Psych 403: Relationships and Business

Relationship Deal-Makers

Traits that promote good relationships

Extraversion and deak-makers

Socially active = means you meet more people and do more activities

Agreeableness and deal-makers

easy to get along with, avoid disputes (conflicts), prevent and diffuse conflict

Being liked is associated with being high on communal traits

Communal traits

traits relevant to relating well to others

Number of friends predicted by

extraversion, sociability, (low) shyness

Success in relationships

Predicted by low negative emotionality, high positive emotionality, good self-control

Picky people

less attracted to partners

warm people

more attracted

People more interested in partners

who are warm and extraverted

Relationship Deal-Breakers

traits that prevent or undermine relationships

More difficult to maintain healthy relationshsips

Introverts and disagreeable people

How does untrustworthy impact relationships?

especially significant for sabotaging romantic relationships

Dispositional contempt

people with high scores come across as Cold, arrogant, disagreeable, and are emotionally fragile and insecure

Rejection sensitivity

people are overly reactive to any indication that their partner might be losing interest or will soon reject them

What may cause someone with rejection sensitivity to end a relationship?

If someone feels their partner is losing feelings or someone takes too long to answer

What do thoughts of being rejected lead?

to an anxious or panicked response

Why might someone end a relationship?

End up rejecting the other person before they can be rejected

Most people are normal

Normal range of personality traits.

What does a normal range of traits mean?

No extremes of traits

Who is most likely to get along?

Two normal people

Who is less likely to get along?

two less normal people

Why are two less normal people less likely to get along?

They are less agreeable and less well adjusted

Mate selection and attraction

what one looks for in the opposite sex

Mating strategies

how one handles hetersexual relationships

What is mating all about?

producing offspring

On average for attraction

males place higher value on physical attractiveness and prefer younger mates

Why do males prefer younger mates?

mean more fertile and offspring more likely to survive

What do females value more?

Females place higher on economic security and prefer older mates. Someone to take care of them and children

What are both males and females attracted to?

wants the highest likelihood of healthy offspring who will survive and reproduce

Female attractiveness

signals youth, physical health, and ability to have children

Males attractiveness

want to signal that they can provide economic resources and ave appropriate attitudes to support a family

Attraction is influenced by more than physical characteristics like

Liking and Perceptions of honesty

Desired number of sexual partners and thoughts that the opposite sex is sexually interested

Faithfulness to partners and selectivity of partners

males lower

Desire for monogamous and stable relationships

males lower

Males and families

having more children and not wasting time taking care of children who are not their own

Females and families

find mate for economic security to provide for children

Similarities

Once a stable relationship is formed, both have interests in maintaining it and people in steady dating relationships find opposite-sex strangers less attractive

Males report they would be more upset at

sexual infidelity

Women upset at

emotional infidelity

However, 55% of males (vs 88% of females) think they would be more upset

by imagining their partner falling in love with someone else

Males do not want

to support another male's child

Females do not want

their partners to develop an emotional bond with another female and leave them to solo parent their children

Sociosexuality

willingness to engage in sexual relatins in the absence of a serious relationships

Who is higher in sociosexuality?

Males are generally higher than women

High levels (less restricted) in sociosexuality

Especially interested in physical attractiveness and social prestige of potential partners

High levels in sociosexuality are more common

in males high on the dark triad traits

What are dark triad traits?

narcissism, psychopathy, and machiavellianis

Low levels (more restricted) in sociosexuality

More interested in personal qualities and potential to be good parents

Freud said that socialization

shapes the way that attraction and gratification are directed

How are your experiences influenced by your experiences?

Possible for anyone to be attracted to anyone else.Also anything

Homosexuality in the DSM

was listed as a mental disorder in the DSM until the 1970s

Attachment theory

focus is on patterns of relationships with others that are consistently repeated with different partners throughout life

Attachment is a trait

consistency of attachment styles has good empirical support

What is the basis of love?

attachment

Attachment and evolution

Humans evolved in a risky environment and feared being alone. Motivated the desire for protection from another person interested in the person's survival and well-being

When is desire especially strong?

infancy and early childhood

What does desire for protection lead to?

attachment

Attachment

relationships with caregivers

What are working models of others and working models of the self are based on?

childhood experiences

What expectations are made during childhood?

Expectations about attachment relationships are developed

Working models of others

For how the other person is expected to react

Working model of the self

For how the self will feel and behave (how we respond)

What do Children learn lessons from?

early experiences with adult caregivrers

What do children learn about attachments?

conclude whether they are the kind of child attachment figures are likely to respond to in a helpful way

Strange situation task

child is briefly separated from, and then reunited with the mother

Anxious-ambivalent children

Caregivers' behaviors are inconsistent, hit or miss, or chaotic

Anxious- ambivalent children when mother leaves

are watchful about the parent's presence and grow very upset when she disappears for even a few minutes

In school with anxious-ambivalent children

they're often victimized by other children and unsuccessfully attempt to cling to teachers and peers

What does anxious-ambivalent leads to?

further hurt feelings, anger, and insecurity

Anxious-ambivalent adults

they tend to cling to others and this drives others away

Anxious-ambivalent traits

Extreme jealousy, high rates of relationship instability and failure, low self-esteem, highly emotional under stress

Jealousy

fearing that you will lose that person

Avoidant children

Caregivers dislike bodily contact (hugs) and push the child away when they attempt to initiate contact or seek reassurance. Tend to be emotionally unavailable and unresponsive

Avoidant children when mother leaves

do not appear distressed, but their heart rate reveals tension and anxiety

What happens when mother comes back for avoidant children?

When mother returns they tend to be distant and ignore her

In school avoidant children

are hostile and deviant. Alienate teachers and peers

As avoidant adults

they tend to be cold and distant from others

Secure children

Have a confident faith in self and caregivers. Parents are emotionally available, reassuring, and consistent

Secure children when mother returns

they greet her happily with open arms. Easily soothed when upset, and comfortably explore their environment, returning to caregiver for reassurance

As secure adults

they tend to be secure and confident in their relationships

Insecure attachment styles

both anxious-ambivalent and avoidant

Insecure children

are less able to control impulses and modulate their emotions

Insecure Adults

are more likely to have relationship problems that lead to substance us

Self fulfilling nature

attachment styles affect outcomes throughout life

Even people with secure attachments can have relationship problems

People with low attachment anxiety/secure attachments

have a large decrease in relationship satisfaction over time if they have high fluctuations in feelings of attachment, and are as unsatisfied as people with high attachment anxiety

two dimensions of attachment

anxiety and avoidance

People low in both dimensions

are securely attached

People high in the dimensions

anxiety and avoidance do not pay attention to signs of emotion from others

What traits do employers want?

Conscientiousness, integrity, trustworthiness

What trait is most closely associated with success?

conscientiousness (most closely associated with success)

How do Employees align with their company?

to promote organization's goals

Use to alleviate bias in testing

Test of conscientiousness or integrity typically do not have racial or ethnic differences

How are people that are more conscientious more likely to get promoted and do well in interviews?

because they have sought more information and are better prepared

Human capital formation

development of knowledge and skills

Motivate others through persuasion, counseling, and suggestion

these tactics are more effective then commands, criticisms, and coercion

Predictors of management performance

emotional stability (the strongest), conscientiousness, extraversion, openness

Dark triad leadership styles

selfish, impulsive, exploitative, and toxic