PSYCHOLOGY OF SOCIAL & INTERPERSONAL BEHAVIOR
FEM4103 – 3 (3+0)
PERJUMPAAN SEMUKA 1 - PROGRAM PJJ
SEMESTER:
INSTRUCTOR:
OFFICE:
CONTACT NO:
E-MAIL:
ADDRESS:
KEDUA /2010-2011
SITI NOR BINTI YAACOB, PhD.
TINGKAT 1 BLOK A, FEM
03-89467088/012-2841844
sitinor@putra.upm.edu.my
Jab. Pembangunan Manusia &
Pengajian Keluarga, Fakulti Ekologi
Manusia, 43400 UPM Serdang,
Selangor.
9 JANUARI 2011
1
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.
2
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.
3
COURSE CONTENT
(10 Topics)
1.
Introduction: Social behavior, self in context, selfschema
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.
4
COURSE EVALUATION
– TEST 1 (TOPIC 1- 4)
-
30%
– ASSIGNMENT
-
30%
– FINAL EXAM (COMPREHENSIVE)
• TOPIC 1-10
-
40%
5
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 socialpsychological 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.
6
•
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
7
-
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.
8
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 socialpsychological principle that hve identified.
3. Conclusion (5 marks)
4. References (5 marks)
9
INTRODUCTION
• SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
• THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES OF
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
• THE SELF
10
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
11
Building blocks of social psychology:
ABC triad
Behavior
Affect
Cognition
A = Affect – how people feel inside
B = Behavior – what people do, their action
C = Cognition – what people think about
12
WHY PEOPLE STUDY SOCIAL
PSYCHOLOGY?
•
•
•
•
Curiosity about people
Experimental philosophy
Making the world better
Social psychology is fun!
13
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
•
•
•
•
The Sociocultural Perspective
The Evolutionary Perspective
The Social Learning Perspective
The Social Cognitive Perspective
14
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
15
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
16
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
17
The Social Cognitive Perspective
• Focuses on the mental processes
involved in paying attention to,
interpreting and remembering
social experiences
18
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 a
social 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.
19
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
20
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
21
The interaction between the
person and the situation
• The person
• The situation
• Pearson and situation interactions
(see Table 1.2)
22
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.
23
THE SELF
• 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
24
Figure 1.1 : Three parts of the self
Self-knowledge
(or self-concept)
Information about self
Self-awareness
Self-esteem
Self-deception
Interpersonal self
(or public self)
Self-presentation
Member of groups
Relationship partner
Social roles
Reputation
Agent self
(or executive function)
Decision making
Self-control
Taking charge of situations
Active responding
25
Who makes the Self?
• A true or real self?
• Culture and Interdependence
• Social Roles
26
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
27
Culture and Interdependence
• Selves are different across different
cultures
• Independent self
– Emphasizes what makes the self different
Mother
and set it part from others
Father
Self
• Interdependent self
Sibling
Friend
Friend
– Emphasizes what connects the
self to other people and groups
Mother
Friend
Self
Friend
Coworker
Father
Sibling
28
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
29
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
30
“Change!”
(match behavior
to standard)
Mirror, audience,
photo, hear
name
Self-awareness
Unpleasant
self-discrepancies
“Escape!”
(withdraw from
self-awareness)
Figure 1.2: Self-awareness theory, proposed by Duval and Wicklund (1972)
31
SELF AWARENESS
• 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
32
SELF AWARENESS
• 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?
33
SELF AWARENESS
• Escaping self-awareness
– People seek to escape from selfawareness when it feels bad
– Methods to escape self-awareness.
Example:
• Drinking alcohol
• Eat more
• Suicide
34
SELF AWARENESS
• 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.
35
Where Self-Knowledge Comes From?
Looking Outside:
Looking glass self
Motivation
s
Looking at
others: Social
Comparison
Looking Inside:
Introspection
Self-Knowledge
Phenomenal
Self
Self Perception
and
Overjustificatio
n
36
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).
37
Where Self-Knowledge Comes From?
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
38
Where Self-Knowledge Comes From?
4. Self-Perception and the Over justification
Effect
-
Self-perception theory
-
-
Intrinsic motivation
-
-
People observe their own behavior to infer what
they are thinking and how they are feeling
Wanting to perform an activity for its own sake
Extrinsic motivation
-
Performing an activity because of something that
results from it
39
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
40
Where Self-Knowledge Comes From?
6. Three motivations for wanting selfknowledge
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
41
SELF-ESTEEM
“ a set of attitudes and beliefs that a person
brings with him or herself when facing the
world”
Coopersmith (2002, p. 1)
• How favorably someone evaluates
him/herself
• People with high self-esteem think they
are great
• People with low self-esteem think they
are mediocre
42
SELF-ESTEEM
1=STRONGLY DISAGREE, 2=DISAGREE, 3=AGREE, 4=STRONGLY DISAGREE
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
On the whole, I am satisfied with myself.
At times, I think I am no good at all.
I feel that I have a number of good qualities
I am able to do things as well as most other people
I feel I do not have much to be proud of.
I certainly feel useless at times.
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.
43
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 Strategies
Expectations
Dispositional Inferences
Other Cognitive Shortcut:
Representative Heuristic
Availability Heuristic
Anchoring & Adjustment Heuristic
Figure 2.1: Keeping it simple
The 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 concepts
 e.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
5. A person enters
a restaurant
2. Hostess
seats person
6. Person looks at
menu
3. Person pays
for food
4. Person orders
food from waiter
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
SCHEMAS
• 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)
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)
ATTRIBUTIONS
ATTRIBUTION
The process by which people use information to
make inferences about the causes of behavior or
events
INTERNAL ATTRIBUTION
An attribution that locates the
cause of event to factors
internal to the person, such as
personality traits, moods,
attitudes, abilities, or effort
EXTERNAL ATTRIBUTION
An attribution that locates the
cause of an event to factors
external to the person, such
as luck, or other people,
or the situation
ATTRIBUTES
Unstable
Stable
• Bernard Weiner (1971) proposed a two
dimensional theory of attributions for success and
failure.
Internal
External
Ability
Task
Difficulty
Effort
Luck
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
THE COVARIATION MODEL
• 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
Table 2.1: Kelley’s attribution cube, in which attributions are based on three
dimensions (hence the term cube): consensus, consistency and distinctiveness
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)
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
COMMUNICATION
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
• 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
Happiness
Fear
Surprise
Disgusting
sadness
• 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)
INTERPERSONAL
RELATIONSHIPS (IR)
78
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
79
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
expectancy
4. 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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Consciousness and the Mind’s Activities
• 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
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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.“
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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
BASIC EMOTIONS
(anger, fear, disgust, surprise, joy, sadness)
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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
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 categories
1. 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
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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
AFFILIATION NEEDS
1.
2.
3.
4.
The desire to gain knowledge about ourselves and the
world through social comparison
The desire to secure psychological and material
rewards through social exchange
The desire to belongingness
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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AFFILIATION NEEDS
SOCIAL COMPARISON
• 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 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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BELONGINGNESS
• 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
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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?
zarinah
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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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CHARACTERISTICS OF
OTHERS AND ATTRACTION
• Physical Attractiveness
• Similarity
• Desirable Personal Attributes
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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Physical Attractiveness
• What is 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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Physical Attractiveness
• 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.
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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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SIMILARITY
• 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
–
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Desirable Personal Attributes
• 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.
zarinah
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Desirable Personal Attributes
• 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.
zarinah
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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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WHEN SOCIAL INTERACTION BECOMES
PROBLEMATIC
– 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
Thank you.
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