MAP603_Social Psychology

Research Methods in Social Psychology 95 6. When increase or decrease in one variable does not affect the other variable in any way,there is ____ co-relationship. (a) positive (b) Negative (c) Zero 7. When increase in one variables leads to simultaneous decrease in another variable or vice versa, it is called as ____ co-relationship. (a) positive (b) Negative (c) Zero 8. ____ is one of the most preferred method of research used by social psychology, which makes controlled observations. (a) Experimental (b) Systematic Observation (c) Correlational Answers: 1. (a), 2. (c), 3. (c), 4. (a), 5. (a), 6. (c), 7. (b), 8. (a) 4.10 Reference 1. B. Kuppuswany, (1961), “An Introduction to Social Psychology”, Asian Publishes House, Mumbai. 2. Arun Kumar Singh, (2015), “Social Psychology, PHI. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

UNIT 5 SOCIALIZATION Structure: 5.0 Learning Objectives 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Meaning of Socialization 5.3 Special Agents of Socialization 5.4 Summary 5.5 Key Words/Abbreviations 5.6 Learning Activity 5.7 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive) 5.8 References 5.0 Learning Objectives After studying this unit, you will be able to:  Explain the meaning of socialization  Describe the special agents of socialization i.e. The role of family, neighbourhood, school, peer group, mass media, workplace, religion. 5.1 Introduction This unit will help you to understand the meaning of socialization and the special agents of socialization. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Socialization 97 5.2 Meaning of Socialization Socialization means the life long social experience, by which human beings develop their human potential and acquire culture. Human being require social experience to acquire their culture and to survive. Socialization occurs throughout our life, but some of the most important socialization occurs in childhood. Socialization is the process through which an individual learns the attitudes, belief and behaviours approved by his culture. The child becomes socialized, through social learning process. It is through socialization, human beings get the skills which are essential for functioning as members of their society. Through socialization, an individual learns the accepted customer norms behaviours and languages. A person learns the right social skills and shape his place in society through socialization. Definitions of Socialization 1. W.F. Ogburn: “Socialization is the process by which an individual learns to confirm to the norms of the group.” 2. Bertrand: “Socialization is the process whereby the newly born infant is gradually inducted into the culture of his social group or society, including its values, norms, beliefs,sentiments and other patterns of living.” 5.3 Special Agents of Socialization The Special agents of socialization are as follows: 1. The Family The family is the first and the foremost primary agency of childhood socialization. The parents have an important role to play in the child's socialization, but the mother’s role is more important, than the father. The parents develop a close and intimate child relationship, while catering to the different child’s needs. For the child’s future development their relationship is very significant. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

98 Social Psychology From the parents ,the child learns his speech and language. He is taught societal morality. He learns various civic virtues. He learns good habits from a good family and learns bad habit from a bad family . The child observes sex roles in the family. The child establishes close bonds with the parents, brothers and sisters. The child learns to love and respect the family members and elders. The child learns basic discipline, learns to behave properly and learns to perform his/her activities on his/her own. 2. Neighborhood Neighborhood has an important role to play in the child’s socialization.Neighborhood means the physical environment, the social environment and the type of people living in the vicinity of the person’s residence. The physical environment means the surrounding area in which a person lives, whether rural area or urban area, or tribal area or slum or an elite residential area. The social environment means the values and attitudes that members of a particular neighborhood feel important. It also means the amount of freedom given to a child. The type of people generally means the cultural type i.e whether people belong to the same or different religion in the neighborhood, their education level, whether they believe in the mixing or separation of sexes. 3. School The school is an agency of socialization. Education is very important in socialization. In a school, a child has to stand on his own. He is no more the pet of his mom or dad.The first real lesson in discipline is learned by the child in school. All his demands are not fulfilled. He has to abide by the school rulers. A child is affected by the teachers personality. Different ways are used by the teacher to encourage or discourage a child. A great difference is made in the child’s personality, by the way a teacher rewards or punishes a child. Teachers must take special care of bright and dull children , as an average child is not affected by the school situations, as much as a bright or a dull child. In school, we learn social skills through interaction with teachers and students. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Socialization 99 4. Peer group Peer group are people of similar age and interests. The peer group has a very powerful social influence on the child within the peer group, a child must earn his social position. A child’s bonds with the family reduces, when a child interacts with the peer group. The peer group gives an alternative model for behaviour and new social norms and values. Peer group relationships are very crucial in adolescence. In adolescence, a child gives more importance to peers opinions than parents views. 5. Mass Media The mass media i.e. the radio, television, newspaper, recorded music, internet, magazines etc play an important role in a child’s socialization. From early forms of print technology to electronic communication (radio , T.V. etc.) the media is playing a control role in shaping an individuals personality. Since the last century, technological innovations like audio, motion pictures, recorded music and television have become important agents of socialization. In particular television is an important factor in childrens socialization, the world over. Besides sleeping, television watching is the most time consuming activity of young people. Besides television, internet and social media are also important factors in a child’s and adults socialization. 6. Workplace A basic aspect of socialization is learning to behave appropriately within an occupation or workplace. Workplace socialization cannot be separated from the socialization experience that takes place in childhood and adolescence. We are mostly exposed to occupational role through observing the work of our parents, of people when we meet while performing their duties , and of people portrayed in the media. 7. Religion Religion is an important agency of socialization . Previously, religion gave a unity bond But , nowadays, though the importance of religion has reduced, yet it continues to change our beliefs CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

100 Social Psychology and ways of life. Some or the other religious practices are observed , on one or the other occasions, in every family. The child sees his parents going to a religious place like a temple, church, mosque, gurudwara etc. and doing religious ceremonies. He hears religious sermons which may shape his ideas and determine his course of life. 5.4 Summary Socialization occurs in childhood and throughout our life. It start from a child’s birth and continues till a persons death Socialization is a life long experience,by which human beings develop their human potential and acquire culture. The special agencies of socialization are the family, neighborhood, school, peer group, mass media, workplace, religion etc. 5.5 Key Words/Abbreviations  Family: The family is the first and the foremost primary agency of childhood socialization.  Neighbourhood: Neighbourhood means the physical environment, the social environment and the type of people living in the vicinity of the person’s residence.  School:The school is an agency of socialization. Education is very important in socialization.  Peer group: Peer group are people of similar age and interests.  Mass Media:The mass media i.e. the radio, television, newspaper, recorded music, internet, magazines etc play an important role in a child’s socialization.  Religion: Previously, religion gave a unity bond But , now a days, through the importance of religion has reduced ,yet it continues to change our beliefs and ways of life CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Socialization 101 5.6 Learning Activity 1. Write your own view on the impact of mass media in today’s social life. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Make a list of individual behaviour with respect to religion which effects the society. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.7 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive) A. Descriptive Types Questions 1. What is Socialization? 2. Define socialization. 3. Explain the special agents of socialization. B. Multiple Choice/Objective Type Questions 1. ______ occurs in childhood and throughout our life. (a) Socialization (b) Attraction (c) Attribution 2. The ______ is the primary agent of socialization. (a) Family (b) School (c) Religion 3. ______ is the process by which an individual learns to confirm to group norms. (a) Attitude (b) Perception (c) Socialization CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

