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PSYCHOLOGY OF SOCIAL & INTERPERSONAL BEHAVIORFEM4103 – 3 (3+0)

PERJUMPAAN SEMUKA 1 - PROGRAM PJJ

SEMESTER: KEDUA /2010-2011INSTRUCTOR: SITI NOR BINTI YAACOB, PhD.OFFICE: TINGKAT 1 BLOK A, FEMCONTACT NO: 03-89467088/012-2841844E-MAIL: sitinor@putra.upm.edu.myADDRESS: Jab. Pembangunan Manusia &

Pengajian Keluarga, Fakulti Ekologi Manusia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor.

9 JANUARI 2011

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COURSE SYNOPSIS

• This course encompasses the analysis of social and interpersonal behavior from the psychological perspective. The influence of social and interpersonal relationships and the application of social psychology & interpersonal skills in human interaction are also discussed.

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COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES:

At the end of this course students can:

Explain process and contexts of social and interpersonal behavior.

Explain factors that influence social and interpersonal behavior.

Compare various forms of interaction communication and human behavior that contributes to social and interpersonal skills in groups.

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COURSE CONTENT(10 Topics)

1. Introduction: Social behavior, self in context, self-schema

2. Social perception

3. Interpersonal relationship

4. Attraction

5. Attitude and behavior

6. Social influence

7. Group behavior

8. Intimate relationships

9. Analysis of prosocial behavior and interpersonal relationship

10. Analysis of anti social behavior and interpersonal relationships.

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COURSE EVALUATION

– TEST 1 (TOPIC 1- 4) - 30%

– ASSIGNMENT - 30%

– FINAL EXAM (COMPREHENSIVE) - 40%• TOPIC 1-10

ASSIGNMENT - SHORT FILM/VIDEO/MOVIE ANALYSIS(30%)

• Movies/film/video offer detailed portrayals of human social behavior.

• Your task in this assignment is to analyze -- from a social-psychological perspective -- the behaviors and events depicted in one of the films/movie/video of your choice.

• You are not being asked to critique the film in terms of its value as a work of art or as entertainment. Rather, you should think carefully about the human actions and events portrayed in the film. Then, to make sense of this material, apply what you've learned this semester regarding the factors that predict and explain human social behavior.

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• This assignment is comprehensive: I urge you to bring any/all concepts encountered in this course that relate to the issues, interactions, and behaviors portrayed in the films/movie/video of your choice.

• Choose and views two(2) movies/ films/videos .

• Then, after reviewing your notes and readings, identify social-psychological principles or concepts that appear to be operating in the events or individuals depicted in the film (e.g., cognitive dissonance, schemas, self-fulfilling prophecies, groupthink, deindividuation, conformity, realistic conflict theory, modern racism, etc.). For each principle that you identify:

– Describe the relevant scene (you may assume that your reader has seen the film);

– describe in detail the social-psychological principles/concepts you believe are relevant, bringing in research findings as much as possible (that is, briefly state the findings of relevant experiments/research you've read or heard about); and

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- elaborate on how the selected scene conforms and/or fails to conform to the social-psychological principle/concept you have identified, as well as to the research findings that support the principle/concept (for example, describe how the scene is similar to or different from relevant experiments/research you've read or heard about).

• Your written analysis should be succinct and well-written (10 pages – 5 pages for each movie/film/video). Be sure to include an introduction to orient the reader, as well as a discussion to tie things together. The written analysis will be worth 30% of your final paper grade.

• Submit your written analysis together with the CD of the related movie/film/videos

• DUE DATE: 2 WEEKS BEFORE FINAL EXAM DATE.

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MARKING SCHEME(30%)

 

1. Introduction (5 marks)– Detailed description of the relevant scene.

 

2. Content& Organization (15 marks)– Decription of the relevant sosial-psychological principle– Elaboration on how the selected scene conform to the social-

psychological principle that hve identified.

 

3. Conclusion (5 marks)

4. References (5 marks)

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INTRODUCTION

• SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY• THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES OF

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY• THE SELF

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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

The scientific discipline that attempts to understand and explain how the thoughts, feelings, and behavior of

individuals are influenced by the actual, imaged, or implied

presence of others

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CognitionAffect

Building blocks of social psychology:ABC triad

Behavior

A = Affect – how people feel inside

B = Behavior – what people do, their action

C = Cognition – what people think about

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WHY PEOPLE STUDY SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY?

• Curiosity about people• Experimental philosophy• Making the world better• Social psychology is fun!

