social development, friendship and mate selection
TRANSCRIPT
Nature of Relationships
• Need for Affiliation
• Evolutionary value
• Varies with situation
cognitive clarity
emotional comparison
emotional support
Reciprocity and Interdependence
• Basic unit is the dyad
• Dyad is reciprocal/interdependent
• Relationships are dynamic
Benefits of Relating
• Information and assistance
• Learn about culture and history
• Identify and select mates
• Receive reassurance/help with coping
• Contributes to sense of self
• Provide companionship
• Source of interest/fun
Links to Well-Being
• Health and mortality• Relationship between social relations and
health is bidirectional• Quality more important than quantity• Negative social interactions lower self-esteem undermine coping increase physiological arousal
Characteristics of a High-Quality Relationship
• Social Support: interpersonal transactions that provide the following:
• positive affect
• affirmation
• aid
Impact of Quality of Life
• Social support: contributes to sense of well-being and life satisfaction
• Reduces uncertainty and enhances sense of personal control/social competence
• Contributes to self-esteem
Impact on Mental Health
• Social support protects from negative effects of stressful life events
depression
schizophrenia
alcoholism
Impact on Physical Health
• Social support related to positive effects on three systems:
cardiovascular, endocrine, immune
• Mechanisms: buffer effects of stress and enhance health promoting behaviors
Convoy Model of Social Relationships
• Enmeshed in social network of emotionally close others
• Moves with the person through life
• Person gives and receives social support
Developmental Patterns
• Late adolescence/early adulthood: social exploration and expansion
• Early 30s: convoy has been selected; peripheral relationship dropped
Theories of Social Aging
• Disengagement: mutual withdrawal
• Activity: withdrawal imposed
• Socioemotional selectivity theory: actively selecting
• Goal is to maximize social/emotional gains and minimize social/emotional risks
Impact of Early Experience on Adult Relationships
• Erikson: psychoanalytic hierarchical stage theory
• Intimacy at time of expanding social interaction
• Attachment theory
Attachment Theory
• Life-span perspective
• Attachment: an emotional bond between two people
• John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth
• Continuing influence on subsequent relationships
Key Components
• Attachment behavioral system: ethology universal to species purpose: promote proximity for survival preprogrammed, signaling behaviors initially indiscriminate maternal sensitivity/responsiveness shapes quality affectional bonds
Key Components 2
• Quality of Attachment
• Secure: 62%; responsive/sensitive caregiving
• Anxious/Ambivalent: 15%; inconsistent/inappropriate caregiving
• Avoidant: 23%; unresponsive/rejecting caregiving
Key Components 3
• Working Models: cognitive component
• Mental representations self and other
• Key to long-term effect
• Adult attachment regulated by internal working models formed early in life
Attachment Theory and Romantic Love
• Attachment styles originating infancy influence romantic love relationships
• Secure: happy, friendly, trusting, accepting, supportive; last twice as long
• Anxious/ambivalent: jealousy, emotional ups and downs, desire for reciprocation, intense sexual desire; fall in love quickly while finding relationships unsatisfying
• Avoidant: fear of intimacy, jealousy, lack of acceptance; believe love hard to find and rarely lasting.
Reorganization of Mental Models
• Some able to overcome negative parent-child relationships
• Reorganization- some history of secure attachment
• Secure style very stable• More likely to move to secure style if:
educated
lived away from parents
and/or lived with with spouse before marriage
Advantages of Attachment Theory
• Provides a life-span perspective
• Offers insight into origins of various relational styles
• Emphasis on working models consistent with schemas in cognitive psychology
Friendship
• Research issues: Studies of development in adulthood are rare
• Definitions vary
• Few longitudinal studies
• Overgeneralization
Nature of Friendships
• Why we make friends: sociable system • Definition: a voluntary association between
equals high in similarity and whose primary orientation is toward enjoyment and personal satisfaction
• Longevity• Voluntary; less regulated by social/legal• Based on similarity• Oriented toward enjoyment• Trust
Functions of Friendships
• Contributes to self-esteem
• Serve as confidants
• Serve as models of coping
• Buffer stress
• Provide acceptance
• Major source of enjoyment
Friendship vs. Kinship
• Family: more significant and long-term assistance
• Obligatory, not voluntary
• More different in terms of interests, age
• “Get on nerves more”
• Some overlap and substitution
Gender Differences
• Women: closer, deeper, more intimate, offer more support, more satisfied, more communal or helping orientation, greater levels of continuity, more frequent contact
• Men: group and activity oriented, more guarded less self-disclosing, less intimate
• Men expect less and tolerate conflict
Friendship Development Over the Life Span
• Rate of interaction declined after high school and rose again in oldest group
• Middle-aged less than 10% of time
• Newlyweds: largest friendship network
• Often durable over time
• Women: available time and need
• Men: take place of family members
Leaving Home
• “Boomerang kids”
• Due to: financial or personal setback, unemployment, parent’s affluent life-style
• Parents influence process of leaving home