PSCI 173S Chapter 1 Reading

At the core of our social needs is

Intimate relationships

There are seven specific ways that intimate relationships differ from more casual associations:

Knowledge, interdependence, caring, trust, responsiveness, mutuality, and commitment

Knowledge in intimate relationships

Partners in an intimate relationship have extensive, personal, and sometimes confidential knowledge about eachother

Interdependence between intimates

The extent to which they need and influence each other (frequent, strong, diverse, and enduring)

The qualities that facilitate/maintain the close ties of an intimate relationship include

Caring, trust, and responsiveness (all higher when compared to other courses)

Responsiveness in an intimate relationship relates to

One feeling that their needs and welfare are sufficiently attended to by the other intimate

Mutuality in intimate relationships

They recognize their close connection and think of themselves as a unit as opposed to individuals

Commitment in an intimate relationship requires the investment of

Time, resources, and effort

T or F? For intimacy to occur, all seven characteristics of the relationship type must be present

False

Roy Baumeister and Mark Leary identified a need for frequent, pleasant interactions withintimate partners in lasting, caring relationships to function normally. This need is referred to as the

Need to belong

T or F? Generally, we only need a few high quality intimate relationships, to the point that after maintaining these few, we no longer seek to establish new ones

True

Which is more important in our intimate partners in terms of satiating our need for belonging

Who you are intimate with (personal characteristics)

1 multiple choice option

Being lonely has horrible implications in terms of

Life length and general health

People who lack close ties are ____ times more likely to die over a 9 year span

2-3

Argument for the need to belong being and evolutionary product

Early humans lived in small groups surrounded by dangerous environments and cooperation increased their likelihood of survival (socialization is adaptive)

Provides the norms that govern our relationships

Culture

Modern cultural norms that distinguish our generation from those of our parents/grandparents

Fewer people are marrying than ever, people are waiting longer to marry, people cohabitate regularly before marriage, people often have children prior to marriage, half of marriages divorce, most preschoolers' parents both work outside the home

Average age of a woman at first marriage today

28

Average age of a man at first marriage today

30

Divorce rates are slowly decreasing among

The college educated

Refers to the prejudice and discrimination against those who choose to remain single and opt not to devote themselves to a primary romantic relationship

Singlism

Cultural outcome of singlism

Culture offers more benefits to the married, and fewer to the single people

About ___ of single people prefer to be unattached to others

12%

Cohabitation before marriage _____ the likelihood of later divorce

Increases

1 multiple choice option

Why does cohabitation before marriage increase the risk of later divorce

Those who cohabitate often do so at a younger age, the couples are less committed before marriage, experience more conflict, jealousy, physical aggression, and infidelity

___ after moving in together, cohabitating couples are just as likely to break up as they were upon initially moving in

5

Common sources of cultural change in regard to the norms that guide intimate relationships

Economics (women can now afford to be more independent), individualism (self-expression and materialism is high today and care for others is lower), technology (reproductive tech allows for more single parenting/birth control, communication tech/social media provides new way to conduct/interfere with relationships), and the male-to-female ratio in a society

Increased individualism has interfered with intimate relationships because

We now expect more personal gratification and less conflict from our relationships and feel justified in leaving an unfulfilling/ungratifying relationship

Technoference

The frequent interruptions of couples' interactions caused by their various technological devices

Phubbing

Occurs when one partner ignores the other by focusing on their phone

A simple count of the number of men per every 100 women in a population

Sex ratio

When a sex ratio is high, there are more ____, when it is low, there are more ____

Men; women

1 multiple choice option

Today, the sex ratio in the U.S. is relatively

Equal

2 multiple choice options

Cultures with high sex ratios tend to

Support traditional old-fashion sex roles; often sexually conservative

Cultures with low sex ratios tend to

Be more permissive, sexually liberal, and equal

Attachment styles

The various patterns of attachment infants display towards their major caregivers

An attachment style characterized by a strong bond with others, feeling able to rely on others, and trust

Secure

An attachment style characterized by being uncertain of a caregiver's return, result in nervousness, clinginess, and neediness int their relationships with others

Anxious-ambivalent

An attachment style characterized by a detachment from others and self-reliance, suspiciousness, and distrust

Avoidant

Demonstrated that similar orientations towards close relationships could be observed in adults (akin to attachment styles)

Cindy Hazan and Phillip Shaver

Hazan and Shaver's surveys showed that

Most people were relaxed and confident in relying on others, but 40% were insecure in their ability to trust and depend on others or were very nervous about a relationships longevity; These orientations were shown to be reflected in an individual's childhood attachment style

Recently researchers have found that there appears to be four attachment patterns in adults:

Secure, preoccupied, fearful, and dismissing

The preoccupied style of attachment is akin to

The anxious ambivalent attachment style

The preoccupation of the preoccupied style focuses on

The status of their relationship

Fearful attachment style

Avoid intimacy with others due to a fear of rejection (still have a strong need to belong)

Dismissing attachment style

Feel that intimacy isn't worth the cost; reject interdependency due to feelings of self sufficiency and a general disinterest in being close to others/being liked

The two broad themes that underline and distinguish the four contemporary attachment styles in adults

Avoidance of intimacy and anxiety about abandonment

Affects the ease and trust with which people accept interdependent intimacy with others