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THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• The Sociocultural Perspective• The Evolutionary Perspective• The Social Learning Perspective• The Social Cognitive Perspective

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The Sociocultural Perspective

• The theoretical viewpoint that searches for the causes of social behavior in influences from larger social groups

• Focus on the importance of social norm and the concept of culture that influence social behavior

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The Evolutionary Perspective

• A theoretical viewpoint that searches for the causes of social behavior in the physical and psychological predispositions that helped our ancestors survive and reproduce

• Focus on natural selection and adaptations

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The Social Learning Perspective

• A theoretical viewpoints that focuses on past learning experiences as determinants of person’s social behaviors

• Observing how other people are rewarded and punishment for their social behavior

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The Social Cognitive Perspective

• Focuses on the mental processes involved in paying attention to, interpreting and remembering social experiences

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Table 1.1: Major Theoretical Perspectives in Social Psychology

Perspective What Drives Social Behavior?

Example

Sociocultural Forces in larger social groups.

A middle-class American woman today might delay marriage and wear short hair and pants to her executive job, whereas her great-grandmother who grew up on a farm in Sicily wore traditional dresses and long braided hair, married early, and stayed home caring for children.

Evolutionary Inherited tendencies to respond to the social environment in ways that would have helped our ancestors survive and reproduce.

An angry, threatening expression automatically grabs people's attention, and the human expression of threat is similar to the one displayed by other species (such as dogs).

Social Learning

Rewards and punishments. Observing how other people are rewarded and punished for their social behaviors.

A teenage boy decides to become a musician after watching an audience scream in admiration of the lead singer at a concert.

Social Cognitive

What we pay attention to in asocial situation, how we interpret it, and how we connect the current situation to related experiences in memory.

If you pass a homeless beggar on the street you may be more likely to help if you notice his outstretched arm, if you interpret his plight as something beyond his control, and if he reminds you of the parable of the Good Samaritan.

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PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR

• Goal oriented–People interact with one another to

achieve some goals or satisfy some inner motivation

• Represents a continual interaction between the person and the situation

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SOCIAL BEHAVIOR IS GOAL ORIENTED

• To establish social ties• To understand ourselves and others• To gain and maintain status• To defend ourselves• To attract and retain mates

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The interaction between the person and the situation

• The person• The situation• Pearson and situation interactions

(see Table 1.2)

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Table 1.2 : Different Types of Person-Situation Interactions

Interaction Example

Different persons respond differently to the same situation.

Some students think college life is fun and exciting; others find it dull and nerdy.

Situations choose the person. Your college doesn't admit everyone who wants to enroll.

Persons choose their situations. You may choose to live in …..; your friend may choose to stay in the dorms.

Different situations prime different parts of the person

You may see yourself as studious while in class but as fun-loving when at a party.

Persons change the situation. An energetic, knowledgeable motivator can turn a quiet, passive classroom into an active, interesting one.

Situations change the person. If one student goes off to school at the Naval Academy, while an initially similar friend goes to U.C. Berkeley, they are likely to be less similar four years later.

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• A symbol-using social being who can reflect on his/her behavior

• It has 3 main parts:– Self-knowledge or self-concept

• The sets of beliefs about oneself

– Interpersonal self or public self• The image of the self that is conveyed to others

– Agent self or executive function• The part of the self involved in control, including both

control over other people and self-control

THE SELF

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Self-knowledge(or self-concept)Information about selfSelf-awarenessSelf-esteemSelf-deception

Agent self(or executive function)Decision makingSelf-controlTaking charge of situationsActive responding

Interpersonal self(or public self)Self-presentationMember of groupsRelationship partnerSocial rolesReputation

Figure 1.1 : Three parts of the self

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Who makes the Self?

• A true or real self?• Culture and Interdependence• Social Roles

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A true or real self?• People like to think they have inner “true”• Different cultures may differ in the ideas about

the true self by placing emphasis on either impulse or institution (Ralph Turner, 1976)

• Self as impulse– A person’s inner thoughts and feeling

• Self as institution– The way a person acts in public, especially in official

roles

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Culture and Interdependence• Selves are different across different

cultures• Independent self

– Emphasizes what makes the self different and set it part from others

• Interdependent self– Emphasizes what connects the self to other people and groups

Self

Father

SiblingFriend

Friend

Mother

Coworker

Self

Father

Sibling

CoworkerFriend

Friend

Mother

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Social Roles

• What are selves for?– The self has to gain social acceptance

• In order to increase the social acceptance, people need to make changes and adaptation.

