Lecture 7: Attraction - Social Psychology PDF

Lecture 7 Attraction and close relationship Ch 14 P. 542, 558 P.570 P. 560 Ch12. P478 P.561 P.456 key word: law of attractions • attraction toward a person is a linear relationship to the actual proportion of similar attitude shared with that person • anything that other people do that agrees w...

Lecture 7 Attraction and close relationship Ch 14 P. 542, 558 P.570 P. 560 Ch12. P478 P.561 P.456 key word: law of attractions • attraction toward a person is a linear relationship to the actual proportion of similar attitude shared with that person • anything that other people do that agrees with your perception of things is rewarding = the more other people agree, the more they act as reinforcers for you and the more you like them key word: reinforcement-affect model • postulates that we like people around when we experience positive feeling (which itself is reinforcing) Types of relationships Beyond communal and exchange relationships . -(7 key word: communal • communal sharing based on a sense of sameness and kinship. Resources are generated by those in the group capable of doing so, and resources go to those in need • authority ranking based on hierarchy, status, and a linear ordering of people within a group • equality matching based on equality, reciprocity, and balance • market pricing based on a sense of proportion, trade, and equity, in which people are concerned with ensuring that their inputs to a relationship correspond to what they get out of the relationship. key word: exchange Key word: Social Exchange Theory • people often use a form of everyday economics when they weigh up cost and rewards before deciding what to do. key word: behaviourism • an emphasis on explaining observable behaviour in terms of reinforcement schedule • study interpersonal relationships that incorporates interaction Propinquity T key word: proximity • the factor of living close by is known to play an important role in the early stages of forming a friendship • where you live or work- think of this as the neighbourhood factor e.g. people were more likely to choose as friends those living in the same building and even on the same floor e.g. chatting with neighbours in the street is an important form social interaction. It increases mutual liking and also promotes cooperation. result: • 1 and 5 are closer to the staircases used by upper-floor residents and are therefore more likely to encounter them • Friendships occurred more often between 1 and 6 than between 2 and 7 key word: familiarity • as we become more familiar with a stimulus (even another person), we feel more comfortable with it and we like it more e.g. if we encounter the faces of strangers more often, we gradually come to like it more • when something familiar seems different, people feel uncomfortable e.g. people do not usually like horror reversals of photos of their own or others’ faces key word: mere exposure effect • repeated exposure to an object results in greater attraction to that object e.g. advertisers use it to make us feel familiar with the new products The less is more effect * • E the more we learn about another person, the more we uncover things that make that person dissimilar from ourselves. e.g. workers like their boss less the longer they have worked for them bottom line: • all things being equal, familiarity does create a positive perception and increase attraction • if stumble up dissimilarities and learn undesirable things about the other person, then that discover HE initially favourable impression may change • Most effective if stimulus is initially viewed as positive or neutral • Pre-existing conflicts between people will get intensified, not decrease, with exposure • There is an optimal level of exposure: • too much can lead to boredom and satiation ** D Similarity • In romantic relationships, the tendency to choose similar others is called the matching principle. • People choose mates who are similar to themselves in terms of physical attractiveness and other characteristics (e.g., intelligence, Interests, demographics like age, education, religion, personality characteristics) shadow • Much research on similarity uses the Bogus Stranger (aka phantom-other) technique, where the so-called other person is really a carefully scripted set of answers to a questionnaire. Many studies using this technique show the high relationship between similarity & liking e • Belief validation Consensus validation of beliefs and attitudes is reinforcing • Smooth interactions e . g . Similar preferences and intentions facilitates interactions - g. ( *** • Expectancy of liking Narcissistic (We like ourselves) We like those who like us (reciprocity of liking) • Qualities that we like Our beliefs and values are valid and desirable Similar people also have these desirable qualities e . g . We are no . 1 . Physical attractiveness key word: halo effect -> - Physical action/trait negatively cognitive negative impression -> attractive-> bias Success , kind : • not just but also inner Beauty is more than just skin-deep -- • People judge a book by its cover • Beauty is more than just in the eye of the beholder about appearance qualities , kindness personality cannot be external solely judge by features Assumptions: 1. physical beauty is ultimately important win real life decisions, implying that social factors must play some part in how relationships are formed e.g. socialisation theory emphasis the effects on judgements of beauty of social and cultural norms and experiences, social expectancy theory creates social stereotypes create theory own reality. • Beauty is more than just skin-deep For both adults and children, attractiveness is strongly related to popularity, and to success for adults. Attractiveness is moderately related to both intelligence/performance and adjustment in children and to both dating and sexual experience in adults. key word: Self-fulfilling prophecy • People judge a book by its cover • Expectations and assumptions about a person that influence our interaction with that person and eventually changed their behaviour in line with our expectation , “NEVER JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER”? People do judge and treat others with whom they interact based on attractiveness For children, attractiveness had the largest effect on evaluations of competence, followed by negative interaction, and positive interaction. Attractive adults were also treated significantly more favorably than unattractive adults were. Attractiveness had the largest effect on attention, followed by reward, positive interaction, positive impression management, negative interaction, and help-giving/cooperation. Contrary to popular belief, attractiveness effects extend beyond mere “opinions” of others and M permeate actual actions towards others, even though people may not be aware of it. Carl Word procedure: 1st experiment: 1. white ppt act as interviewers, interviewed black and white applicants 2. To treat black and white applicants differently • More speech errors: poor grammar, imprecision, disrupted fluency • Shorter interview and less non-verbal engagement 2nd experiment: 1. another set of white ppts was trained to use with the black or the white interview style to interview the white applicants result: • the white interviewers who used the black interview style subsequently considered that the white applicant had performed less well and more nervous than did those interviewers who used the white interview style white interviewers + black interview style ->> perform us ANTECEDENTS OF ATTRACTIVENESS • Immediacy E # Immediacy: physical attractiveness is in the foreground, it is perhaps the first stimulus we receive from a person. • Biology 1. Cross-cultural agreement on what is attractive result: - The average male face was more attractive than any one individual male face - The average female face was more attractive than all but one individual female face - Although symmetry and average-ness was correlated, the effect of average-ness remained significant when the effects of symmetry and expression were partialled out. • The attractiveness of average facial configuration cannot be attributed solely to their symmetry key word: averageness effect - humans have evolved to prefer average faces to those with unusual or distinctive features. 2. Beauty is more than just in the eye of the beholder * Reproductive fitness - Prestige (market-value hypothesis) result: Attractive people do better in life result: Attractive people receive better treatment by others 3. Reproductive fitness TBP. 557 key word: Reproductive fitness • IEEE people guess whether a prospective mate has good genes, using cues such as physical health, youthful appearance and body and facial symmetry. • development of interpersonal attraction is related to how we select a mate · Individual's ability to pass on their genes to next generation BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER”? result : Attractiveness are similarly perceived across different groups