Social Psychology—Lecture NotesLecture 1-Attraction• Need to belongo Humans have a fundamental and powerful need to belongo They need both regular social contact and stable relationships with mutual concern• Rejection leads to:o Pain, illness, depression, suicide, eating disorders, helplessness, promiscuity, low self-esteem, lowering meaning in life, emotional numbness, decreased cognitive functioning, decreased self control, less prosocial, aggression• MacDonald and Learyo Rejected, excluded animals lost pain sensitivity• Pankseppo Social emotion piggybacks on physical pain system Perhaps, rejection stuns create temporary numbness to both pain and emotion• Pressure Algometer• Emotional Insensitivity: Interpersonal Empathyo Rejected people can’t feel their own pain Physical and emotionalo Can we expect them to feel other’s pain? Empathy-emotion that encourages prosocial behavior and inhibits aggressiono Rejection Summary Numb to physical pain Numb to others’ emotional pain (less empathy)• How do we get friendship?o Propinquity- the more we see and interact with people, the more likely we are to become friends with them Sometimes physical closeness isn’t as big a deal as we perceive it to be Functional distance has taken on new form• Aka, social media Mere-exposure Moreland and Beach, 1990- four women enrolled in class, each showed up different amounts of time (0, 5, 10, 15)• Those that showed up more often were preferred over those that showed up less often Caveat—if you already dislike someone, exposure can increase dislikingo Similarity Chartrand and Bargh, 1999• Confederate and participant in interaction• Confederate mimicked participant’s body language (or not)• How much did the participant like the confederate?o When the confederate mimicked the participant, participant liked them more than with no mimicry *We also mimic others when we are attracted to them* Behavior Personality• “You like House? I like House! We should date!” Physical Characteristics-• Matching hypothesis-people are more likely to have successful relationships with others that they feel are equally socially desirableo Reciprocity (social rewards)- We like people who like uso Physical Attractiveness- People are more likely to seek out friendships with physically attractive people• Appearance does matter• “Welcome week” study, 1966o matched first year students for danceo personality and aptitude testso asked to evaluate dateso what predicted interest? Attractiveness• What is beautiful is good:o Eagly et al., 1991 Physically attractive people are seen as more• Sociable extraverted, popular, likable, and happy Cultural differences?Lecture 2-Romantic Relationships• Finding a partner—what is attractive?o Symmetry-something that people find attractiveo Gender differences Women:• Waist-to-hip ratio- cue for women’s fertility• Ages: 20s Men• Facial features- masculine feature (deeper voice, wider face, longer chin, etc.)• Testosterone- if your face is symmetrical, “you have a lot of testosterone”, you have a really strong immune system• How important is attractive?o Li et al., 2002 What do people prefer in their “mates”? Design your ideal mate with 20 mate dollars Given 10 different characteristics and traits• Each mate dollar corresponds to the 10th percentile increase in that traito Ex: 2 mate dollars spent on attactiveness, intelligence, humor, friendliness, income Conclusion:• Men (most important to least important)- attractiveness, intelligence, humor, friendliness, incomeo Men spent 5.3 on attractivenesso Cared about intelligence 2.4o Cared about income 1.2o Cared about humor 2.1o Cared about friendliness 2.0• Women (most important to least important)- income, intelligence, humor, attractiveness, friendlinesso Women spent 2 dollars on attractivenesso Cared about intelligence 4.2o Cared about income 4.3o Cared about humor 2.1o Cared about friendliness 1o Parental Investment Theory (Trivers, 1971) Consequences of sex:• Men:o Rewards- offspringo Costs- 5 minutes?• Women:o Rewards- offspring?o Costs- 9 months, increased vulnerability, split resources Men prioritize attractiveness because it is the only thing that is important to them (healthy and good looking children) Women need more resources therefore they need men to be able to bring in a good income, etc• When we’re in a relationshipo Sternberg’s Triangle: There are three main components of what being in a relationship is like: Passion, Intimacy, and Commitment• Passion- physiological arousal, sexual attractiono Misattribution of arousal and passiono Coolidge Effect- President Coolidge and his wife took a tour, his wife saw the rooster mating around with all of the chickens and told the tourist to tell the husband about this. When the tour guide did, the husband said to tell her he does it with different chickens. Men are more interested to mate when it’s a noveltyo We experience the most passion at the beginning of a relationship• Intimacy- feelings of closeness, sharing, support, mutual concern• Commitment- conscious decision to remain in relationship Intimacy and commitment are necessary for maintaining the relationship The relative lengths of the sides of the triangle tell you the relativity of the relationship Commitment and intimacy increase along the years and passion starts higher but decreaseso Decrease in passion? Passion=the rate of change of intimacy• Baumeister and Bratslavskyo Passion exists when there is an increase in intimacy Sharper increase=more passiono Passion as a function of change in intimacy Examples:• The beginning of a relationship• When sharing novel experiences• Marital therapy• Seeing each other after being aparto Why do we stay in or leave relationships? The Investment Model-• Satisfaction- positive interactions/experiences must outweigh negativeso By at least 5 to 1 Fighting vs. sexo Relationship enhancing attributions to help…• Quality of available alternatives• InvestmentLecture 3-Romantic Relationships Cont.• The Investment Modelo Satisfaction- relationship enhancing attributions help maintain relationships “What did he do this time?”, “She really likes me!”, “He’s so romantic!”, “She must want something from me.”o Quality of available alternatives Will stay
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