• The different roles a person plays

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SELF AWARENESS

• Consists of attention directed at the self• Two kinds

– Private self-awareness• Looking inward on the private aspects of the self,

including emotions, thoughts, desires and traits– Public self-awareness

• Looking out-ward on the public aspects of the self that others can see and evaluate

• Involves evaluating the self rather than just merely being aware of it

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Mirror, audience, photo, hear name

“Escape!” (withdraw from self-awareness)

“Change!” (match behavior to standard)

Self-awareness Unpleasantself-discrepancies

Figure 1.2: Self-awareness theory, proposed by Duval and Wicklund (1972)

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• Standards–Ideas (concepts) of how things

might possibly be.–Includes ideals, norms,

expectations, moral principles, laws, the way things were in the past and what other people have done

SELF AWARENESS

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• Self awareness and behavior– It can make people behave better– Increased self-awareness makes people act

more consistently with their attitudes about many different issues

– Does self-awareness always make people behave better?

SELF AWARENESS

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• Escaping self-awareness–People seek to escape from self-

awareness when it feels bad–Methods to escape self-awareness.

Example:• Drinking alcohol• Eat more• Suicide

SELF AWARENESS

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• Self-regulation– The process people use to control and

change their thoughts, feeling and behavior– Try to get out of a bad mood or to keep their

attention and thinking focused on some problems rather than letting their mind wander or to resist temptation.

SELF AWARENESS

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Self-Knowledge

Looking Outside: Looking glass self

Looking Outside: Looking glass self

Looking Inside: Introspection

Looking Inside: Introspection

Looking at others: Social Comparison

Looking at others: Social Comparison Self Perception

and Overjustification

Self Perception and Overjustification

Where Self-Knowledge Comes From?

Phenomenal Self

Phenomenal Self

Motivations

Motivations

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Where Self-Knowledge Comes From?

1. Looking Outside: The looking-glass self– The idea that people learn about themselves

by imaging how they appear to others (Cooley, 1902)

– 3 components• You imagine how you appear to others• You imagine how others will judge you• You develop an emotional response as a result of

imaging how others will judge you– Generalized other

• The idea that other people tell you who and what you are (Mead, 1934).

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2. Looking Inside: Introspection - The process by which a person examines

the contents of her mind and mental states

3. Looking at others: Social Comparison– examining the difference between

oneself and another person– Upward social comparison

• Comparing yourself to people better than you– Downward social comparison

• Comparing yourself to people worse off than you

Where Self-Knowledge Comes From?

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4. Self-Perception and the Over justification Effect

- Self-perception theory- People observe their own behavior to infer what

they are thinking and how they are feeling- Intrinsic motivation

- Wanting to perform an activity for its own sake- Extrinsic motivation

- Performing an activity because of something that results from it

Where Self-Knowledge Comes From?

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Where Self-Knowledge Comes From?

– Over justification effect• The tendency for intrinsic motivation

to diminish for activities that have become associated with rewards

5. Phenomenal Self• The image of self that is currently active in

the person’s thought

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6. Three motivations for wanting self- knowledge

i. Appraisal motive• The simple desire to learn the truth about one

self

ii. Self-enhancement motive• The desire to learn favorable or flattering things

about the self

iii. Consistency motive• The desire to get feedback that confirms what

the person already believes about himself or herself

Where Self-Knowledge Comes From?

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“ a set of attitudes and beliefs that a person brings with him or herself when facing the world” Coopersmith (2002, p. 1)

SELF-ESTEEM

• How favorably someone evaluates him/herself

• People with high self-esteem think they are great

• People with low self-esteem think they are mediocre

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1. On the whole, I am satisfied with myself.2. At times, I think I am no good at all.3. I feel that I have a number of good qualities4. I am able to do things as well as most other people5. I feel I do not have much to be proud of.6. I certainly feel useless at times.7. I feel that I’m a person of worth, at least on an equal

plane with others.8. I wish I could have more respect for myself.9. All in all, I am inclined to feel that I am a failure.10. I take a positive attitude toward myself.

SELF-ESTEEM

1=STRONGLY DISAGREE, 2=DISAGREE, 3=AGREE, 4=STRONGLY DISAGREE

SOCIAL PERCEPTION

• Social Cognition • Social Perception

• Attribution• Communication• Autonomy, temperament

and personality

SOCIAL COGNITION

The way in which we interpret, analyze, remember and use information about social world to make judgments and

decisions

CATEGORIZATION CREATURES

• Social categorization– The process of forming categories of people

based on their common attributes• Prototype

– The most representative member of category• Stereotype

– Assume a correlations between a person’s group membership and their characteristics

THE GOALS OF SOCIAL COGNITION• People want to find the right answer to

some problems or question.– e.g. what the best thing to do

• To confirm the desired answer to a problem– e.g. they are not responsible for some

particular disaster• To reach a pretty good answer or

decision quickly– e.g. choose the best book

CONSERVING MENTAL EFFORT

The Complex, Information- Rich

Social World

The Limited Human Attentional

Capacity

Goal of Conserving Mental Effort

Simplification StrategiesExpectationsDispositional InferencesOther Cognitive Shortcut: Representative Heuristic Availability Heuristic Anchoring & Adjustment Heuristic

Figure 2.1: Keeping it simpleThe information-rich social environment, together with our limited attentional

resources, creates the need for simplifying, low effort cognitive strategies that nonetheless let us form impressions and make decision that are good enough

EXPECTATION

• What we may expect from the people and situations around us may help us to understand the people and events around us.

