PSYC 362 Exam Notes PDF

Lecture 1: Adult Attachment and Partner Buffering - Interdependent relationship: a relationship in which the behaviour of each participant affects the other. Interdependence is the defining characteristic of any social relationship - Personal relationship: an interdependent relat...

Lecture 1: Adult Attachment and Partner Buffering - Interdependent relationship: a relationship in which the behaviour of each participant affects the other. Interdependence is the defining characteristic of any social relationship - Personal relationship: an interdependent relationship in which the partners consider each other special and unique - Close relationship: a personal relationship in which the partners have strong and frequent influence on each other across a variety of activities - Intimate relationship: a close relationship that includes some kind of sexual passion that could be expressed and shared - Social relationships were and are essential for survival ➔ bonding with others and being a part of a social group resulted in a greater chance of survival and greater reproductive success ➔ if a process was adaptive for our ancestors, corresponding genes were more likely to be passed on, become more common ➔ thus, we have evolved to think, feel, and respond to others in certain ways ➔ a focus on relationships therefore became an important and strong drive, and comes innately prepared when we are born ➔ we are naturally and instinctively driven toward establishing and sustaining belongingness, which has cognitive, emotional, behavioural, biological and neural consequences - The most common problem in therapy is troubled relationships: 31% - Those high in attachment anxiety had inconsistent caregiving and their family dynamics were characterized as having frequent tension or disagreements as well as blurred boundaries. Individuals have low self-worth, intense fears of abandonment and rejection, are hypervigilant to potential signs of rejection, and believe they are unloveable. When distressed they place an excessive amount of reliance on others, are dependent and needy, have intense negative affect, and demand closeness and attention. - Those high in attachment avoidance had cold and rejecting caregiving and tend to report distant family relations. Individuals have a deep distrust of the intentions and reliability of others, value self-reliance and independence, downplay the importance of close relationships, and rebuff intimacy. When distressed, they avoid seeking support, suppress attachment needs and emotions, defensively avoid dependence and closeness, and blame others or withdraw. - Buffering refers to the efforts directed at trying to manage or regulate insecure peoples’ defensive behaviour and tendencies. Partners can behave in responsive ways that help down-regulate defensive reactions during threatening contexts. Dyadic regulation can result in more positive relationship outcomes and build more secure and trusting expectations over time.  - For individuals with attachment anxiety, partner buffering behaviors that enhance feelings of security and perceived regard include: ➔ demonstrating care and love ➔ expressing affection and sexual satisfaction ➔ expressing commitment to the relationship - Higher attachment anxiety: ➔ more affected by relationship conflict ➔ exaggerate hurt feelings to pull reassurance from partners ➔ are comforted by partners’ guilt ➔ get jealous quicker and more intensely ➔ jealousy leads to passive-aggressive responses ➔ partner’s affectionate touch can offset jealous feelings by providing reassurance - For individuals with attachment avoidance, partner buffering behaviors that highlight partners’ unwavering care and acceptance include: ➔ clear and high levels of practical support ➔ validating their autonomy and independence ➔ acknowledging their efforts in the relationship ➔ expressing gratitude and communicating acceptance, validation and regard - Higher attachment avoidance: ➔ avoid seeking support because they expect to be rejected ➔ do not respond to partners’ emotional support (too threatening) ➔ benefit from partner’s practical support ➔ more distant and withdrawn ➔ less relationship focused self-disclosure ➔ less intimacy and closeness ➔ less committed to relationships ➔ distance themselves from partners ➔ prioritize independence ➔ benefit from positive relationship experiences and trust Lecture 2: Initial Attraction and Self-Expansion Theory - The 3 factors that contribute to attractiveness are: (1) similarity, (2) familiarity, and (3) reciprocity - Similarity can include physical and demographic characteristics, personality, as well as attitudes and values. The matching hypothesis is that partners tend to have similar levels of attractiveness. Similarity is attractive because when others have beliefs and ideas that are like ours, they provide reinforcement for our beliefs and ideas. We can better predict the behavior of similar others and we also expect those who are similar to us to be more likely to like us.  ➔ Hobbies, style, music are associated with initial attraction, but not lasting satisfaction ➔ Similar attitudes are associated with lasting satisfaction, companionship, and love ➔ High levels of similarity in negative personality traits is not advantageous or satisfying - Familiarity: the mere exposure effect suggests that we like people, pictures, and objects that we have seen more (but this is only if we’ve seen them under neutral conditions). - Reciprocity: we like people who like us and like others more after knowing they like us. This is especially true if we’re pretty sure the liking is due to something about us. Sometimes, people continue to love someone that doesn’t love them back (unrequited love), because the capacity to reciprocate is high, we think they will eventually return the feelings, and the feeling of simply being in love is rewarding enough. - Mate value refers to the idea that we often consider our own traits and attractiveness as a partner when approaching those we are attracted to. - The ideal standards model suggests that the most ideal traits in a romantic partner are: ➔ warmth/trustworthiness ➔ attractiveness/vitality ➔ status/resources - These standards drop in importance from long-term to short-term except for physical attractiveness. People tend to have a “what is beautiful is good” stereotype; people think that attractive others are smarter, friendlier, and nicer overall. Because of the self-fulfilling prophecy, attractive people may indeed be a little nicer and friendlier. They’re treated by others as though they were nicer and friendlier, which prompts them to actually be nicer and friendlier. ➔ We find symmetry to be attractive. From an evolutionary perspective, symmetry was an indicator of physical health and thus, we tend to associate symmetry with those who have better survival and reproductive outcomes. Today, symmetrical people have higher levels of estradiol (greater fertility), get sick less often, and have better physical and mental health. ➔ Features that are average across faces tend to be more attractive to us. ➔ Among women, sexual maturity features, such as prominent cheekbones, narrow cheeks, and a broad smile tend to be seen as more attractive. Neonate features such as large eyes, small nose + chin, and full lips are also seen as more attractive. ➔ Among males, masculine features like a strong broad jaw or broad forehead and feminized features like slightly rounder faces and less prominent brows are seen as more attractive. However, preferences vary across the ovulatory cycle. ➔ Men prefer slightly younger partners and prioritize physical attractiveness. Partners’ resources were less beneficial. Partners’ fertility was more important; men who prioritized fertility cues had greater reproductive success. ➔ Women prefer slightly older partners and prioritize resources. Securing resources was more difficult (physical differences, pregnancy), thus more important; women (and their children) were more likely to survive if they prioritized partners with resources.  - Based on the self-expansion theory, we have a desire to expand the self—to acquire resources, perspectives, and identities that enhance one’s ability to accomplish goals. This manifests as a motivation to enhance potential self-efficacy. Self-expansion is inherently pleasurable and motivating; may be relatively unconscious motivation for our behavior. We can accomplish self-expansion through opportunities in new relationships, by including the other in the self, and by participating in self-expanding activities. Lecture 3: Interdependence Theory and The Investment Model - The interdependence theory is rooted in the social exchange theory in which the motivation behind social relations is to maximize profits and minimize losses. - Outcome = Rewards - Costs ➔ Rewards are the desirable relationship experiences ➔ Costs are the undesirable relationship experiences - They can be tangible/material or intangible/social - Costs are particularly influential; we pay attention to and remember them more than rewards (5 to 1 ratio). - The comparison level (CL) are our personal standards and what we feel we deserve. We are satisfied when outcomes exceed CL and dissatisfied when outcomes are worse. Our comparison levels are influenced by previous relationship experiences, observing others’ relationships, and personality dispositions. - Satisfaction = Outcomes - Comparison level ➔ If we have a high comparison level, we expect relationships to be rewarding and low rewards are unacceptable or disappointing. ➔ If we have a low comparison level, we expect relationships to be troublesome and low rewards are acceptable or tolerable. - People in the most satisfying relationships break up for a number of reasons ➔ What we realistically expect we could get in another relationship or situation ➔ Other alternatives currently available ➔ Includes other partners or no partner ➔ Standard against which we decide to stay or leave - Dependence = Outcomes - Comparison level of Alternatives - Dependence refers to how free a person feels to leave the relationship - Our comparison level of alternatives is influenced by the presence of currently available partners who are realistic options. If there is a lack of fairness or reciprocity, the under benefited partner may leave. - Shifts in satisfaction may result due to changes in rewards and costs, because effort declines, partners know more and there is a greater means to hurt us, incompatibilities and problems become more apparent, unrealistic expectations. - Shifts in satisfaction may result due to changes in our comparison level and comparison level of alternatives, because there are shifts in our own standards and cultural changes, such as women working, bigger social markets, and reduced stigma around divorce have increased alternatives.  - Commitment helps to protect and maintain relationships: ➔ committed individuals derogate alternatives ➔ respond more constructively when dissatisfied ➔ more likely to forgive partners’ transgressions and make more sacrifices for the relationship Lecture 4: Interpersonal Cognition - Social cognition refers to the cognitive processes that process social information - Interpersonal cognition is how we think about close relationships - The 4 goals of interpersonal cognition are: (1) seeking relationships, (2) understanding relationships, (3) maintaining relationships, and (4) dissolving relationships. - Seeking relationships: we make impressions quickly and are able to recognize social group membership by assessing sex, age, financial status, style, and attractiveness. ➔ it takes us 1/25th of a second to judge emotional expressions, ethnicity, gender ➔ 1/10th of a second to judge attractiveness, likability, trustworthiness ➔ 5 seconds to judge personality - First impressions are lasting; the primacy effect is the phenomenon whereby we remember initial information better than later information and this influences interpretation of later information. - Understanding relationships: beliefs are our ideas or theories about what the world is like. - Beliefs that are associated with less satisfying relationships include: disagreements are destructive, “mind reading” signals you are in sync, partners cannot change, sex should be perfect every time. ➔ Those with destiny beliefs believe that people are destined to be compatible or not. These individuals are initially happier with relationships. ➔ Those with growth beliefs believe good relationships take work. These individuals are constructive, optimistic, and committed in the face of relationship conflicts. - Attributions are the explanations we use to understand each other’s behavior ➔ Internal attributions place the cause on the individual ➔ External attributions place the cause on something external ➔ Stable attributions are lasting (eg. personality) ➔ Unstable attributions are temporary - Partners often agree about what they did, but not WHY they did it. This can be explained by 2 phenomena. ➔ The self-serving bias states that we tend to make internal attributions for our positive behavior, but external attributions for our negative behavior. ➔ The actor/observer effect suggests that people generate different explanations for their own actions than they do for the similar actions they observe in others. - Satisfaction influences attributions of partners’ behavior ➔ Satisfied people make internal attributions for partners’ good behavior and external attributions for partners’ bad behavior. Relationship enhancing; people become happier  ➔ Unsatisfied people make external attributions for partners’ good behavior and internal attributions for partners’ bad behavior. Distress maintaining; people become more unhappy - Benevolent attributions are beneficial when facing relatively minor problems (e.g., partner leaves their socks on the floor), but harmful when facing more severe problems (e.g., partner drinks too much). - Maintaining relationships: Cognitive strategies that help maintain relationships include: optimistic predictions, positive illusions, and self-verification. ➔ Optimistic predictions: when it comes to accurately predicting the length of romantic relationships, roommates were the most accurate, followed by the parents. ➔ Our positive illusions emphasize partners’ positive qualities and minimize faults. We also tend to judge partners more favorably than they judge themselves. Positive illusions are good for relationships, they are related to increased relationship satisfaction and stability and give the benefit of the doubt. They also focus on positive rather than negative aspects of the partner/ relationship, which can minimize conflict. Positive illusions can foster attachment security. Minor illusions smooth social interaction, major illusions minimize problems. ➔ The self-verification theory proposes that we want partners to see us as we see ourselves. Violations of self-concept are viewed as a threat to intra- and interpersonal functioning; we seek confirmation whether these violations are positive or negative. - When relationships are NEW, positive illusions are more beneficial than self-verification. - However, in LONG-TERM relationships, self-verification is more beneficial than positive illusions. - Dissolving relationships: People commonly hold ambivalent thoughts and feelings for staying versus leaving a relationship. People are less likely to break up with a partner if