in the future.

Social Exchange Theory (Prosocial Behavior)

People engage in helping behavior when the benefits to themselves outweigh the costs.

Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis

When we feel empathy, we will attempt to help them for purely altruistic reasons, regardless of other factors.

Urban Overload Hypothesis

People living in cities are bombarded with stimulation and keep to themselves to avoid being overwhelmed.

Residential Mobility

Long-term residents of a community are more likely to engage in prosocial behavior.

Bystander Effect

The more people are present in an emergency, the less likely any of them are to help.

Pluralistic Ignorance

Thinking everyone else is interpreting a situation in a certain way when in reality they are not.

Psychopathy

High levels of impulsivity and thrill-seeking, low levels of empathy and remorse.

Aggression

Intentional behavior aimed at causing harm or psychological pain to another person.

Hostile Aggression

Stemming from anger w/ goal of inflicting pain or injury.

Instrumental Aggression

Done as means to achieve some other goal than causing pain.

Southern Culture of Honor

Defending reputation by use of aggression.

Gender Socialization (Aggression)

Boys taught to assert physical dominance with others; girls taught to establish intimate connections.

Think-Drink Effect

When people expect alcohol to release their aggressive impulses, they often behave more aggressively.

Frustration-Aggression Theory

Frustration increases probability of an aggressive response.

Berkowitz Revision to Frustration-Aggression Theory

Any negative of aversive stimulus can lead to increased aggression

Prejudice

Negative emotional response towards a particular group (affective component).

Discrimination

Negative actions towards a particular group (behavioral component).

Stereotyping

Beliefs about characteristics of a particular group (cognitive component).

Stereotype Threat (Social Identity Threat)

Elicited when people perceive others are evaluating them as a member of their group instead of as an individual

Ultimate Attribution Error

Tendency to make (incorrect) dispositional attributions about an entire group of people.

In-Group Bias

Tendency to favor members of one’s own group.

Out-Group Homogeneity

Assume there is greater similarity among members of out-groups than among members of in-groups.

Realistic Group Conflict Theory

Group conflict, prejudice, and discrimination arise over competition between groups for limited resources.

Contact Hypothesis

Prejudice can be reduced when we have increased contact with out-group members

Fixed Mindset

Belief that intelligence is unchangeable.

Growth Mindset

Belief that intelligence can be developed

How does MIT Dorm study illustrate propinquity?

65% of closest friends lived in the same building

How does the class attendance study illustrate mere exposure effect?

women w/ higher class attendance were rated as more attractive

How does the someone likes you study illustrate reciprocal liking?

participants who believed they were liked engaged in more self-disclosure, disagreed less, expressed dissimilarity less, and had a more positive tone of voice and general attitude

How does the bridge study illustrate misattribution of arousal?

Men on wobbly bridges misattributed their physiological arousal to attraction, leading to increased romantic interest.

Who values physical attractiveness more?

Men and women value physical attractiveness equally.

Do altruistic personalities predict helping?

Little evidence that altruistic personalities predict prosocial behavior

How do men and women differ in helping?

Men help in more heroic situations; women provide more social support and volunteer more

What are ingroup and outgroup differences in helping?

People help in-group members our of empathy; help out-group members out of self-interest

Step 1 in Bystander intervention tree

Notice the event; pitfall: being distracted or in a hurry

Step 2 in bystander intervention tree

Interpret the event as an emergency; pitfall: pluralistic ignorance: thinking everyone else is interpreting a situation in a certain way when in reality they are not

Step 3 in bystander intervention tree

Assume responsibility; pitfall: diffusion of responsibility: believing others will help, reducing personal accountability.

Step 4 in bystander intervention tree

know appropriate form of assistance; pitfall: lack of knowledge/competence

Step 5 in bystander intervention tree

implement decision to help; pitfall: danger to self, legal concerns, or embarrassment

What is psychopathy?

high levels of impulsivity and thrill-seeking, low levels of empathy and remorse

Why would those high in psychopathy engage in prosocial behavior?

display cooperation and prosocial behavior when it benefits them; engage in high degrees of impression management

How does the aggress to impress study illustrate gender differences in aggression?

men primed w/ competitive goals = equally aggressive

men primed w/ mating goals = more aggressive towards other men

How does the toy prop study illustrate the weapons effect?

participants made angry in presence of gn adminstered longer shocks

How does the interview study illustrate SFP

white interviewer distanced himself further away black applicant and independent judges perceived Black applicant to be less competent; white applicants who received interview style of black applicants in study 1 were perceived as less competent

How does the test of intellectual ability study illustrate stereotype threat?

black participants who thought test measured intellectual ability performed worse than white participants

How does the intergroup violence study illustrate UAE?

when a black harm-does shoved another person regardless of their race, their behavior was attributed to aggressiveness

How does the painting study illustrate IGB?

participants allocated significantly more resources to in-group members; prejudice and discrimination arise from most minimal group conditions

Fixed Mindset in STEM study

Fixed mindset beliefs leads to percieved gender stereotyping which leads to lower belonging which ultimately causes worse STEM performance, notably for women, compared to men