DISPOSITIONAL INFERENCE

• The judgment that a person’s behavior has been caused by an aspect of that person’s personality

REPRESENTATIVENESSHEURISTIC • A mental shortcut through which people classify

something as belonging to a certain category to the extent that it is similar to a typical case from that category

Availability Heuristic • A mental shortcut through which one estimates the

likelihood of an event by the ease with which instances of that event come to mind

SCHEMAS

• Knowledge structures that represent substantial information about concept, its attributes, and its relationships to other conceptse.g. Professor: role, research process, attributes

• It affect what information we notice and later remember

SCHEMAS• Gender schema

- A cognitive structure for processing information based on its perceived female or male qualities

• Script- A schema that describe how a series of

events is likely to occur in a well known situation, and that is used as a guide for behavior and problem solving

- e.g. attending class, eating dinner at restaurant

1. Hostess greet person

2. Hostess seats person

3. Person pays for food

4. Person orders food from waiter

5. A person enters a restaurant

6. Person looks at menu

7. Person leaves restaurant

8. Person eats food

One example of a script is a restaurant script. Try putting the frames above in the correct order

• Priming

-The process by which recent experiences increase the accessibility of a scheme, trait or concept

• Framing

-whether messages stress potential gains (positively framed) or potential losses (negatively framed)

SCHEMAS

Social Perception• The study of how we form impressions of and make

inferences about other people• It allows us to study social behavior

• Information about other people comes from various sources: e.g. reading, third party, witness from afar, interact directly

• Sources of social perception:– Making attribution– Impression formation (a process of organizing

diverse information into a unified impression of other person)

ATTRIBUTIONThe process by which people use information to make inferences about the causes of behavior or

events

INTERNAL ATTRIBUTIONAn attribution that locates the

cause of event to factors internal to the person, such as personality traits, moods, attitudes, abilities, or effort

EXTERNAL ATTRIBUTIONAn attribution that locates the cause of an event to factors external to the person, such

as luck, or other people, or the situation

ATTRIBUTIONS

ATTRIBUTES

• Bernard Weiner (1971) proposed a two dimensional theory of attributions for success and failure.

Ability Task Difficulty

Effort Luck

Internal ExternalS

tabl

eU

nsta

ble

THE COVARIATION MODEL

• Covariation principle- for something to be the cause of a behavior,

it must be present when the behavior occurs and absent when the behavior does not occur

• Consencus information- Information about the extent to which other

people behave the same way toward the same stimulus as the actor does

• Distinctivesness information- Information about the extents to which one

particular actor behaves in the same way to different stimuli

• Consistency Information- Information about the extent to which the

behavior between one actor and one stimulus is the same across time and circumtances

THE COVARIATION MODEL

Consensus Consistency Distinctiveness Attribution

High (Everyone kicks Fido)

High (Joe always kicks Fido)

High(Joe doesn't kick any other dogs, only Fido)

External(Fido is a vicious dog)

Low (Only Joe kicksFido)

High(Joe always kicksFido)

Low(Joe kicks all dogs)

Internal(Joe is a vicious person who kicks dogs)

Low(Only Joe kicksFido)

Low(Joes sometimes kicks Fido)

High(Joe doesn't kick anyother dogs, only Fido)

Ambiguous(Not sure whether it is something about Joe or somithing about Fido)

Table 2.1: Kelley’s attribution cube, in which attributions are based on three dimensions (hence the term cube): consensus, consistency and distinctiveness

BIASES IN THE ATTRIBUTION PROCESS

• Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to overestimate the extent to which people’s behavior is due to internal, dispositional factors and to underestimate the role of situational factors

• Perceptual Salience

The seeming importance of information that is the focus of people’s attention

• The two-Step process of Making Attributions

Analyzing another person’s behavior first by making an automatic internal attribution and only then thinking about possible situational reasons for the behavior, after which one may adjust the original internal contribution

Figure 2.3 : The two-steps process of attribution

• Actor-Observer Difference

Differences in the attribution perspective of actor & observer

The tendency to see other people’s behavior as dispositionally caused

Focusing more on the role of situational factors when explaining one’s own behavior

Why?• Self-serving Bias

The tendency to attribute success to internal causes but failures to external ones.

Look at own behavior & its causes in positive terms

Why?

SOCIAL PERCEPTION

• Social Cognition • Social Perception

• Attribution• Communication• Autonomy, temperament

and personality

COMMUNICATION

• that communication consists of transmitting information from one person to another

There are three major parts in human face to face communication which are body language, voice tonality, and words.

