Social Relations and Pro-social Behavior

Social Relations

6.1 Interpersonal Attraction

• Humans are fundamentally social beings, with relationships being central to our existence.

• Aristotle referred to humans as "the social animal," highlighting our innate need to connect with others.

• Social psychologists emphasize the need to belong, which is the desire to form enduring, close relationships.

• Baumeister and Leary (1995) illustrated the importance of social attachments:

  • Survival Benefit: Mutual attachments enhanced group survival for ancestors by facilitating hunting and shelter construction.

  • Procreation: Bonds of love between heterosexual partners lead to children, with two-parent support improving survival rates.

  • Child Development: Social attachments are vital for children's survival; separation from caregivers can cause panic, and neglect can lead to anxious behaviors.

  • Social Life: Relationships significantly influence the lives of university students and people of all sexual orientations, impacting thoughts and emotions.

  • Self-Esteem: Healthy relationships with partners, family, and friends boost self-esteem.

  • Social Acceptance: People seek acceptance and love, investing in cosmetics, clothing, and diets to enhance their appeal. Even those who seem aloof still desire acceptance (Carvallo & Gabriel, 2006).

  • Isolation: Exiled, imprisoned, or solitary individuals long for connection and suffer when rejected, increasing the risk of depression (Nolan & others, 2003). This isolation makes time seem slower and life less meaningful (Twenge & others, 2003).

  • Loss of Bonds: Loss of social bonds (e.g., through death, relocation) results in pain, loneliness, and withdrawal, intensifying awareness of mortality and life's fragility.

  • Mortality Salience: Heightened awareness of death increases the need to connect and hold loved ones close (Mikulincer & others, 2003; Wisman & Koole, 2003).

Key Terms

• Interpersonal Attraction: Showing a preference for another person, underlying the motivation to spend time with certain individuals.

• Need to Affiliate/Belong: The motive to establish, maintain, or restore social relationships, whether individually or through groups (McClelland & Koestner, 1992).

  • Affiliation relates to associating with accepting but indifferent people (e.g., classmates, coworkers).

  • Belonging involves deep attachment to individuals who truly care (e.g., family, significant others, best friends).

Research Findings:

• Leadership: Leaders high in the need for affiliation are more attentive to followers' needs and engage in transformational leadership (Steinmann, Otting, & Maier, 2016).

• Online Courses: Individuals with a high need for affiliation are less likely to want to take online courses, while those with a high need for autonomy are more inclined to do so (Seiver & Troja, 2014).

• Religiosity: Religiosity positively correlates with social affiliation unless the affiliation target is perceived as a threatening out-group member (e.g., an atheist) (van Cappellen et al., 2017).

• Group Exclusion: Fear of group exclusion can drive individuals with a high need for inclusion/affiliation to engage in pro-group unethical behaviors (Thau et al., 2015).

• Interpersonal Distance: Individuals with strong affiliation goals perceive smaller interpersonal distances (Stel & van Koningsbruggen, 2015).

Loneliness

• Loneliness arises when interpersonal relationships are unfulfilling, leading to psychological discomfort, particularly affecting the elderly.

• Tiwari (2013) identified three forms of loneliness:

  • Situational Loneliness: Arises from unpleasant experiences, conflicts, disasters, or accidents.

  • Developmental Loneliness: Results from an inability to balance the need for connection with the need for individualism, leading to a loss of meaning.

  • Internal Loneliness: Stems from low self-esteem, feelings of worthlessness, and inadequate coping strategies.

• Loneliness is considered a significant public health issue, leading to pain, injury, grief, fear, fatigue, exhaustion, sickness, and impaired daily functioning.

Implications

• Tiwari suggests that loneliness should be classified as a disease in psychiatric disorders due to its adverse effects.

Development of Affiliation and Attachment

• Smiling and Affiliation: Infants begin smiling at around 6-9 weeks old in response to pleasing stimuli. Social smiles, directed at others, become more selective as the infant matures.

• Emotional Communication: Smiling communicates positive emotion, and children become attuned to others' emotional expressions. Social smiles fade away if the adult is unresponsive.

• Stranger Anxiety: Before 6 months, infants are generally indifferent to strangers, but they develop stranger anxiety as they learn to predict events. Infants with more social experience show less anxiety.

• Factors Reducing Anxiety: Infants show less anxiety towards female strangers and children, possibly due to size and perceived threat.

• Emotional Detection: Infants begin to detect emotions, discerning vocal expressions before visual ones.

• Social Referencing: Around 8-9 months, infants use social referencing to seek information from caregivers in uncertain situations, such as the presence of a stranger.

  • The infant observes the caregiver's emotional reaction to determine how to respond.

• Play and Affiliation: Children's play behaviors evolve with age:

  • Solitary Play: Up to 1.5 years, children play alone.

  • Parallel Play: Between 1.5 and 2 years, children play side-by-side without direct interaction.

  • Associative Play: Children interact by sharing toys but do not engage in the same activity.

  • Cooperative Play: Around 3 years, children engage in group imagination games like "playing house."

