PSY220H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 10: Social Exchange Theory, Physical Attractiveness, Attachment Theory
Document Summary
Human beings can find themselves romantically attracted to all sorts of people: people of the same or different sex, people from different cultures, and people spanning a considerable age range. All sorts of relationships can work out. Many studies of relationships are not true experiments with random assignment of participants to different conditions. Instead they use longitudinal methods to examine the dynamics that unfold over time in pre-existing relationships. Faces the challenging methodological problem of self-selection (investigators cannot assign participants to conditions to be compared). A person"s identity and sense of self are shaped by their social relationships. We have a biological need to belong in relationships. Evolutionarily, relationships help individuals and offspring survive. Friendship evolved as a means for non-kin to cooperate and to avoid the costs and perils of competition and aggression. If there is an evolutionary basis, we can expect some universal features.