According to the research:– 55% of impact is determined by body language—

postures, gestures, and eye contact, – 38% by the tone of voice, and – 7% by the content or the words

COMMUNICATION

• VERBAL communication - is a reciprocal conversation between two or more entities.

Nonverbal Communication

• The way in which people communicate intentionally or unintentionally, without words

• Nonverbal cues include facial expression, tone of voice, gesture, body position and movement, the use of touch and gaze

• The primary use of nonverbal behavior– Expressing emotion (I’m angry-eyes narrow, eyebrows lower,

stare intently)– Conveying attitudes (I like you- smiles, extended eye contact)– Communicating one’s personality (I’m going – broad gesture, an

energetic tone of voice)– Facilitating verbal communication (lower voice and look away as

you finish your sentence)

Anger Fear Disgusting

Happiness Surprise sadness

AUTONOMY

• In Greek, the word nomos meaning “law”, i.e. one who gives oneself his/her own law is the right to self-government.– Self-government with respect to local or internal affairs: granted

autonomy to a national minority• Autonomy is a concept found in moral, political and bioethical philosophy• An autonomous person is also said to have self-determination or the right

of the self-government

AUTONOMY REFERS TO THE CAPACITY OF A RATIONAL INDIVIDUAL TO MAKE AN INFORMED, UNCOERCED DECISION

WHAT IS TEMPERAMENT?

• TEMPERAMANT is the patterns of arousal and emotionality that are consistent and enduring characteristics of an individual

• Temperament refers to how children behave• Individual differences in human motivation and

emotion that appear early in life, usually thought to be biological in origin.

• Temperament is sometimes considered the biological or physiological component of personality, which refers to the sum total of the physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and social dimensions of an individual

GENETICS AND ENVIRONMENT IN TEMPERAMENT

Genetic Influences •Responsible for about half of individual differences•Ethnicity, gender

Environmental Influences •Cultural caregiving•Boys & girls treated differently•Parents emphasize sibling differences

Goodness of Fit •Combines genetic and environements

Thomas and Chess found that children could be rated on each of nine dimensions even in infancy:

• Activity level: The child's general level of energy and movement—whether he or she is quiet, always "on the go," or somewhere in-between.

• Rhythmicity: The child's regular biological patterns of appetite and sleep—whether the child gets hungry or tired at predictable times.

• Approach/withdrawal: The child's usual response to new people or situations—whether the child is eager for new experiences or shy and hesitant.

• Adaptability: The child's ability and pace in adjusting to changes in schedules or transitions from one activity to another.

• Threshold of responsiveness: The child's level of sensitivity to such physical stimuli as sounds, smells, and lights. For example, some children are easily startled by sudden noises while others are less sensitive to them. Some children are pickier about food than others.

• Intensity: The child's responses to people or events. Some children react strongly and loudly to even minor events while others are less demonstrative or openly emotional.

• Quality of mood: The child's overall worldview, whether positive or negative. Some children tend to focus on the negative aspects of a situation while others are more positive or hopeful. Some children tend to approach life in a serious or analytical fashion while others respond to their immediate impressions of situations.

• Distractibility: The child's ability to pay attention to tasks or instructions even when the child is not particularly interested in them. Some children have shorter attention spans than others.

• Persistence: The child's ability to continue with an activity in the face of obstacles or problems. Some children are more easily discouraged by difficulties than others.

THREE TEMPERAMENT PATTERNS

• Easy children: About 40 percent of the NYLS sample displayed a temperamental profile marked by regularity, ease of approach to new stimuli, adaptability to change, mild to moderate mood intensity, and a generally positive mood. This profile characterizes what Thomas and Chess call the easy child.

• Difficult children: About 10 percent of children showed a very different profile and were called difficult children. They had irregular patterns of eating and sleeping, withdrew from new stimuli, did not adapt easily to change, and reacted intensely to changes. Their overall mood was often negative.

• Slow-to-adapt children: Children who were slow to warm up comprised the third temperamental group, about 15 percent of Thomas and Chess's sample. These children tended to withdraw from new stimuli and had difficulty adapting to change, but their reactions were of mild intensity and gradually became either neutral or positive with repeated exposures to the new event or person

PERSONALITY

DEFINITION OF PERSONALITY

• Patterns of behavior, thoughts and emotions unique to an individual and the way they interact to help or hinder the adjustment of a person to other people and situation

• Personality usually refers to the distinctive patterns of behavior (including thoughts & emotions) that characterize each individual’s adaptation to the situations of his or her life (Mischel, 1976)

• PERSONALITY is a dynamic organization, inside the person of psychophysical systems that create a person’s characteristics pattern of behavior, thoughts and feelings

(Carver & Scheier, 2000)

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INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS (IR)

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The concept of IR

• It is a relatively long-term association between two or more people

• This association may be based on emotions like love and liking, regular business interactions, or some other type of social commitment.