they think their partner is dependent on them. People have a retrospective negative bias of past relationship quality; people see their relationship as worse than it actually was during the time. This retrospective bias helps us get over relationships. Lecture 5: Sex, Passion, and Intimacy - Sexuality is a key mechanism through which relationships have health and well-being benefits. - Sexual frequency is associated with increased sexual satisfaction and benefits for satisfaction with life in general. This is consistent for men and women, for people from various societies around the globe, for same-sex and mixed-sex couples. - The link between sexual frequency and sexual satisfaction is bidirectional. - Sex is important for well-being, because sex can be an effective way to demonstrate responsiveness and responsive support helps buffer against stress and has emotional benefits. - Having sex once a week or more is associated with the same happiness as someone who makes 50k or more. - There is tension between the need for security and novelty. - Baumeister and Bratslavsky proposed that passion is a function of change in intimacy ➔ Passion is low when intimacy is stable (either high or low) ➔ Passion is high when intimacy is rising  - Sexual desire and satisfaction can also be difficult to maintain over the course of time. Many couples might remember the early stages of their relationship – typically passions are running high and desire is intense, but over time this often fades. - Conflicts about sex are one of the TOP 3 most cited arguments when couples seek therapy. - Women don’t like talking about sex, because they worry that expressing likes/ dislikes will scare their partner away. Couples often estimate partners’ ideal duration of foreplay/intercourse based on cultural scripts vs. partner’s actual desire. - 25% of men and 50% of women report faking orgasm. Individuals want sex to end, and an orgasm seems unlikely, so they want to avoid hurting their partner. Women may fake an orgasm in an attempt to retain their mate. The problems with faking an orgasm is that it emphasizes orgasm as the end goal for sex, may lead a partner to think technique is more effective than it actually is, and can lead to feelings of insecurity and anger. - Sexual communication is important for sexual satisfaction and sexual well-being. Sexual assertiveness is linked to satisfaction. Couples with sexual problems have poorer sexual and non-sexual communication. - The best way to communicate feelings/thoughts about sex is nonverbally DURING sex, which is related to greater satisfaction. Using more sexual terms rather than technical terms can also be beneficial. - We can foster better sexual satisfaction through (1) relationship motives (sexual communal strength), (2) beliefs about sex, and (3) self-expanding activities. ➔ The motivation to meet a partner’s sexual needs while neglecting one’s own needs is unlikely to be beneficial for either partner in the relationship (unmitigated sexual communion). ➔ Those higher in sexual growth beliefs experience higher relationship and sexual satisfaction, and have partners who are more satisfied. The effects of sexual destiny beliefs on satisfaction are contingent upon signs of partner compatibility. ➔ A key reason that people experience declines in sexual desire and satisfaction is because of declining passion. Re-creating the spark in relationships might help couples maintain sexual desire and satisfaction over time. ➔ People who report engaging in greater self-expansion during daily life report greater sexual desire, which fosters greater relationship satisfaction. Sexual desire mediates (explains why) the link between self-expansion activities and sexual/relationship satisfaction. Lecture 6: Conflict Communication - Conflict is inescapable. - Dating couples have 2.3 conflicts/week. - Among married couples, individuals disagree on 23% of days: ➔ Major disagreement: 3% of days ➔ Minor disagreement: 20% of days ➔ Spouses’ agreement regarding disagreements: major = 98%, minor = 82% - But they do something fun on 24% of days - The 3 most popular things couples fight about are: (1) children; 38% of conflicts, (2) chores; 25% of conflicts, and (3) communication; 22% of conflicts. - There are 4 causes of conflict: ➔ Autonomy versus Connection: Relationships require that people balance their need for freedom and their need for intimacy with others. ➔ Openness versus Closedness: Sometimes we want to be open and honest with our partners, and at other times we want to preserve our privacy. ➔ Stability versus Change: We often want stability in our relationship, but too much stability may lead to boredom and the desire for exciting change. ➔ Integration versus Separation: How much overlap do you want there to be with your partner and people outside of your relationship. - Additional causes include: criticism, perceived illegitimate demands, rebuffs (rejected appeals for support), cumulative annoyances (social allergies), attributional conflict (differing explanations for events; self-serving bias; actor-observer bias). - Conflict is a process with 5 stages: (1) instigation, (2) conflict communication, (3) responses to conflict, (4) conflict resolution, and (5) conflict patterns. - Instigation: harsh startup occurs when an individual begins a conversation in a negative way or with an accusation. 