102 Social Psychology 4. The family, the school, the neighborhood, the peer groups, the mass media etc. are the ____ of socialization. (a) Agents (b) partners (c) owners Answers: 1. (a), 2. (a), 3. (c), 4. (a) 5.8 Reference 1. Delamater, J.D. And Myers, D.J. (2007), “Social Psychology” (6th ed), Thomson Wadsworth International student edition, USA.s 2. Taylor, S.E, Peplan , L.A. And Sears D.O. (2006), “Social psychology” (12th ed.), New Delhi : Pearson Education. 3. www.yourarticlelibrary.com 4. Vidya Bhushan and D.R. Sachdeva (2014) “An introduction to sociology, Kitab mahal New Delhi. 5. Ira Raja, “Security, Socialisation and Affect in Indian Families: Unfamiliar Ground”, 1st Ed., 2014. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Aggression 103 UNIT 6 AGGRESSION Structure: 6.0 Learning Objectives 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Concept of Aggression 6.3 Determinants of Aggression 6.4 Summary 6.5 Key Words/Abbreviations 6.6 Learning Activity 6.7 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive) 6.8 References 6.0 Learning Objectives After studying this unit, you will be able to:  Explain the concept of aggression  Explain the determinants of aggression. 6.1 Introduction Aggression is a behaviour of an individual or society for what happened, for what effected, and for the lack of basic needs of a human being. In each and every old stories, epics, imaginaries the aggression or violent is shown and its effects. Aggression and violences are two main phase of society. Nowadays, the society is much polluted by violence and disaster by human beings to CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

104 Social Psychology human beings, human beings to nature. At last, the sufferings are also shared by the by the same individual in the society. Thus, the chapter has shown a frame work of aggression of an individual and its determinants. 6.2 Concept of Aggression Aggression and violence are inevitable facets of human society and human nature. History bears witness to the facts that aggression in human beings, at times, had reached inappropriate proportions and have threatened human existence itself. The two world wars, the rise of terrorism in many countries, class and caste wars, the threat of nuclear war, acts of terrorism in various parts of the world, especially in India such as the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, etc., are all indicators of aggressive nature of man that can reach dangerous heights. Aggression and violence is a common phenomenon of our present time. The present age can be called as the “age of aggression”. In today’s competitive world some degree of aggression is desired and considered as necessary for one’s adjustment. According to Dollard et. al., aggression can be defined as “a behaviour whose goal is the injury of the person towards whom it is directed”. Supposedly this includes physical and verbal aggression. According to Baron and Bryne “aggression is any form of behaviour directed towards the goal of harming or injuring another living being who is motivated to avoid such treatment”. 6.3 Determinants of Aggression Human aggression is a result of multiple causes. The following table briefly summarises the various causes determinants of human aggression, which we will briefly discuss. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Aggression 105 Social Cultural Personal Situational  Frustration  “Culture of  Personality Factors  Effects of Heat  Type A Behaviour  Alcohol (Temperature) Honor”  Provocation Pattern  Heightened Arousal  Sexual  Narcissism and Ego  Exposure to Media Jealousy Threat Violence  Sensation Seeking  Violent  Gender Differences Pornography 1. Social Causes of Aggression: Many social factors contribute to aggression. Some of the most common social causes are as follows: (i) Frustration (ii) Provocation (iii) Heightened Arousal (iv) Exposure to Media Violence (v) Violent Pornography (i) Frustration: This is one of the potential and the most common causes of aggression. The role of frustration in aggression was highlighted by Frustration-Aggression hypothesis, which was first proposed by Dollard et. al., (1939). In its original form this hypothesis made two sweeping assertions.  Frustration always lead to some form of aggression; and  Aggression always stems from frustration. In short, it held that persons who are frustrated always engage in some form of aggression and that all acts of aggression, in turn results from frustration. Both the above assertions of this hypothesis are far too sweeping in scope to be accurate. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

106 Social Psychology (a) First, it should be remembered that frustrated individuals do not always respond with aggressive thoughts, words or deeds. They also show a wide variety of reactions to frustration, such as resignation, despair, sadness, etc. (b) Second, not all instances of aggression result from frustration. People aggress for many different reasons and in response to many different factors. For, e.g., professional boxers and military personnel indulge in aggression not because they are frustrated but because of many other reasons. Recently Berkowitz (1989) has proposed a revised version of the frustration-aggression hypothesis that seems consistent with a large amount of evidence about the effects of frustration. According to this view, frustration is an aversive, unpleasant experience, and frustration leads to aggression because of this fact. The frustration aggression viewpoint also helps to explain why unexpected frustration and frustration that is viewed as illegitimate or unjustified produce stronger aggression than frustration that is expected or legitimate. For, e.g., an employee who has been abruptly terminated from service without a reasonable and proper explanation will feel that his termination is illegitimate and unjustified. Such an individual will develop hostile thoughts, experience intense anger and seek revenge against the perceived source of frustration (in this case the employer). This is due to the fact that unexpected or illegitimate frustration generates greater amount