• Healthy and unhealthy relationship• Research on IR focuses on those relationships that are

close, intimate and interdependent (i.e., the behavior of each affects the outcomes of the other)

• Close relationship is always related to love, trust, commitment, caring, stability, attachment, meaningful and significant

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Types of Relationship

• IR take place in a great variety of contexts, such as family, friends, marriage, work, clubs and neighborhoods.

• Close relationship is always related to love, trust, commitment, caring, stability, attachment, meaningful and significant

• Relationships can also be established by marriage, such as husband, wife, father-in-law, mother-in-law, uncle by marriage, or aunt by marriage.

• They may be formal long-term relationships recognized by law and formalized through public ceremony, such as marriage or civil union.

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• They may also be informal long-term relationships such as loving relationships or romantic relationships with or without living together.

• In these cases the "other person" is often called lover, boyfriend, or girlfriend.

• Friendships consist of mutual liking, trust, respect, and often even love and unconditional acceptance. They usually imply the discovery or establishment of similarities or common ground between the individuals

• Internet friendships and pen-pals may take place at a considerable physical distance.

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• Brotherhood and sisterhood can refer to individuals united in a common cause or having a common interest, which may involve formal membership in a club, organization, association, society, lodge, fraternity, or sorority.

• Partners or co-workers in a profession, business, or common workplace also have a long term interpersonal relationship.

• Soulmates are individuals intimately drawn to one another through a favorable meeting of minds and who find mutual acceptance and understanding with one another. – Soul mates may feel themselves bonded together for a

lifetime and hence may become sexual partners, but not necessarily.

• Platonic love is an affectionate relationship into which the sexual element does not enter, especially in cases where one might easily assume otherwise.

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RELATIONSHIP PROCESS

• COGNITIVE PROCESS• AFFECTIVE PROCESS• DISPOSITIONAL INFLUENCES

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COGNITIVE PROCESS

• All relationships begin with two people who are strangers to each other

• Impression formation of strangers is of great consequence for understanding relationships

• Our mind begins processing clues to the stranger’s nature (e.g. person’s appearance)

• Over time and many interactions, we may come to know the person well

• Knowing another person– How we come to know another person can be viewed as the

process by which we learn to accurately predict how that person

– Over time we may know some people better than they know themselves

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• Expectancies– The beliefs we hold about the probable behavior of

other people and the probable occurrence of other future events

– Influence most human behavior• Social expectancies vary along 4 dimensions

1. Certainty

- the subjective level of probability

associated with the occurrence of the

future event

2. Accessibility• the ease and speed with which the expectancy

comes to mind

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3. Explicitness- refers to whether or not the individual is

consciously aware of holding the expectancy4. Importance

-refers to the extent to which the expectancy is relevant to the individual’s needs, motives or values

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Consciousness and the Mind’s Activities

• The principal mission of cognitive psychology is to understand the psychological structure of the human mind and the processes by which it operates.

• Typically, we are aware of only a few of products of the mind’s work when they appear in consciousness.

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• William James (1890) characterized consciousness as the “ultimate mystery” for psychologists to solve.

• Cognitive psychologists now know that intuition, gut feelings, chemistry and vibes are manifestations of the workings of the extraordinary efficient and powerful human mind

• Long-term memory is also called as associative memory system (Smith & Decoster, 2000)

• The associative memory system may possess another important feature that has many implications for relationship phenomena

Consciousness and the Mind’s Activities

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Controlled/Rule Based Information

• It is associated with conscious decision-making and problem solving.• Often apply rules and strategies we have learned or trying to learn.• Fast-learning memory system

– Integrate the slow learning, short term, long-term and associative memory system

– Allows to remember a single occurrence of an event• Dual process theorists of social cognition believed that we use the more

demanding and effortful controlled/rule based processing under two conditions:

1. When we are highly motivated to make accurate predictions about another’s behavior

2. When we have time to engage in effortful processing

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FIRST IMPRESSIONS AND RELATIONSHIP

• The first impressions are critical to the relationship for at least 2 reasons:

1. Will determine whether there will be

subsequent interactions

2. If the interaction continues, the partners’ first

impression of each other will influence the

nature of their future interactions

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RELATIONSHIP PROCESS-

AFFECTIVE PROCESS

• Emotions effect the relationships with others

• Includes a wide range of observable behaviors, expressed feelings, and changes in the body state

• "The word emotion includes a broad repertoire of perceptions, expressions of feelings and bodily changes.“

DEFINITION OF EMOTION

1. Emotion is a feeling that is private and subjective. – Humans can report an extraordinary range of states,

which they can feel or experience. – Some reports are accompanied by obvious signs of

enjoyment or distress, but often these reports have no overt indicators.

