IBP Social Psychology Summary -Liking, loving, and other close relationships -ch 7

Social and Organizational Psychology

IBP 2017-2018

Liking, loving, and other close relationships

Interpersonal attraction: refers to the evaluations we make of other people, our attitudes towards them

• Direct effects on attraction: occur when another person is responsible for arousing positive emotions or feelings
• Indirect effects: occur when the emotion comes from another source, and another person is simply associated with its presence
  • applied by advertisers and political tacticians who understand that associating products and candidates with positive feelings can influence our purchasing and voting decisions

Proximity: nearness to each other

• Repeated exposure effect: the more often we are exposed to a new stimulus (e.g.: a new person) the more favorable our evaluation of it tends to become

Physical attractiveness

• Attraction toward others is often strongly influenced by their observable characteristic

• “Love is blind”: Partners in romantic relationships tend to perceive each other as more attractive than people outside the relationships
• Other observable characteristics that influence interpersonal evaluations include physique, weight, and even the color red

Similarity

• The similarity–dissimilarity effect:  people respond positively to those who are similar to them and negatively to those who are dissimilar
• The larger the proportion of similarity, the greater the attraction
• Matching hypothesis: we tend to choose romantic partners who are similar to ourselves in terms of physical attractiveness
• Balance theory: when two people like each other and discover they are similar in some specific respect, this constitutes a state of balance, which is emotionally pleasant
• Social comparison theory: you compare your attitudes and beliefs with those of others because the only way you can evaluate the accuracy of your views

Love

• Combination of emotions, cognitions, and behaviors
• Triangular model of love: passion, intimacy, and decision/commitment
  • consummate love: if these components are equally strong and balanced
  • companionate love: is based shared interests, respect, and concern for one another’s welfare
• Two factors that can destroy romantic love are jealousy and infidelity

The attachment styles in childhood (secure, fearful-avoidant, preoccupied, and dismissing) influence the nature of other relationships

Affiliation: the motivation to interact with other people in a cooperative way

References:

Baron, R., & Branscombe, N. (2016). Social psychology (14th edition) Harlow: Pearson Education Limited

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