of negative affect than frustration that is expected or viewed as legitimate. (ii) Provocation: This is another determinant of aggression. Common everyday life experience indicates that direct provocation leads to anger. Even mild taunts, staring at others continuously, etc., can also lead to higher proportions of aggression. Direct evidence for the strong impact of physical provocation on aggression has been obtained in many laboratory studies. Findings suggest that direct provocation from others, either physical or verbal, often play a powerful role in eliciting overt aggression. It often plays a much stronger role in this regard than frustration. When we have received aggression from others (such as unfair criticism, sarcastic remarks, physical assaults, etc.) we reciprocate by returning as much aggression as we CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Aggression 107 have received or perhaps even slightly more, especially if we are certain that the other individual intended to harm/hurt us. Research studies (Torestad, 1990, Harris, 1993) have been carried out to determine what factors lead to provocation in others. Harris (1993) found that the following are important anger-provoking actions by others. 1. Physical Aggression. 2. Verbal aggression. 3. Insensitivity. 4. Condescension. 5. Dishonesty. 6. Inefficiency. Harris (1993) also found that there were gender differences in provocation.  Physical and verbal aggression was found to be most anger provoking among men as well as women.  Females were found to become much angrier as compared to males with respect to condescending actions—one’s in which the other person showed arrogance or suggested that he/she was superior in some manner.  Females were also found to become angrier in situations where someone hurt someone else and in situations where one was insensitive to others. Not everybody reacts to provocation with aggression, whether we would react to provocation with aggression is influenced by many factors. One such factor is our attributions concerning provocation. For e.g., when we conclude that provocation from another person was intended, i.e., purposely performed, we become angry and engage in strenuous efforts to reciprocate. However, on the other hand if we conclude that provocation was unintended, i.e., due to the result of accident or factors beyond other’s control, we are much less likely to loose our temper and behave aggressively. Thus, CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

108 Social Psychology attributions concerning the causes behind the provocative actions of others play an important role in determining how aggressively we would react. Kinds of Provocation: Three important types of provocation that leads to aggression are as follows: (a) Condescension: Expression of arrogance or disdain on the part of others. (b) Harsh and Unjustified Criticism: Harsh and unjustified criticism, especially criticism that attacks us rather than our behaviour. (c) Teasing: Provoking statements that points to an individual’s flaws and imperfections. Teasing can range from mild, humorous remarks and humorous nicknames to comments that are designed to hurt and insult others. Research findings indicate that the more individuals attribute teasing to hostile motives – a desire to embarass or annoy them – the more likely they are to respond aggressively. (iii) Heightened Arousal: The results of a number of experimental studies show that heightened physiological arousal, irrespective of its source, may often serve to facilitate overt aggression. Heightened arousal created by such sources as loud and unpleasant noises, competitive activities and even vigorous exercise has been found to facilitate aggression under “certain” conditions (and not all). Excitation Transfer Theory: One of the theories that explain the relationship between heightened arousal and aggression is called as Excitation Transfer Theory introduced by Zillmann (1983). Briefly Excitation Transfer Theory refers to the fact that often physiological arousal dissipates slowly overtime. As a result some portion of such arousal may persist as an individual moves from one situation to another. This residual excitement, in turn, can then transfer to the new context, and intensify any emotional experiences occurring in it. Research studies lend support to this theory. According to Zilimann, arousal occurring in one situation can persist and intensify, emotional reactions occurring in later, unrelated CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Aggression 109 situations. For, e.g., the arousal generated by a near miss in traffic can intensify feelings of annoyance or frustration produced, by later delays at an airport security gate. It should be remembered that though heightened arousal can lead to increased aggression, the impact of arousal on aggression depends on the complex interplay between emotions and cognition. Sometimes, cognition shape emotions and aggression. Conversely, emotions affect cognition, and this, can influence aggressive behaviours Emotion Cognition and Aggression: Zillmann (1994) has revised his excitation transfer theory to explain the interaction of emotion and cognition in causing aggression. According to him our thoughts can lead us to reappraise various emotion provoking events as a result of which we would reinterpret the