social final

• Role theory


  Attributes differences to behavior expectations and norms
• Norms


  Rules for accepted and expected behavior
• Evolutionary psychology


  Predicts sex differences in behaviors relevant to dating, mating, and reproduction
• Gender differences


  Due to human nature or culture?
• Evolutionary psychology


  • Psychological traits and behaviors have evolved, not just physical traits
• Influences on evolutionary psychology

  • Charles Darwin - On the Origin of Species (1859)
  • E. O. Wilson - Sociobiology (1975)
  • Richard Dawkins - The Selfish Gene (1976)
• Natural selection


  Nature selects traits that best enable organisms to survive and reproduce in particular environments
• Ancestral environment


  Minds were designed to maximize fitness in the environment in which those minds evolved
• Kin selection


  Natural selection doesn't care what happens to the organism—just the gene
• Naturalistic fallacy: is = ought
• To say that something is "natural" is not to say that it is good
• Female can have fewer offspring over a lifetime

  Greater "burden of reproduction"
• Female is "careful"


  Male is "assertive"
• Evidence for evolutionary psychology and gender differences

  • Who is Choosy?
  • Prostitution
  • Pornography
• Desired qualities in mates


  • Males prefer younger mates
  • Females prefer older mates
  • Females place more emphasis on potential mate's financial prospects (status)
  • Males place more emphasis on physical attractiveness
• Jealousy


  • Fear of partner being sexually unfaithful (sexual affair)
  • Fear of partner being emotionally unfaithful (love someone else)
• With kin, the goal of our genes


  To help one another
• With friends, the goal

  To make an impression of helping
• Factors leading to interpersonal attraction and friendship

  • Physical proximity
  • Similarity
  • Physical attractiveness
• Mere exposure effect


  Repeated exposure to a neutral or mildly positive stimulus increases liking
• Similarity leads to attraction?
• Attraction leads to similarity?
• Do "opposites attract?"
• Complementarity hypothesis


  Like others with personality traits different from our own
• Similarity is stronger than complementarity
• Matching principle


  Individuals become involved with a partner with whom they are closely matched socially and physically
• Physical attractiveness less important to women than men
• Individuals match on physical attractiveness like they do on other characteristics
• Sample items from like and love scales

  • When I am with _____, we are almost always in the same mood.
  • I think that _____ is unusually well-adjusted.
  • I would highly recommend _____ for a responsible job.
  • I have great confidence in _____'s good judgment.
  • I think that _____ is one of those people who quickly wins your respect.
  • _____ is one of the most likeable people I know.
  • I would vote for _____ in a class or group election.
  • I would do anything for _____.
  • I feel very possessive toward _____.
  • If I could never be with _____, I would feel miserable.
  • If I were lonely, my first thought would be to seek _____ out.
  • I would forgive _____ for practically anything.
  • I would greatly enjoy being confided in by _____.
  • When I am with _____, I spend a good deal of my time just looking at him/her.
  • I would be hard for me to get along without _____.
• Passionate Love


  A state of intense longing for union with another
• Romantic love


  "in love"
• Evolutionary reason for passionate love


  Results in children
• Passionate love


  • Strong emotions
  • Sexual desire
  • Intense preoccupation
  • Rapid onset
  • Cools quickly
• Companionate Love


  The affection we feel for those with whom our lives are deeply intertwined
• Evolutionary reason for companionate love


  Parents' waning obsession with each other aids children's survival
• Companionate love


  • Milder
  • More stable
  • Trust, warmth, dependability
  • Lasts longer
  • Deepens over time
• The Triangular Theory of Love


  Suggests love includes passion, intimacy, and commitment with each conceptualized as a leg of a triangle that can vary
• Passion


  Emotional component involving a strong desire to be with one's partner
• Intimacy


  Sharing thoughts and activities, looking out for each other's welfare, experiencing happiness by being in each other's company, counting on each other when times are tough, giving each other emotional support and understanding
• Commitment


  Cognitive component involving maintaining love over time, different from the decision often made in the heat of passion that you are in love