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Cities Stocks Weather Movies Coupons Travel Blogs Health Horoscope Maps ASIA EUROPE Classifieds Yellow PagesInterpersonal attraction (known as biological attraction in animals) is the attraction between people which leads to friendships and romantic relationships. In a colloquial sense, interpersonal attraction is related to how much we like, love, dislike, or hate someone. Interpersonal attraction can be thought of as a force acting between two people tending to draw them together, and resisting their separation. According to a personality psychologists\' view, interpersonal attraction is a person\'s qualities that tend to attract by appealing to another person\'s desires.Keyword: “attraction”; source: Merriam-Webster collegiate Dictionary, 2000 When measuring interpersonal attraction, one must refer to the qualities of the attracted as well as the qualities of the attractor to achieve predictive accuracy. The study of interpersonal attraction is a major area of study in social psychology. They suggest that to determine attraction, personality and situation must be taken into account. Repulsion is also a factor in the process of interpersonal attraction, one\'s conception of "attraction" to another can vary from extreme attraction to extreme repulsion.Berscheid, Ellen; Walster, Elaine H. (1969). Interpersonal Attraction. Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.. CCCN 69-17443.
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Many factors leading to interpersonal attraction have been studied. The most frequently studied are:
Similarity is the idea that a person feels attraction to another whose physical attractiveness is perceived as similar to their own. This hypothesis is commonly known as the matching hypothesis. Researchers suggest that people are also attracted to others who are similar to them in demographics, interpersonal style, communication skills, and social situations. A study conducted by Theodore Newcomb on college dorm roommates suggested that individuals with shared background, majors, attitudes, values, and political views became friends. There are three reasons why researchers think that similarity to the object of attraction is important. First, many assume that people who are similar to them will reciprocate their feeling thereby they would be more likely to start a relationship. Second, many think that people will confirm and side with them on their beliefs and characteristics providing them with the feeling of rightness. Third, people most often have negative assumption about others that they think are different from them. However, a study done by David Amodio and Carolin Showers (2005) suggests that when a person wants a committed relationship, they tend to choose someone similar to themselves, and that if they only want a \'fling\' they tend to choose a person dissimilar to them.
A current study on interpersonal attraction by R. Matthew Montoya at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and Robert S. Horton from Wabash College. This study consisted of 3 smaller studies that had 81 participants, and consisted of two sessions. The first session, each individual took an attitude assessment, then after they were finished participants were given information about another participant who they were going to meet in the second session. Before this second session they were asked what they expected their partner to be like after judging them from the information given. During the second session, the two participants would meet and have to complete a problem solving task together.
The final conclusion of the study showed that "Attraction is based on an evaluation of quality of an individual".
People\'s feelings toward another is dependent on his/her perception of rewards and costs, the kind of relationships he/she deserves, and their likelihood for having a healthier relationship with someone else. Rewards are the part of a relationship that makes it worthwhile and enjoyable. Cost is something that sometimes causes irritation like when a friend overstays his/her welcome. Comparison level is also taken into account during a relationship. This suggests that people expect rewards or punishment depending on the time invested in the relationship. If the level of expected rewards is high and the level of costs is minimal, the relationship suffers and both parties may become dissatisfied and unhappy. Lastly, the comparison level of alternatives states that satisfaction is conditional on the chance that he/she could replace the relationship with a more desirable one.
Warren Kubitschek and Maureen Hallinan, University of Notre Dame, social psychologists who suggested that attraction is the result of the propinquity and similarity effects and the status of each party involved. Their study was about the tracking program that organizes students according to their level of ability to learn. This is mostly implemented in middle and almost all of high school. Their goal is to prove that students on the same track have a higher probability of becoming friends compared to those in different tracks according. Other organizational based groupings should also follow these factors. The propinquity effect creates an ideal environment where students are in close physical proximity with each other and have the chance to build familiarity that leads to friendship. Similarity in tracking students is important because they found that track students tend to become friends with others who have the same academic achievement and expectations as themselves. They also found that students on the same level of status concerning grades will likely name them than those who are on lower level than their own. They conclude that although the factors mentioned do have great influence on friendship, they are not exclusive for organized program like tracking.
The triangular theory of love by Robert Sternberg is based on intimacy, passion, and commitment. Consummate love being the strongest type of love which consists of three aspects: intimacy+passion+commitment. The idea of this theory is that love can consist of one component alone or any combination of the three parts: intimacy, passion, and commitment.
There are many factors taken into account when a relationship turns into love. One big factor is culture. This is a common issue among two people who come from very different cultural backgrounds. In a study done by Phillip Shavers and his colleagues, they interviewed participants from different parts of the world and found that love has "similar and different meanings cross-culturally. The Chinese participants had several different love concepts such as "sorrow-love","tenderness-pity", and "sorrow-pity". This ties into another study done by Rothbaym and his partner Tsang in 1998, they researched popular love songs from American and Chinese artists. The difference was that the Chinese love songs, "had significantly more references to suffering and to negative outcomes than the American love songs." This may be due to beliefs that interpersonal relationships are predestined, and thus have no control over love lives.
The evolutionary theory of human interpersonal attraction states that interpersonal attraction most often occurs when someone has physical features indicating that they are very fertile. The only purpose of relationships is reproduction, thus people invest in partners who appear very fertile to increase the chance of their genes being passed down to the next generation. This theory has been criticized because it does not explain relationships between same-sex couples or couples who do not want children.
Another evolutionary explanation suggests that fertility in a mate is of greater importance to men than to women. According to this theory, a woman places significant emphasis on a man\'s ability to provide resources and protection. The theory suggests that these resources and protection are important in ensuring the successful raising of the woman\'s offspring. The ability to provide resources and protection might also be sought because the underlying traits are likely to be passed on to male offspring.
Evolutionary theory also suggests that people whose physical features suggest they are healthy are seen as more attractive. The theory suggests that a healthy mate is more likely to possess genetic traits related to health that would be passed on to offspring. People\'s tendency to consider people with facial symmetry more attractive than those with less symmetrical faces is one example. Although a test was conducted that perfectly symmetrical faces were less attractive that normal faces. John P. Swaddle, Innes C. Cuthill [1]
It has also been suggested that people are attracted to faces similar to their own. Case studies have revealed that when a photograph of a woman was superimposed to include the features of a man\'s face, the man whose face has been superimposed almost always rated that picture the most attractive.[citation needed] This theory is based upon the notion that we want to replicate our own features in the next generation, as we have survived thus far with such features and have instinctive survival wishes for our children. Another (non-evolutionary) explanation given for the results of that study was that the man whose face was superimposed may have consciously or unconsciously associated the photographically altered female face with the face of his mother or other family member.[citation needed]
This is the ending of a relationship whether its a friendship or romantic relationship. There are several reasons that a relationship may come to an end. One reason derives from the equity theory (rewards and costs are equal to both parties), if a person in the relationship feels that the costs of them being in the relationship outweigh the rewards there is a strong chance they will end the relationship, this also may go for the rewards outweighing costs in some cases.
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