Lecture 11: Relationships, Attraction, and Liking

Vocabulary flashcards covering attraction, relational exchange models, interdependence, commitment, love typologies, and conflict management from Lecture 11.

Need to Belong

A fundamental human motivation (also known as the need for affiliation) to form and maintain strong, stable interpersonal relationships, characterized by an early developmental emergence and resistance to dissolution.

Interpersonal Relationship

An association formed specifically between two individuals.

Exchange Rules

Patterns and principles according to which relationship partners exchange rewards and punishments.

Communal Sharing (CS)

A relational model defined by Alan Fiske where resources are distributed according to need, centered on care, and typically exemplified within families.

Authority Ranking (AR)

A relational model in which superiors make decisions for subordinates, grounded in respect and hierarchy, commonly exemplified in military contexts.

Equality Matching (EM)

A relational model based on equal proportions, balance, and direct reciprocity, centered on egalitarian equality and typical of peer groups.

Market Pricing (MP)

A relational model where benefits are proportional to effort, merit, or cost, centered on equity and standard in business settings.

Social Support

Emotional and physical coping resources provided by other people that promote psychological and physical well-being and significantly reduce mortality risk.

Loneliness

Negative feelings arising from unmet needs for affection and self-validation; a perceived subjective sense of isolation rather than the objective state of being alone.

Attraction

The psychological desire to initiate or maintain a voluntary relationship with another person.

Liking

A positive evaluation of an object or individual.

"Beautiful is Good" Stereotype

The cognitive bias and societal assumption that physically attractive individuals possess positive traits such as warmth, friendliness, and sociability, which can function as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Similarity-Attraction Principle

The tendency for individuals who share similar attitudes, values, personality traits, and backgrounds to be mutually attracted to one another.

Inferred Reciprocal Attraction

The psychological tendency to assume that individuals who are similar to us like us, which in turn increases our liking toward them due to norms of reciprocity.

Proximity Effect (Propinquity)

The phenomenon whereby physical or geographical closeness increases interaction frequency and familiarity, thereby promoting attraction and friendship formation (e.g., Festinger et al., 1950, finding $63\%$ of friends lived within 2 apartments).

Mere Exposure Effect

The principle that repeated, unreinforced exposure to a novel stimulus or person increases positive evaluation and attraction (demonstrated by Moreland & Beach, 1992).

Non-Conscious Mimicry

The automatic, unconscious imitation of interaction partners' postures, mannerisms, or motor behaviors (such as rubbing face or shaking foot), which increases rapport and mutual liking (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999).

Self-Disclosure

The communication process through which an individual reveals personal information, feelings, attitudes, and thoughts to another person, expanding in breadth and depth as relationships develop.

Close Relationship

A relationship characterized by strong, frequent, and enduring interdependence across cognitive, behavioural, and affective domains, rather than merely by positive feelings.

Cognitive Interdependence

The psychological overlap and integration between mental representations of the self and the relationship partner.

Inclusion of Other in Self (IOS) Scale

A pictorial self-report measure developed by Aron et al. (1992) consisting of pairs of increasingly overlapping circles used to evaluate perceived cognitive closeness and self-other overlap.

Behavioural Interdependence

A state wherein partners directly influence each other's decisions, plans, and daily activities, often transitioning interactions toward communal sharing where giving is not contingent on direct reciprocation.

Affective Interdependence (Intimacy)

A deep positive emotional bond marked by reciprocal acknowledgment, understanding, emotional responsiveness, sensitivity, and mutual care.

Commitment

A long-term psychological orientation toward a relationship that reflects an intention to maintain the bond over time and project interdependence into the future.

Investment Model of Commitment

Caryl Rusbult's framework stating that commitment is positively determined by satisfaction level and investment size, and negatively influenced by the quality of alternatives.

Triangular Theory of Love

Robert Sternberg's model positing that love comprises three core components: intimacy (emotional closeness), passion (physical/sexual attraction), and commitment (decision to maintain the bond).

Consummate Love

In Sternberg's triangular theory, the complete form of love that simultaneously incorporates intimacy, passion, and commitment ($+\,+\,+$).

Companionate Love

A form of love combining high intimacy and high commitment in the absence of passion ($+\,-\,+$).

Romantic Love

A form of love combining high intimacy and high passion in the absence of commitment (+\,+\,-\).

Fatuous Love

A type of love consisting of high passion and high commitment without established emotional intimacy ($-\,+\,+$).

Accommodation

The conscious or behavioural process of responding to a destructive or negative action initiated by one's relationship partner.

Gottman's Four Horsemen

Four destructive forms of accommodation identified by John Gottman that predict relationship dissolution: criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling.

Voice

An active and constructive accommodation strategy where a partner discusses issues, seeks outside help, suggests compromises, or works to resolve conflict.

Loyalty

A passive and constructive accommodation response wherein an individual waits, hopes, prays, and supports the partner, trusting that conditions will improve.

Exit

An active and destructive accommodation response involving abusive speech, screaming, issuing threats, or initiating separation.

Neglect

A passive and destructive accommodation response characterized by avoiding discussion, ignoring the partner, withholding affection, and allowing the relationship to deteriorate.

Incremental vs. Entity Theories in Conflict

Kammrath & Dweck's (2006) finding that individuals with incremental theories (viewing personality as malleable) tend to adopt active accommodation strategies like voice, whereas those with entity theories (viewing personality as fixed) adopt passive strategies like loyalty.