96% of the time, the tone of the first 3 minutes predicts the outcome of the conversation. Flooding is the physiological response to sudden or overwhelming negativity from a partner; a strong emotional/physical reaction akin to shell-shock. The partner's negative emotions are unexpected, unprovoked, intense, overwhelming, and disorganizing and thus the partner will do anything to terminate the interaction. - Conflict communication: engagement often involves partner-regulation as well as attempts to change partners’ undesirable behavior; enacted to enhance the relationship (not to be mean!). - Responses to conflict: responses to conflict can vary by being active/passive and constructive/destructive. ➔ Exit: actively withdrawing or removing self from the situation/relationship (active + destructive) ➔ Voice: constructively working to improve (active + constructive) ➔ Neglect: ignoring problems and partner (passive + destructive) ➔ Loyalty: waiting and hoping for improvement (passive + constructive) - Voice is more common among satisfying relationships and secure attachments - Destructive is more common among people with attractive alternatives, insecure attachment, and masculine gender roles - Conflict resolution: couples can solve conflicts in 3 ways: (1) separation, (2) domination, and (3) compromise - Conflict patterns: Gottman’s Four Horsemen are criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling. ➔ Criticism involves attacking personality or character rather than airing disagreements by focusing on specific behavior. ➔ Contempt is one step up from criticism and involves tearing down or being insulting towards a partner; displaying disrespect and disgust through eye rolling, sneering, or sarcastic put-downs.  ➔ Defensiveness involves denying responsibility, making excuses, or cross-complaining ➔ Stonewalling is the refusal to respond, a withdrawal from the conflict, the relationship, and from the partner - Negative affect reciprocity is a cycle in which: Partner A criticizes > Partner B gets upset > Partner B criticizes > Partner A gets upset - The demand/withdraw pattern occurs when Partner A engages in negative-direct > Partner B withdraws. Lecture 7: Social Support - Social support is conceptualized as responsiveness to another’s needs and, more specifically, as acts that communicate care; that validate the other’s worth, feelings, or actions; or that facilitate adaptive coping with problems through the provision of information, assistance, or tangible resources. - Ancestral humans had great difficulty surviving without others, because they were slow and weak, required a lot of calories, were vulnerable during pregnancy/childbirth, and extremely vulnerable prior to adulthood. Close others could help us meet these challenges by sharing food/resources, helping raise offspring, acquiring resources, and by providing protection and knowledge. Thus, we evolved to seek support. - We also evolved to provide support. Providing support increases our status and decreases chances of rejection. We have to balance it with our own survival goals. We help when: (1) we believe others would reciprocate support, and (2) we are experiencing empathy. - Social support is beneficial based on two models: ➔ Direct Effect Model: social relationships directly encourage or indirectly model healthy behaviours ➔ Stress Buffering Model: Social relationships help with the demands of life and coping in times of stress, and prevent or minimize detrimental psychological and physical responses to stressful events - There are 4 different types of support: ➔ Emotional support consists of attempts to console partner ➔ Esteem support includes attempts to increase partners’ confidence/self-efficacy ➔ Instrumental support offers direct assistance to resolve a problem ➔ Negative Support is the act of being critical or invalidating the partner, or controlling about how to handle the issue - People who report having supportive others tend to experience better outcomes. Relational benefits include: trust, closeness/intimacy, and satisfaction. Personal benefits include: better adjustment to stressful life events, better mental health, less susceptible to disease, lower mortality, and a better chance to achieve personal goals. - Social support predicts lower mortality over and above important health behaviours - There is lower mortality among people who provide greater support. In fact, providing support was a stronger predictor of mortality than receiving support. However, believing you have supportive others is beneficial, but receiving greater support is not. - Visible support is often direct and overt. It can be detrimental for recipients’ personal outcomes; can cause greater depressed mood and anxiety as well as lower self-efficacy. This can be due to several factors:  ➔ It can increase the salience of stressors ➔ It can threaten competence and efficacy ➔ It can make people feel like they are a burden