Avoidance of intimacy

The dread that others will find one unworthy and leave them

Anxiety about abandonment

Low avoidance of intimacy, high anxiety about abandonment

Preoccupied

3 multiple choice options

High avoidance of intimacy, high anxiety about abandonment

Fearful

3 multiple choice options

Low anxiety about abandonment, high avoidance of intimacy

Dismissing

3 multiple choice options

Low anxiety about abandonment, low avoidance of intimacy

Secure

3 multiple choice options

Main takeaway from attachment styles

Appear to be orientations toward relationships that are learned from our experiences with others

T or F? Attachment styles are continuously developed, even past adolescence

True

Generally, altering an attachment style in adulthood requires

A dramatic new experience

Five considerable types of individual variation that influence our relationships

Sex differences, gender differences, sexual orientations, personality, and self-esteem

Main takeaways from the knowledge that most human traits are distrusted normally

Most people's talents/abilities are only slightly better or worse than average and extreme levels of most traits are very rare

The _________ stereotypes about sex differences are completely incorrect - there is a very strong overlap in terms of interests, styles, and ability

Mars and Venus

Important considerations when considering sex differences

There are real sex differences, but they are generally very small to medium in strength

The range of behavior and opinions among members of a single sex is always huge compared to the average difference between sexes

The overlap in behavior and opinions is so large that many members of one sex will always score higher than the average number of the other sex

The patterns of behavior that are culturally expected of "normal" men and women

Gender roles

Gender roles are learned via

Cultural processes of socialization and modeling

1 multiple choice option

Individuals that possess both sets of male and female competencies that are stereotypically associated

Androgynous

Relationship researchers often refer to masculine task-oriented talents as

Instrumental traits

Relationship researchers often refer to feminine social and emotional skills as

Expressive traits

What might explain why men and women of "traditional" gender roles seem to report less likeness for one an other when left alone with other "traditional" strangers when compared to more androgynous strangers left alone

Fundamentally don't have much in common

Marriages in which couples _________ to gender roles appear to be LESS happy over time

Adhere

1 multiple choice option

____ men tend to have relationships of lower quality

Traditional

1 multiple choice option

Why are traditional men less like to engage in preventative health care

Stoicism is a hallmark of traditional masculinity

People low in instrumentality experience

Low self esteem and work adjustment (inhibiting accomplishments and achievements)

T or F? Most people report that they would prefer an androgynous partner over a traditional one

True

Stable and lasting individual differences in intimate relationships

Personality

1 multiple choice option

When people are particularly extraverted, agreeable, and conscientious and open to new experiences, they tend to

Be happier in relationships

Outgoing (Big Five)

Extraversion

Compassionate and trusting (Big Five)

Agreeable

Work hard and tend to follow the rules, dependendable, trustworthy and desirable (Big Five)

Conscientious

Argued to be the most influential Big Five trait

Negative emotionality

Degree to which people are imaginative, curious, and unconventional (Big Five)

Open-mindedness

High negative emotionality leaves one prone to

Anxiety and anger

One longitudinal study over 45 years found that high negative emotionality predicted __ of the satisfaction and contentment spouses would experience in their marriage

10%

Other important traits of personality, apart from the Big Five

Selfishness, humility, sexual preferences, behavioral regulation, etc.

Our self-evaluations constitute our

Self-esteem

What does it mean when we say self-esteem is a sociometer

It measures the quality of our relationships with others. When others like us, we like ourselves. Self-esteem functions as a psychological gauge to alert us of potential declines in our being accepted by others

_____ forms of rejection are particularly damaging to our self-esteem

Public

1 multiple choice option

People with low self-regard/self-esteem, even in compassionate and close relationships, might

Overreact to their partner's bad moods, tend not to believe that they are truly loved, be pessimistic about the longevity of their love, feel unduly rejected, etc.

What is the risk we take when we allow ourselves to become dependent on an intimate partner

Vulnerability to betrayal and rejection

Why do people with low self-esteem tend to withdraw from their partners in times of difficulty

They maintain lasting doubts about their partner's regard and reliability, so withdrawing is a protective mechanism

How might a partner react upon noticing the low self-regard of their partner?

Increasing expressions of regard and affection

Our sexual orientations are comprised of our

Identities, attractions, and actual behaviors

Both sexual orientation and attachment styles should be considered as

Existing on a continuum

What percentage of men and women identify as heterosexual

90/91%

What percentage of men and women identify as bisexual

5/7%

What percentage of men and women identify as homosexual

5/2%

T or F? The nature and workings of fulfilling connections between partners are heavily influenced by sexual orientation

False - they are not very affected at all

1 multiple choice option

Examples of how little sexual orientations influence the nature of intimate relationships

Queer people have the same proportions of attachment styles, prefer same personality/gender traits, fall in love the same way as, and benefit as much from marriage as heterosexual people

Some considerations for differences between same/opposite-sex relationships

Gay men tend to be more expressive than straight men, lesbians tend to be more instrumental than straight women, LGB people are on average more educated

Many differences that appear to be due to sexual orientation are instead due to physiological sex, for example

Gay men often have more sex at the beginning of a relationship than heterosexual couples, whereas a lesbian couple will often have less sex

Generally, LGB relationships are ______ than heterosexual couples

More satisfied with their relationships

1 multiple choice option

T or F? Bisexuals tend to be less satisfied with their partners than lesbian, gay, and heterosexual relationships

True

1 multiple choice option

What might explain the trend for bisexuals to be dissatisfied in their relationship

Often with a member of the opposite sex that does not share their orientation, bisexuality might give rise to suspicion in other partner