Social Psychology: Relationships

• Relationships are a widely studied subject within social psychology, yet are hard to study because people can't be assigned to relationships, longitudinal studies are often conducted.
• Relationships fulfill a biological need to belong, supported by Harlow's monkey experiments and findings that divorced/widowed individuals have elevated mortality, suicide, and crime rates.
• Most college students maintain about 6 close relationships.

Ways of Relating

• Communal Relationships: Individuals feel a special responsibility for each other, and give and receive based on need.
• Exchange Relationships: Individuals feel little responsibility; giving and receiving are governed by equity and reciprocity, often seen in shorter-term relationships with a "you owe me, I owe you" dynamic.

Reward & Exchange in Interpersonal Relationships

• Social Exchange Theory: Relationship satisfaction is based on assessments of costs and rewards.
• People aim to maximize satisfaction and rewards (rewards > costs) in interactions, they use comparison level (CL) which is expectations for what one should get out of a relationship.
• Comparison Level for Alternatives (CL-Alt) reflects the perceived outcomes available in a different relationship.
• Equity Theory: People seek fairness in relationships, and equitable relationships have similar reward-to-cost ratios for both partners.

Attachment Styles

• Attachment Theory: Early attachments with parents/caregivers shape relationships throughout life.
• Secure Base: Caregivers consistently meet needs, fostering a secure base.
• Children develop "working models" of relationships based on availability and responsiveness, influencing perspectives and attitudes in adulthood.
• Mary Ainsworth conducted a "Strange Situation" study, observing three patterns when mothers left and returned to their 1-year-old babies.
• Babies that are secure explore with mom present, are upset when mom leaves, and are comforted upon her return.
• Babies that are anxious are distressed even with mom present, more upset when mom leaves, and have mixed reactions upon return, stemming from inconsistent availability and responsiveness.
• Babies that are avoidant don't explore or go to mom and are unaffected by her leaving, lacking comfort-seeking behavior due to consistently low availability and responsiveness.
• Follow-up studies on these babies as teenagers showed lasting consistency in attachment styles, with occasional shifts due to significant life events.

Attachment Types or Dimensions

• Hazan & Shaver (1987) translated infant-caregiver attachment patterns into adult relationships.
• Secure adults find it easy to be close to others and don't worry about abandonment.
• Avoidant individuals are uncomfortable being close, struggle to trust others, and are nervous when others get too close.
• Anxious-Ambivalent individuals want to merge with a partner and worry about their partner’s love and desire to stay.
• Self-reported attachment types have notable correlates.
• There are different levels of anxiety and avoidance dimensions that affect attachment styles.

Attraction

• Attraction is defined as the desire to form a relationship with someone.
• Proximity breeds attraction, which is the tendency to form friendships or romantic relationships with those encountered often.
• A notable 1950 study examined friendship formation among residents of a married-student apartment complex at MIT.
• After a year, residents were asked to name their three closest friends, and 65% lived in the same building, 41% were next-door neighbors, 22% were two doors down, and 10% were at opposite ends of the floor.
• Residents near stairs and the mail room on the first floor had more friends upstairs than other first-floor residents.
• Mere Exposure Effect: Repeated exposure to a stimulus, like a person or object, increases liking.
• A study showed that female research confederates attended a large lecture class either 0, 5, 10, or 15 times, and students rated liking for each woman at the end of the semester.
• Birds of a feather flock together; as people are generally more attracted to those similar to themselves.
• Similarity is important because, when others like qualities that we like, it validates us and makes us feel better about ourselves and more confident that they will like us.
• Familiarity is also an aspect.
• Opposites Attract: Opposites can attract when one person fulfills a core need of the other.
• For example, an independent person paired with someone nurturing fulfills their need.
• Status exchange is also another factor.