– In many cases, the emotions we note in ourselves seem to be blends of different states.

– Feelings generally have both physiological and cognitive elements that influence behavior

2. Emotion is a state of psychological arousal an expression or display of distinctive somatic and autonomic responses. – This emphasis suggests, that emotional states can be

defined by particular constellations of bodily responses.

3. Emotions are actions commonly "deemed", such as defending or attacking in response to a threat. – This aspect of emotion is especially relevant to

Darwin's point of view of the functional roles of emotion.

– He said that emotions had an important survival role because they generated actions to dangerous situations.

• These are three generally accepted aspects of behavior;• Some researchers add two others aspects: motivational state and

cognitive processing.

Categories of Emotion

• Wilhelm Wundt, the great nineteenth century psychologist, offered the view that emotions consist of three basic dimensions:

» pleasantness/unpleasantness, » tension/release» excitement/relaxation.

• Plutchik suggests that there are eight basic emotions grouped in four pairs of opposites:

» joy/sadness » acceptance/disgust » anger/fear » surprise/anticipation

• In Plutchik's view, all emotions are a combination of these basic emotions.

• Close relationships are the setting in which humans most frequently experience intense emotion, both positive and negative

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BASIC EMOTIONS (anger, fear, disgust, surprise, joy, sadness)

The Function of Emotions

• To prepare for action– A link between events in our environment and our

responses• To shape future behavior

– Act as reinforcement• Effective interaction

– Act as a signal to observe, allowing them to better understand what we are experiencing and to predict our future behavior

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RELATIONSHIP PROCESS – DISPOSITIONAL INFLUENCES

• Certain dispositional properties (e.g., depression) of individual can influence both the quantity and quality of his or her interpersonal relationships he or she forms with others.

• The interaction between 2 persons is influenced by their properties and situation

Interaction = f (Situation, properties of A, properties

of B)

(Rusbult & Van Lange, 2003)

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Maleness and Femaleness

• The attributes of maleness and femaleness – both biological sex and psychological gender are associated with a variety of relational experiences and outcomes– Examples:

• Emphatic Accuracy : women > men• Coping behavior : women≠men• Self-Disclosure and Intimacy : women≠men• Physical and verbal aggression: men> women

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Theoretical Explanations for Sex Differences

• Two general categories1. Social factors

– Sex differences in social behavior because of social learning and socialization

2. Biological or genetic influences– Differential male and female biology, including

neurotransmitter activity and sex hormone levels.

• Personality traits, chronic affective states, needs or motives, and interpersonal belief systems also play a role in relationship initiation and maintenance

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BEHAVIOR

• Broadly defined as covert responses and overt responses that are observable and measurable– A behavior is considered observable when it can be seen and

measurable when it can be counted• Human behavior is influenced by

– Culture – Attitudes – Emotions– Values– Ethics– Authority– Rapport– Persuasion– Coercion– Genetics

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• Behavior doesn’t automatically or inevitably follow internal processes such as thought and feelings

• Human behavior depends on meaning

Goal, Plans, Intentions

• One important type of meaning links an action to goal• A goal is an idea of some desired future state• A goal tells you how to pursue and uphold your values• A person’s goals reflect the influence of both inner

processes and cultural factors• Culture sets out a variety of possible goals, and people

choose among them depending on their personal wants and needs and also on their immediate circumstances

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• Pursuing goals includes planning and carrying out the behaviors to reach goals.

• Both conscious and automatic systems help in the pursuing goals.

• People have goal hierarchies; some goals are long term and some are short

ATTRACTION

INTERPERSONAL ATTRACTION

• The desire to approach other people

ATTRACTION

Refers to anything that draws two or more people together, making them want to be together and possibly to form a lasting relationship

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AFFILIATION NEEDS1. The desire to gain knowledge about ourselves and the

world through social comparison

2. The desire to secure psychological and material rewards through social exchange

3. The desire to belongingness

4. The influence of culture

SOCIAL COMPARISON

• According to Leon Festinger’s (1954) social comparison theory, we possess a strong need to have accurate views, both about our social world and about ourselves.

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• Festinger hypotheses:– We generally prefer to compare ourselves with similar

others?– Why?

• We use social comparison not only to judge --- and improve ---ourselves, but also to judge our emotions and choose our friend

SOCIAL COMPARISON

AFFILIATION NEEDS

SOCIAL EXCHANGE

• Social exchange theory– people seek out and maintain those relationships in which

the rewards exceed the costs – People will be attracted to those who best reward them

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• The need to belong is defined as the desire to form and maintain close, lasting relationships with some other individuals

• Our need to belong is a powerful, fundamental and extremely pervasive motivation

• The need for belongingness is the need to establish and maintain at least a minimum number of interpersonal relationship

• The need to belong has 2 parts

1. People want some kind of regular social contacts.

2. People want the stable framework of some going relationship in which the people share a mutual concern for each other.