  • Onlooker Play: Children participate by observing and waiting to join existing games.

Attachment

• Attachment is an emotional bond providing a sense of security. Early attachment styles influence later relationships.

• Ainsworth's Attachment Styles (1978):

  • Secure Attachment: The child uses the mother as a home base to explore, becomes upset upon separation, and seeks comfort upon her return.

  • Avoidant Attachment: The child avoids closeness and ignores the mother upon her return.

  • Ambivalent Attachment: The child shows mixed positive and negative emotions, remains close to the mother, limits exploration, and may act aggressively upon her return.

  • Disorganized-Disoriented Attachment: Characterized by inconsistent behaviors, confusion, and dazed behavior (Main & Solomon, 1990). For instance, approaching the mother without making eye contact.

Factors Influencing Attraction

• Proximity: Increased physical proximity leads to more interaction and greater liking.

  • Festinger, Schachter, and Back (1950) found proximity was a primary factor in friendship formation in a housing project.

  • Face-to-face communication, shared space, and time are essential factors (Monge & Kirste, 1980).

  • Proximity is a consistent determinant of interpersonal attraction across cultures (Allgeier and Byrne, 1972; Batool & Malik, 2010).

  • A study in Punjab, Pakistan, showed that friends living closer together had higher interpersonal attraction scores (Batool & Malik, 2010).

• Mere Exposure Effect: Repeated exposure to stimuli increases liking, even if the stimuli are initially negative.

  • Saegert, Swap, & Zajonc (1973) found that repeated exposure enhances attraction, even in unfavorable contexts.

  • Increasing familiarity through exposure increases attractiveness ratings of faces, with typical faces rated as more attractive than distinctive ones (Peskin and Newell, 2004).

• Physical Attractiveness: Attractive individuals are perceived as more interesting, happier, smarter, sensitive, and moral, leading to greater liking.

  • Halo Effect: A favorable attitude towards unrelated traits is associated with attractiveness.

  • Walster et al. (1966) found that physical attractiveness was the most significant determinant of liking and dating desire in a "Computer Dance" field study.

  • Hosoda, Stone-Romero, and Coats (2006) found that attractive individuals have advantages in employment decisions, although the beauty bias has weakened over time.,

• Similarity: Attraction is strongest towards those similar in religious and political beliefs, values, appearance, educational background, and age (Warren, 1966).

  • Similarity validates one's own beliefs and reduces uncertainty.

  • Perceived similarity with sports teams leads to group-derived self-definition (Fisher, 1998).

  • Matching hypothesis: We date others who are similar to us in terms of attractiveness.

• Reciprocity: We prefer those who make us feel rewarded and appreciated, fostering mutual exchange.

  • Interactions are mutually beneficial so long as the benefits outweigh the costs (Homans, 1961; Thibaut & Kelley, 1959).

  • Reciprocal liking and desire increase attraction (Aronson & Worchel, 1966; Greitmeyer, 2010).

• Playing Hard to Get: Research suggests that being selectively hard to get (easy for a specific person but hard for others) can increase desirability.

  • Men prefer women who are selectively hard to get (Walster et al., 1973).

  • Dai, Dong, and Jia (2014) found that playing hard to get increases wanting but decreases liking unless person A is committed to person B.

• Intimacy: Feeling close and trusting in another person, based on mutual self-disclosure.

  • Self-disclosure involves sharing deep secrets and beliefs with the expectation of reciprocal self-disclosure.

  • Sheldon (2009) found that Facebook users disclose personal secrets to those they like and trust.

  • Overdisclosure can reduce attractiveness.

• Mate Selection: Men and women employ different strategies influenced by evolutionary psychology.

  • Men seek signs of fertility (youth, attractiveness, health) and sexual faithfulness (Buss, 2004).

  • Women prioritize financial stability and provision for children, typically favoring older men.

  • Buss (1989) found that men prefer to marry women 2.7 years younger, while women prefer men 3.4 years older, cross-culturally.

6.2 Pro-social Behavior

• Prosocial behavior refers to actions that help others without immediate benefit to the helper.

Motives Behind Prosocial Behavior

• Empathy-Altruism: Helping others due to experiencing empathy and wanting to alleviate their suffering.

• Negative State Relief Model: Helping others to reduce one's own negative feelings.

• Empathic Joy: Helping others to accomplish something rewarding.

• Competitive Altruism: Helping others to enhance one's status and reputation.

• Kin Selection Theory: Helping genetic relatives to ensure the survival of shared genes.

Crucial Steps Determining Helping and Non-Helping (Latane and Darley, 1970)

• Noticing the Event: Recognizing that something unusual is happening.

• Interpreting the Event as an Emergency: Correctly identifying the situation as an emergency rather than something benign.

• Assuming Responsibility: Deciding that it is one's personal duty to provide assistance.

• Knowing How to Help: Possessing the necessary knowledge and skills to act effectively.

• Deciding to Implement Help: Making the final decision to provide help, weighing potential positive and negative consequences.

In summary, deciding to help involves several crucial steps and decisions that determine whether a bystander will intervene in an emergency.