situation and this cognitive activity in turn, may well influence your emotional reactions leading to aggression. For, e.g., Zillman (1994) found that if subjects are told in advance that someone with whom they will soon interact is very upset, they experience less anger in response to rudeness by this individual than if they do not receive such information. Emotional arousal influences our cognition to a considerable extent. According to Zillmann (1994) levels of emotional arousal influences our thoughts about other’s behaviour and so our tendencies to aggress against them. According to Zillmann (1994) strong emotional arousal sometimes produces what he describes as cognitive deficit–i.e., reduced ability to formulate rational plans of action or reduced ability to evaluate the possible outcome of various behaviours. (iv) Exposure to Media Violence: It is with respect to aggression psychologists have attempted to determine the effects of viewing violence, on television and films, on individual’s actual violent actions. It has been observed that exposure to the actions of other persons can strongly affect our attitudes, emotions and behaviours. A large number of research studies have conclusively demonstrated that exposure to aggressive models stimulate similar behaviour among observers. Similarly, research studies have also conclusively shown that exposure to violence in the mass media (films and TV), increases aggression by viewers. Some important findings of the various research studies with respect to exposure to media violence and aggression are as follows: CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

110 Social Psychology  Research on exposure to violent television, movies, video games and music indicates that such material significantly increases the likelihood of aggressive behaviour by people exposed to them.  Such effects are both short term and long term in nature.  The magnitude of these effects is large, real and long lasting.  Laboratory studies as well as studies carried out in real life situations support the above observations.  It has been found that the more violent films or televisions programs participants watched as children, the higher their levels of aggression as teenagers or adults are.  In a recent study Bartholow et. al., (2006) have found that individuals who reported that they had often played violent video games in the past directed more aggression against another person who had done nothing to provoke them than people who had rarely played such games. The more participants in the study had played violent video games in the past, the stronger the aggression they directed to their “opponent” on trials when they won. Why does media violence enhance aggression? This can be explained on the basis of General Aggression Model. Bushman and Anderson suggest that repeated exposure to media violence can strongly affect cognitions relating to aggression, gradually creating a hostile expectation bias – a strong expectation that others will act aggressively. This, in turn, causes, individuals to be more aggressive themselves, after all they perceive provocations from others everywhere, even when they really do not exist. It has also been noted by researchers that exposure to media violence enhances aggression because it desensitizes an individual to aggressive acts and makes the individual aggress against others with increasing intensity. (v) Violent Pornography: A large number of research studies also indicate that violent pornography leads to aggressive behaviour. Some important research studies worth nothing on this point are as follows: CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Aggression 111  First, several research studies indicate that exposure to violent pornography increases the tendency of males to aggress against females. Male subjects exposed to an X-rated film containing scenes of aggression against females (violent pornography) later showed more aggression against a female accomplice than subjects who watched a violent film containing no sexual content. Subjects who saw an X-rated film containing no violent content were the least aggressive of all. These findings suggest that the combination of explicit sexual content and violence against women is potentially dangerous.  It has also been found that exposure to violent pornography has other harmful effects. One such effect is the desensitizing effect in which viewers react less negatively to the violence in these films as they watch more and more of them. Research studies have shown that prolonged exposure to scenes depicting sexual violence toward females (several hours of viewing such films), both men and women report more callous attitudes toward such actions. They perceive crimes such as rape as less serious, report less sympathy toward rape victims, indicate greater acceptance of false beliefs about rape (e.g., the myth that many women really want to be ravaged) and become more accepting of bizarre forms of pornography. 2. Cultural Causes of Aggression: Acts of violence are also considerably influenced by the culture to which one belongs. Certain cultural practices with respect to honour, sexuality, etc., are filled with violence and aggression. An important concept in this area is “cultures of honour”. (i) Cultures of Honour: It refers to those cultures in which there are strong norms indicating that aggression is an appropriate response to insults to one’s honour. In North India (especially Haryana), among the Rajputs, where such a culture is prevalent, incidents of honour killings/punishments are fairly common, where the girl and sometimes the girl and the boy are both killed or punished by the family and/or community for engaging in an intercaste/interfaith relationships. Thus, in ‘cultures of honor’ there are strong norms suggesting that insults to one’s honour must be avenged through aggression. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

