Interpersonal Relationships
Week 1 – DeWall & Bushman, 2011
Social acceptance and rejection: the sweet and the bitter
Need to belong – the desire to form and maintain close, lasting relationships with some other
individuals. This consists of two parts:
1. People want some kind of positive regular social contact.
2. People want the stable framework of some ongoing relationship in which the individuals
share a mutual concern for each other.
Social acceptance – other people signal that they wish to include you in their groups and
relationships.
- “Sweet” to reinforce positive affect associated with inclusion according to evolution theory
(more change for mates, higher survival rate).
Social-evaluative threat – a context in which a person can be judged negatively by others.
Social rejection – other people have little desire to include you in their groups and relationships.
- “Bitter” to avoid negative affect, so people are motivated to avoid social rejection and
perceive the benefits of inclusion.
- All kind of responses to social rejection;
Emotional response; increase various negatives emotions and lessens self-esteem.
Cognitive response; reduces performance on tasks, people become more attuned to
potential sources of social acceptance and potential threats.
Behavioural response; increases aggression, but this disappears when people engage
in prosocial behaviour. It also undermines self-regulation.
Biological response; heart rate slows, changes in progesterone, increase of cortisol,
increase activation in brain regions that are associated with physical pain.
- Coping for social rejection;
Social rejection starts an automatic emotion regulation process in which positive
emotions become easy to access.
Turning to religion.
Medication used to treat physical pain can be effective in reducing emotional pain,
because brain regions in social rejection and physical pain overlap.
Week 2 – Maner & Menzel, 2012
Evolutionary social psychology
Evolutionary psychology – an approach in which psychologists use what they know about human
biological evolution to inform their understanding of the contemporary human mind.
- An overarching meta-theoretical perspective instead of a single theory or hypothesis.
- Human biology and psychology have been shaped by evolutionary processes; the human
brain has been shaped to face adaptive challenges.
Natural selection – some individuals are more successful in avoiding dangers and using prospects to
survive in an environment. These individuals tend to be more successful at reproduction, which
eventually leads to more individuals with these characteristics as compared to other characteristics.
, Sexual selection – the process whereby some organisms are better able to compete with members
of their own sex over access to potential mating partners.
Trait-offs - a trait that improves reproductive fitness in one way can work against it in another
(example: the tail of a peacock).
Evolutionary approaches have the assumption that social psychological processes have been shaped
by evolution to serve some function, of which the ultimate function is reproduction. However, not
every thought or behaviour promotes reproductive success.
- Not all psychological and behavioural processes reflect evolved mechanisms but reflect by-
products of evolution.
- Not every process that has been designed through evolution necessarily enhances
reproduction in a direct sense. -> reproductive fitness; not the production of offspring, but
successful reproduction of genes.
Adaptations – physical and psychological characteristics produced through natural and sexual
selection, that enhance the reproductive fitness of the organism’s ancestors.
- Designed to solve adaptive challenges that arose in earlier environments.
- Adaptations can be domain-general (they work the same way across many different
domains), and domain-specific (designed to serve highly specific functions). -> psychological
mechanisms that may apply in one social situation may be very different from another
situation (for example, helping a family member or sharing information about a lecture with
a friend).
Fundamental motives of human behaviour;
1. Coalition formation and cooperation; successful cooperation with members of the group
would lead to increased change of survival and reproduction.
Inclusive Fitness Theory; people will preferentially align themselves with kin
because a benefit shared with a kin member implies indirect genetic benefits to
oneself.
Altruism nepotism; the preference of helping genetically related individuals over
not-related individuals.
Theories of reciprocal altruism; ancestors would have benefited from cooperating
with others to the extent that those people were likely to reciprocate, which caused
long-term benefits.
People cooperate with group members that are more likely to reciprocate
(probability).
Social anxiety – the tendency to anticipate and fear negative social evaluation –
could be the result of avoidance of social exclusion.
2. Social status; refers to one’s position in a social hierarchy, people higher in status have
greater influence over others and greater access to resources.
Status differences emerge quickly and spontaneously during interactions.
Dominance; influencing other people via force or intimidation. Depends in humans
on manipulating rewards and punishments to influence other people.
Prestige; having expertise, knowledge, wisdom in a domain that’s useful to a group.
The greater access to resources and influence over others might result in increased
reproductive success.
There can be a motivational conflict between leaders and followers in groups.
3. Self-protection; there can be many threats in a social environment and many different
psychological mechanisms are designed to detect and avoid those threats.