and indebted to partners Lecture 8: Jealousy, Infidelity, and Divorce - Jealousy is the reaction to a threat to a valued relationship. ➔ Reactive jealousy is a response to an actual threat; normative ➔ Suspicious jealousy is a response to no actual threat; people differ in suspicious jealousy - Factors that affect the experience of jealousy include: relationship dependence, the inability to meet partner’s needs, discrepancies in relational/mate value, attachment style, personality, and traditional gender roles. There are no gender differences to experiencing jealousy. - Rivals who make us look bad and rivals with a greater mate value make us jealous - Jealousy motivates protective behaviors. Men are more threatened by sexual infidelity due to paternity uncertainty. Women are more threatened by emotional infidelity due to differential investment. - Responses to jealousy can manifest in 3 ways: ➔ Cognitive: warranted or unwarranted suspicions. We are motivated to change our self-concept in order to become similar to ‘rivals.’ ➔ Emotional: feelings of negativity in response to jealousy ➔ Behavioural: detective or protective measures - All three components of jealousy are associated with worse personal outcomes, including: loss of relationship rewards, loss of self-esteem, depression, anxiety, and anger. For relationship outcomes, only cognitive and behavioral jealousy are associated with lower relationship satisfaction and commitment. - Responses may be either beneficial or harmful. ➔ Attachment style: ★ Secure: express concerns; try to repair relationship ★ Avoidant: devalue partner ★ Anxious: clingy, demanding ➔ Gender differences ★ Women tend to improve mate value ★ Increase attractiveness (try to please partner) ★ Men tend to protect against rivals (confront rival, mate guard) - Deception is the act of intentionally creating a false impression. Behaviours can include outright lying, concealing of information, half-truths, and diverting attention from important facts. ➔ Self-serving lies are those that benefit the liar; can be used to prevent embarrassment, guilt, or inconvenience or to seek approval or material gain. ➔ Benevolent lies are those that benefit others; common in close relationships. - Lies in close relationships tend to be more benevolent and discovered. Lying cues are idiosyncratic and we can learn to detect them with practice or accurate feedback. Partners often tend to exhibit a truth bias, in which they assume partners are telling the truth because they trust them. Most lies aren’t immediately detected and the ability to detect lies declines over time. - Betrayal is the violation of relational standard (implicit or explicit) regarding physical or emotional exclusivity. - Infidelity can come in 2 forms: physical non-monogamy occurs along a continuum of physical involvement. Emotional non-monogamy is characterized by emotional intimacy, secrecy, or sexual chemistry. - Infidelity is the 2nd leading cause of divorce for women and the 3rd for men. Therapists say that it is the third most difficult issue to treat among couples. On average, they occur 1-2 in a lifetime in the form of a relationship that develops incrementally and lasts 6 months (an average at 7 years of marriage). - Predictors of infidelity include: relationship quality/distress/satisfaction/communication quality/shared activities; relationship status, past behaviour of partners, personality, religiosity. Couples who were divorce prone, tend to experience infidelity, which leads to more divorce proneness. - Learning about infidelity in a relationship is best when it comes unsolicited from the partner; worst when individuals are informed by a third party or catch their partners red-handed. - The Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation model is one way to explain divorce - The Process of Adaptation in Intimate Relationships is another which suggests 3 possibilities in explaining why marital satisfaction declines. ➔ Enduring Dynamics model (best for predicting declines in satisfaction): problems emerge during courtship and are often recognized before marriage; marriages ending in divorce are weaker from the beginning. ➔ Emergent Distress model: problems emerge after marriage (no differences between marriages that do and do not end in divorce). ➔ Disillusionment model (best for predicting divorce): early relationship perceptions are unrealistically positive; problems emerge once perceptions become more realistic. - There are 5 general stages to divorce: (1) Personal phase: one partner grows dissatisfied (2) Dyadic phase: discontent revealed, attempts to improve quality (3) Social phase: publicize distress, seek support from family & friends (4) Grave-dressing phase: create narrative to explain decision, reassess relationship, rationalize decision (5) Resurrection phase: re-enter social life as single person - After divorce, there is a decrease in well-being as it is the 2nd most stressful life event, more time is spent with family and friends, but individuals lose about half of their social networks, there is a loss of joint income. Men’s standard of living increases, while women’s decreases.