112 Social Psychology (ii) Sexual Jealousy: Social psychological research as well as observation of scholars like Shakespeare and Freud have pointed out that sexual jealousy is one of the most potential causes of aggression. Sexual jealousy can be defined as the perception of a threat to a romantic relationship by a rival for one’s partner. A large number of research studies by Buss et. al.,(1992). Parrot, (1991); and Sharpsteen, (1991) have demonstrated that individuals who feel that their lover has “done them wrong” by flirting with another person often experience strong feelings of anger and frequently think about or actually engage in actions designed to punish their lover, the rivals, or both. Some studies have found that most of the blame is on one’s lover rather than the rival. It has also been found (Paul et. al., 1993) that females experience stronger feelings of anger at both the partner and the rival than males do and they are more likely to react aggressively to such betrayals. Sexual jealousy is one aspect of ‘culture of honour’. In these cultures, sexual infidelity – either real or imagined – especially by the women is viewed as highly threatening to male honour. In such cultures, crimes of passion, in which husbands murder their wives and/or their lovers are condoned atleast to some degree. In these cultures (i.e., cultures of honour), sexual infidelity by a wife or lover is viewed as the ultimate insult to a male’s honour, so when men take action to restore their honour, it is viewed not merely as justified, but perhaps as actually required. Research studies by Vandello and Cohen (2003) have revealed that cultural factors, especially with respect to sexual jealousy, play a vital role in both, the occurrence of aggression and in how it is perceived and evaluated. 3. Personal Causes of Aggression: Many personal factors, especially those related to an individual plays an important role in the causation of aggression. Some important personal factors that contribute towards aggression are as follows: (i) Personality Factors: The TASS Model (Traits as Sensitivites to Various Situations) (ii) Type A Behaviour Pattern (iii) Narcissism and Ego Threat CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Aggression 113 (iv) Sensation Seeking (v) Gender Differences We would discuss each of these briely. (i) Personality Factors: The TASS Model (Traits as Sensitivites to Various Situations): Many personality factors interact in complex ways with a given situational variable to determine how aggressively an individual reacts to a given situation. One such model is called as the TASS Model: The Traits as Situational Sensitivities Model. It suggests that many personality traits function in a threshold-like manner, influencing behaviour only when situations evoke them. The TASS Model makes the following prediction: The tendency to behave aggressively (some times known as trait aggressiveness) will only influence overt behaviour when situational factors are strong enough to activate it. For people high in this trait, even weak provocations will stimulate aggressive reaction, for people low in this trait, in contrast, much stronger levels of provocation are required to trigger aggression. Recent research by Marshall and Brown (2006) support the predictions of the TASS Model. These researchers have found that for people high in trait aggressiveness, even a moderate level of provocation would trigger intense aggressive reactions; for people low in trait aggressiveness, however, a moderate provocation would trigger little or no aggression. Only a strong provocation would result in overt aggression. (ii) Type A Behaviour Pattern: The Term type A was introduced by Friedman and Rosenman to describe an individual’s set of personality characteristics. The Type A behaviour pattern is a pattern of behaviour consisting primarily of high levels of competitiveness, time urgency and hostility. The Type A behaviour pattern is distinguished from Type B pattern and can be defined as a pattern consisting of the absence of characteristics associated with the Type A behaviour pattern. Some of the important characteristics of Type A personalities are as follows: (a) They are highly competitive, achievement oriented and always worried about time. They take too many activities at hand and always work against the pressure of time. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