Week 1 – DeWall & Bushman, 2011
Social acceptance and rejection: the sweet and the bitter
Need to belong – the desire to form and maintain close, lasting relationships with some other
individuals. This consists of two parts:
1. People want some kind of positive regular social contact.
2. People want the stable framework of some ongoing relationship in which the individuals
share a mutual concern for each other.
Social acceptance – other people signal that they wish to include you in their groups and
relationships.
- “Sweet” to reinforce positive affect associated with inclusion according to evolution theory
(more change for mates, higher survival rate).
Social-evaluative threat – a context in which a person can be judged negatively by others.
Social rejection – other people have little desire to include you in their groups and relationships.
- “Bitter” to avoid negative affect, so people are motivated to avoid social rejection and
perceive the benefits of inclusion.
- All kind of responses to social rejection;
Emotional response; increase various negatives emotions and lessens self-esteem.
Cognitive response; reduces performance on tasks, people become more attuned to
potential sources of social acceptance and potential threats.
Behavioural response; increases aggression, but this disappears when people engage
in prosocial behaviour. It also undermines self-regulation.
Biological response; heart rate slows, changes in progesterone, increase of cortisol,
increase activation in brain regions that are associated with physical pain.
- Coping for social rejection;
Social rejection starts an automatic emotion regulation process in which positive
emotions become easy to access.
Turning to religion.
Medication used to treat physical pain can be effective in reducing emotional pain,
because brain regions in social rejection and physical pain overlap.
Week 2 – Maner & Menzel, 2012
Evolutionary social psychology
Evolutionary psychology – an approach in which psychologists use what they know about human
biological evolution to inform their understanding of the contemporary human mind.
- An overarching meta-theoretical perspective instead of a single theory or hypothesis.
- Human biology and psychology have been shaped by evolutionary processes; the human
brain has been shaped to face adaptive challenges.
Natural selection – some individuals are more successful in avoiding dangers and using prospects to
survive in an environment. These individuals tend to be more successful at reproduction, which
eventually leads to more individuals with these characteristics as compared to other characteristics.
, Sexual selection – the process whereby some organisms are better able to compete with members
of their own sex over access to potential mating partners.
Trait-offs - a trait that improves reproductive fitness in one way can work against it in another
(example: the tail of a peacock).
Evolutionary approaches have the assumption that social psychological processes have been shaped
by evolution to serve some function, of which the ultimate function is reproduction. However, not
every thought or behaviour promotes reproductive success.
- Not all psychological and behavioural processes reflect evolved mechanisms but reflect by-
products of evolution.
- Not every process that has been designed through evolution necessarily enhances
reproduction in a direct sense. -> reproductive fitness; not the production of offspring, but
successful reproduction of genes.
Adaptations – physical and psychological characteristics produced through natural and sexual
selection, that enhance the reproductive fitness of the organism’s ancestors.
- Designed to solve adaptive challenges that arose in earlier environments.
- Adaptations can be domain-general (they work the same way across many different
domains), and domain-specific (designed to serve highly specific functions). -> psychological
mechanisms that may apply in one social situation may be very different from another
situation (for example, helping a family member or sharing information about a lecture with
a friend).
Fundamental motives of human behaviour;
1. Coalition formation and cooperation; successful cooperation with members of the group
would lead to increased change of survival and reproduction.
Inclusive Fitness Theory; people will preferentially align themselves with kin
because a benefit shared with a kin member implies indirect genetic benefits to
oneself.
Altruism nepotism; the preference of helping genetically related individuals over
not-related individuals.
Theories of reciprocal altruism; ancestors would have benefited from cooperating
with others to the extent that those people were likely to reciprocate, which caused
long-term benefits.
People cooperate with group members that are more likely to reciprocate
(probability).
Social anxiety – the tendency to anticipate and fear negative social evaluation –
could be the result of avoidance of social exclusion.
2. Social status; refers to one’s position in a social hierarchy, people higher in status have
greater influence over others and greater access to resources.
Status differences emerge quickly and spontaneously during interactions.
Dominance; influencing other people via force or intimidation. Depends in humans
on manipulating rewards and punishments to influence other people.
Prestige; having expertise, knowledge, wisdom in a domain that’s useful to a group.
The greater access to resources and influence over others might result in increased
reproductive success.
There can be a motivational conflict between leaders and followers in groups.
3. Self-protection; there can be many threats in a social environment and many different
psychological mechanisms are designed to detect and avoid those threats.