• Not belonging is bad for people– Leads to significant health problems

BELONGINGNESS

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Culture influence affiliation desire

• Although we have inborn affiliation desire tendencies, our culture experiences further shape and direct these tendencies.

• Geert Hofstede’s (1980) study of 22 countries found a positive relationship between a culture’s degree of individualism and its citizen’s affiliation needs.

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WHAT CAUSES ATTRACTION?

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CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SITUATION AND ATTRACTION

• Close proximity fosters liking– The best single predictor of whether two people will

be friends is how far apart they live– Propinquity effect --- the more we see and interact

with people, the more likely they are to become our friends

• Our affiliation desires increase with anxiety– External events can also motivate people– Anxiety-inducing events: The desire for social

comparison attracts us to similar anxious others

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• Physical Attractiveness• Similarity• Desirable Personal Attributes

CHARACTERISTICS OF OTHERS AND ATTRACTION

Physical Attractiveness• We tend to like attractive more• On reason we like more attractive people is that they are

believed to possess other good qualities.– In fact, more attractive people may be more socially skilled– They are also believed to be more intelligent, dominant,

and mentally health.

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Physical Attractiveness

• In a classic study on the importance of physical attractiveness, college students were randomly assigned to each other as dates for an evening. People who were more attractive were better liked by their date

(Walster et al., 1966)• Other effects of attractiveness

– Physically attractive people are more likely to receive help, job recommendations and more lenient punishment

– People who are disable are stereotyped as unattractive • People who are obese are stigmatized and face discrimination in

the workplace– The negative view occurs because people are seen as

responsible for their weight

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• What is attractiveness?

Physical Attractiveness

– Women faces with large, a small nose, a small chin, prominent cheekbones and narrow cheeks, high eyebrows, large pupils, and a big smile

– Men faces with large eyes, prominent cheek bones, a large chin, and a big smile.

– Cultural standards of beauty– People’s perception of what is beautiful or

handsome are similar across cultures.– People who have “above average” faces are the

most attractive.

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• Assumptions about attractive people– In Western culture, where independence is

valued, the “beautiful” stereotype includes traits of personal strength.

– In more collectivistic Asian cultures, people are assumed to have traits such as integrity and concern for others.

Physical Attractiveness

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SIMILARITY

• We like others who are similar to us in attitudes, interests, values, background and personality

• Newcomb (1961) assigned roommates to either very similar or very dissimilar and measured liking at the end of the semester.– Results: Those who were similar liked each other while those

who were dissimilar disliked each other

• In romantic relationships, the tendency to choose similar others is called the matching principle

• People tend to match their partners on a wide variety of attributes– Age, intelligence, education, religion, height

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• Why do people prefer similar others?– Similar others are more rewarding– Interacting with similar others minimizes the possibility

of cognitive dissonance– We expect to be more successful with similar others

• Limits to similarity– Differences can be rewarding– Differences allow people to pool-shared knowledge and

skills to mutual benefit– Similarity can be threatening when someone similar to

us experiences an unfortunate fate –

SIMILARITY

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• There are large individual and cross-cultural differences in the characteristics that are preferred

• Within the U.S., the most liked characteristics are those related to trusthworthiness

• Two other much-liked attributes are personal warmth and competence

• Warmth– People appear warm when they have a positive

attitudes and express liking, praise, and approval– Nonverbal behaviors such as smiling, attentiveness

and expressing emotions also contribute to perceptions of warmth.

Desirable Personal Attributes

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• Competence– We like people who are socially skilled, intelligent and

competence– The type of competence that matters most depends

on the nature of the relationship• e.g., social skills for friends, knowledge for profs.

Desirable Personal Attributes

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WHEN SOCIAL INTERACTION BECOMES PROBLEMATIC

• Social anxiety can keep us isolated from others– Social anxiety is the unpleasant emotion people experience

due to their concern with interpersonal evaluation– This anxiety is what causes people to occasionally avoid

social interaction• Loneliness is the consequence of social isolation

– Loneliness is defined as having a smaller or less satisfying network of social and intimate relationship than one desire

– Lonely and non-lonely people do not differ in the quantity of their social interaction, but rather in the quality of such exchanges.

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– Adolescent and young adults are the loneliest age groups.

– As people mature, loneliness decrease until relatively late in life

– The chronically lonely often lack of social skills

WHEN SOCIAL INTERACTION BECOMES PROBLEMATIC

Thank you.