UConn HDFS 1060 Exam 1 Study Guide

The fundamental basis of attraction

We are attracted to people whose presence is rewarding to us

Proximity

We select our friends, and our enemies, from those around us

Familiarity

Repeated contact, familiarity breeds attraction, even brief, mere exposure to others usually increases our liking for them

Convenience

Proximity is rewarding, distance is costly, relationships with distant partners are ordinarily less satisfying than they would be if the partners were nearby

The power of proximity

Close proximity makes it more likely that two people will meet and interact, for better or for worse

Bias for beauty

We assume that attractive people have other desirable personal characteristics

Who's pretty?

Symmetrical faces with average features are especially beautiful

Waist-to-hip ratio

0.7

Evolutionary perspective on physical attractiveness

Cross-cultural agreement about beauty, cyclical variations in women's preferences and behavior, link between attractiveness and good health are all consistent with the assumptions of evolutionary psychology

Culture counts

Standards of beauty fluctuate with changing economic and cultural conditions

Looks matter

When people first meet, nothing else affects attraction as much as their looks do

The interactive costs and benefits of beauty

Physical attractiveness has larger influence on men's social lives than on women's, attractive people doubt the praise they receive from others, but they're still happier than unattractive people

Matching in physical attractiveness

People tend to pair off with others similar levels of beauty

Reciprocity

People are reluctant to risk rejection, weigh physical attractiveness with probability of reciprocal liking

Balance theory

People desire consistency among their thoughts, feelings, and relationships

Similarity

People like those who share their attitudes

What kind of similarity?

Happy relationship partners resemble each other in demographic origin, attitudes, and to a lesser degree, personalities

Do opposites attract?

No

Why we think opposites attract

1. We are attracted to those we think are like us

2. Takes time for perceived similarity to be replaced

3. People may be attracted to someone more similar to their ideal self

4. People tend to become more similar over time

5. Matching is a broad process

6. We may appreciate differing behaviors that help us reach our goals

Barriers

People strive to restore lost freedom

What men want

Women who are warm, kind, and are not unattractive

What women want

Men who are warm and kind and are not poor

Social Cognition

The processes of perception and judgement with which we make sense of our social worlds

First Impressions

We jump to conclusions when first meeting people because of stereotypes and primary effects

Primary Effects

A tendency for the first information we receive about others to carry special weight

Confirmation Biases

People seek information that will prove them right rather than information that will prove them wrong

Overconfidence

Making mistakes more than we realize

Power of perceptions

Partner's perceptions can be very consequential

Idealizing our partners

Happy partners construct positive illusions that emphasize their partners' virtues and minimize their faults

Attributional processes

The explanations we generate for why things happen

Actor/observer effects

Generation of different explanations for their own behavior than they do for the similar things they see their partners do

Self-serving biases

Readily taking credit for successes but trying to avoid the blame for failures

Relationship-enhancing

Happy people make these attributions for their partner's behavior

Distress-maintaining

Unhappy people make these attributions for their partner's behavior

Memories

Reconstructive memories help couples stay optimistic about the future

Destiny beliefs

Assume that two people are either well suited for each other and destined to live happily ever after or they're not

Growth beliefs

Good relationships are believed to develop gradually as the partners work at surmounting challenges and overcoming obstacles

Expectations

Our expectations of others can become self-fulfilling prophecies

Self-perceptions

We seek self-verification and reactions that are self-enhancing and consistent with our beliefs of ourselves

Impression Management

We try to influence the perceptions of us that others form

Strategies of Impression Management

Ingratiation, self-promotion, intimidation, and supplication

Ingratiation

Doing favors, paying compliments, mention areas of agreement, describe ourselves in desirable ways, and are generally charming to get people to like us

Self-promotion

Recounting our accomplishments or strategically arranging public demonstrations of our skills

Intimidation

People portraying themselves as ruthless, dangerous, and menacing so that others will do their bidding

Supplication

People present themselves as inept or infirm to avoid obligations and to elicit help and support from others

Impression management in close relationships

High self-monitors are less committed to their romantic partners, work less hard to present favorable images to our intimate partners than to others

How well do we know our partners?

Not as well as we think we do

Knowledge

As a relationship develops and partners spend more time together, they understand each other more

Motivation

The interest and motivation with which people try to figure each other out help determine how insightful and accurate they will be

Partner legibility

Some personality traits, such as extroversion, are more visible than others

Perceiver ability

Some judges are better than others. Emotional intelligence important

Threatening perceptions

When accurate perceptions would be worrisome, intimate partners may actually be motivated to be inaccurate

Perceiver influence

Perceptions that are initially inaccurate may become more correct as we induce our partners to become the people we want them to be

Brief history of love

Different societies have held very different perspectives on love, and only recently has been associated with marriage

Types of love

Intimacy, passion, commitment

Romantic, passionate love

Intimacy + passion

Companionate love

Intimacy + commitment

Compassionate love

Intimacy + selfless caring

Cultural loving

Love is much the same around the world, but cultural nuances exist

Attachment styles and love

Secure people enjoy stronger experiences of romantic, companionate, and compassionate love than insecure people do

Age and love

People mellow with age, experiencing less intense love as time goes by

Men and women and love

More similar than different, but women pick lovers more carefully and fall in love less quickly than men

Does love last?

In most cases no

Why doesn't romantic love last?

Romance and passion involve fantasy, novelty, and arousal, and each fades with time

Secure

Healthy attachment with parents, high self esteem, Hermione Granger

Avoidance

Lost parents from age, does things on own, Harry Potter

Anxious-Ambivalent

Got some attention from parents but not enough, Ron Weasley

Correlational research

Correlation does not equal causation, correlation used to describe relationships among phenomena

Positive correlation

When X axis goes up, Y axis goes down

Direct rewards

Interest, approval, attention, acceptance, money, good advice

Indirect rewards

People with similar names

Longitudinal studies

Can start to give us answers

Cross sectional studies

Less reliable about the definitive answers about what caused what we were researching

Stimulus

Information regarding the "obvious", race, age, etc

Value

Similarity in attitudes and beliefs

Role compatibility

Agreement on important "stuff", like basics of parenting, careers, life tasks

Three stages of love

Lust, attraction, attachment

Lust

Driven by sex hormones, craving for sexual gratification

Attraction

Increased energy and focus on a preferred partner

Attachment

Motivation to form partnerships

Eight phases of love

Nonlove, liking, infatuation, empty, romantic, compassionate, fatuous, consummate