Attraction and Romantic Relationships Flashcards

Flashcards based on lecture notes covering attraction, romantic relationships, social motives, social exchange, and theories of love.

What is the Reinforcement-Affect Model's learning theory of attraction focusing on?

Operant Conditioning: behaviors that are rewarded tend to become more frequent, and those that are punished tend to be extinguished.

How do positive and negative feelings impact attraction according to the Reinforcement-Affect Model?

Positive feelings in someone’s presence increase attraction, while negative feelings increase interpersonal repulsion.

What is interpersonal repulsion?

A desire to escape from another person’s presence.

What is the Need for Affiliation (NAff)?

The desire to establish and maintain rewarding interpersonal relationships.

What are characteristics of individuals with a strong Need for Affiliation?

Communicate more with other people, find social activities more enjoyable, and react more positively to the company of others.

What is the Need for Intimacy (Nint)?

The preference for warm, close, mutually supportive relationships.

What are traits of individuals with a strong need for intimacy?

More trusting/confiding in relationships and experience a greater sense of well-being.

What is the Need for Power?

The drive to attain prestige, reputation, and status.

What is social exchange?

The trading of benefits within relationships where Profit = Reward + Cost (subjective).

What is the assumption of social exchange theory?

We tend to choose those relationships that are most profitable.

Name the Four Rules of Exchange

Communal Sharing, Authority Ranking, Equality Matching, and Market Pricing.

What is Comparison Level (CL)?

The average, general outcome an individual expects in a relationship.

What is Comparison Level for Alternatives (CLalt)?

Determines acceptance of a relationship based on perceived alternatives.

In social exchange, what are investments?

Resources that cannot be retrieved if the relationship ends.

What is the central idea behind Equity theory?

Focus not only on the cost and rewards, but also on the investments brought to the relationship where Profit/Investment = P/I.

What is Balance Theory?

Attempts to create consistency among our thoughts and feelings in social relationships.

What is reciprocity?

A mutual quid-pro-quo exchange between what we give and what we receive. We are attracted to those who are attracted to us.

What is social anxiety?

A feeling of discomfort in the presence of others, accompanied by social awkwardness and inhibition (shyness).

What is loneliness?

The inability to maintain the level of affiliation one desires.

Name and describe the two types of Loneliness

Emotional isolation (lack of deep emotional bond to others) and Social isolation (lack of friends, associates or relatives).

According to Bernard Weiner what are the components of Locus of Causality?

Internal (disposition) vs. external (situation), Stability and Controllability.

What is proximity (propinquity) in attraction?

All else being equal, we tend to like people who live closer to us better than those who are at some distance.

What is the mere exposure effect?

Repeated exposure to the same stimulus leads to greater attraction to the object.

What is the What-Is-Good-Is-Beautiful Stereotype?

Attractive people are judged to be smart, happy, well-adjusted, socially skilled, confident, and assertive -- though also vain.

What is the Matching Hypothesis?

People tend to become involved romantically with others who are equivalent in their physical attractiveness.

In mate selection, how do men and women differ from an evolutionary perspective?

Women: highly selective because limited # of children. Men: father an unlimited number of children and ensure their reproductive success by inseminating many women.

What are the Three Components of Intimate Relationships?

Emotional Attachment, Fulfillment of Psychological or Physical Needs, and Interdependence.

What is the Stimulus-Value-Role Theory of Social Penetration?

Stimulus: focus on external attributes, Value: Similarity of values and beliefs, and Role: Performance of relationship roles.

What are the Two types of Self-disclosure?

Descriptive: share facts about lives and Evaluative: share personal feelings.

What are Exchange Relationships?

Rule: balance the give and take in a relationship.

What are Communal relationship?

Rule: responds to each other’s needs.

What is the difference between liking and love?

Love: rely on intimacy, attachment, and care for the other person’s welfare. Liking: based primarily on affection and respect.

Companionate love

Secure, trusting attachment.

Passionate (Romantic) love

High arousal, intense attraction, fear of rejection.

What are the Three dimensions of Sternberg's Triangular Theory of Love?

Intimacy: feelings or closeness; connectedness, Passion: romantic and sexual aspects of relationship, and Decision/Commitment.

List the Three Primary Colors(basic) of Love by John Alan Lee

Eros: Romantic, passionate love, Ludus: Game-playing love, and Storge: Friendship love.

List the Secondary Colors of Love by John Alan Lee

Pragma: Logical love, Mania: Possessive, dependent love, demanding, jealousy, Agape: Selfless love.

How do the Styles of Attachment affect Relationships?

Secure Attachment: confident-> easily expressed affection, Anxious/Ambivalent: inconsistency-> upset and anxious and Avoidant Attachment: defensive detachment so they refuse caregiver’s affection.

What is communal sharing? (Rules of exchange)

all members of a group share a pool of resources as needed and depend on one another for mutual care