Interpersonal Attraction Why You Need Friends Social psychology is the study of how our thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and behaviors are influenced by our interactions with others. Social cognition, a subfield of social psychology, is the study of how we perceive, store, and retrieve information about these social interactions. Social psychologists have found that we need company most when we are afraid or anxious. People also need companionship to reduce uncertainties about themselves and to compare their experiences with others.

Interpersonal Attraction How You Choose Friends Several factors play a role in how we select our friends. Proximity Reward values Stimulation value Utility value Ego-support value Physical appearance Approval Similarity Complementarity Mere Exposure

Social Perception First Impressions The primacy effect is the tendency to form opinions based on first impressions. It can influence our feelings about a person more than later information does. We develop schemas, or sets of assumptions, for every person we know; we also develop schemas about behaviors that we associate with certain events. A stereotype is a set of assumptions about an identifiable group of people. Stereotypes can contain positive or negative information.

Social Perception Attribution Theory Attribution theory is an analysis of how we interpret and understand other people’s behavior. Internal, or dispositional, attributions assume personal characteristics can explain a person’s behavior. External, or situational, attributions assume circumstances can explain an individual’s behavior. Several attribution errors can shape behavior. Fundamental attribution error Assumed-similarity bias The halo effect Actor-observer bias Self-serving bias

Social Perception Nonverbal Communication Messages can be communicated to others both verbally and nonverbally. People often are unaware of their nonverbal messages. People send nonverbal messages through facial expressions and body language, including posture and gestures. Body language is often governed by social rules. Proxemics, the physical comfort zone between people, is a component of body language and can vary by culture.

Personal Relationships Parent-Child Relationships Early and persistent patterns of parent-child interaction influence people’s later adult relationships. Being part of family with a happy marriage increases the likelihood that positive patterns will be imitated and repeated. Being part of a violent family increases the likelihood that a person will use violence against his or her children and spouse. Parent-child conflict can develop during adolescence. Each generation has a generational identity based on shared formative experiences that set it apart from generations that have come before and after.

Personal Relationships Love Relationships Two common types of love identified by psychologists are passionate love and companionate love. Zick Rubin described three major components of romantic love: need, caring, and intimacy. Rubin also found that a romantic relationship is more likely to progress when both parties express their interest. Robert Sternberg’s triangular theory of love is based on three parts: intimacy, passion, and commitment. Combinations of these parts account for the many different ways that love is experienced.

Personal Relationships Love Relationships Endogamy and homogamy can govern behavior leading to successful marriages. Endogamy is the tendency to marry someone from one’s own social group. Homogamy is the tendency to marry someone with attributes similar to one’s own. Healthy marriages depend on three factors: compatible needs, a match between partners’ images of themselves and their images of each other, and partners’ agreeing on their roles in the marriage. Adjusting to divorce may be similar to adjusting to death. The experience is sometimes referred to as “separation shock.”