114 Social Psychology (b) Type A individuals are prone to aggressive and hostile behaviours. Type A individuals are hostile because aggressing against others is a useful means for reaching one’s goals, such as furthering one’s career or winning in athletic competitions (This is called as instrumental aggression). Type A individuals also engage in hostile aggression, i.e., aggression whose prime purpose is that of inflicting pain and suffering on the victims. It has been found that Type A s are more likely than Type B s to engage in such actions as child abuse or spouse abuse (Strube et. al., 1984). (c) Research studies have also found that Type A individuals are more likely than Type B individuals to experience conflict with others in work settings. Baron (1989) found that Type A individuals reported with higher frequency that they experienced conflict with subordinates, peers, or supervisors during the course of their jobs. Persons classified as Type A reported a higher incidence of conflict with peers and subordinates than did those individuals classified as Type B. This conflict leads to development of aggressive behaviour. (iii) Narcissism and Ego Threat: The term Narcissism is derived from the story of a character from Greek mythology. Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection in the water and drowned trying to reach it. His name has now become a synonym for excessive self-love. Narcissistic individuals are highly self-centered and hold an over- inflated view of one’s own virtues or accomplishments. It has been found that high levels of Narcissism are associated with aggressive behaviour. Bushman and Baumeister (1998) found that individuals who have high levels of Narcissism often react with exceptionally high levels of aggression to slights from others, i.e., feedback that threatens their inflated self-image. They also react in an aggressive manner to mild provocations because they believe that they are much better than other people and as a result, perceive mild critical comments from others as strong slurs on their inflated self-image. Due to their inflated self-image narcissistic individuals perceive themselves to be victims of transgressions (wrong doings). CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Aggression 115 (iv) Sensation Seeking: Sensation seeker is one personality characteristic. Individuals who are described as sensation seekers are ones who are highly impulsive, adventurous, seeks new experiences and gets bored quickly. These individuals seek exciting events having an element of risk in it. They are also less inhibited. According to Zuckerman such individuals are high in aggression. Those who are high in sensation seeking are found to be highly aggressive due to following reasons:  They experience anger and hostile feelings in higher amount as compared to others.  Their emotions are easily aroused.  They have lower thresholds for becoming angry.  Moreover, their tendencies to get bored and to seek exciting new experiences may lead them to have more hostile thoughts. Joiereman et. al., (2003) found that those scoring high on sensation seeking were found to be high on verbal and physical aggression due to following reasons:  High sensation seekers are generally attracted to situations that elicit aggression because they find such situations as exciting and appealing.  They experience anger and hostility in higher proportions as compared to those who score lower on sensation seeking.  They are also more likely to focus on immediate rather than delayed consequences of their behaviour. (v) Gender Differences: Research studies have shown that there are sex differences in aggression. Males are found to be more aggressive than females. Statistical data indicates that males are more likely than females to be arrested for violent acts. Harris (1994) in his research study found that males have indulged in wide range of aggressive actions as compared to females. Some important research findings with respect to gender differences in aggression are as follows: (a) Gender differences in aggression are much larger in the absence of provocation than in its presence. In other words, males are significantly more likely than females to aggress against others when the provocation for aggression was absent. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

116 Social Psychology (b) Gender difference tends to shrink or even disappear when there is provocation. (c) Gender differences are also found with respect to types of aggression. (d) Males are more likely than females to engage in various forms of physical aggression such as kicking, punching, hitting and use of weapons. On the other hand women are found to indulge more in verbal assaults. It has been further found that females engage in forms of aggression that make it difficult for victims to identify the aggressor or even to realize that they have been the targets of aggressive behaviour. (e) Gender differences are also present among children as young as eight and increase through age 15 and persist into adulthood. (f) Research studies have also shown that the differences were found to be larger in situations in which aggression seemed to be required (e.g., by some social role) rather freely chosen. In addition, males and females appeared to differ somewhat in their attitudes toward aggression. Males indicated less guilt or anxiety about engaging in such behavior than females, while females reported greater concern over the possibility that aggressing against others could pose a threat to their own safety (e.g., if the victim chose to retaliate). Finally, Eagly and Steffen (1986) found that both sexes directed slightly more aggression against male targets than against female ones. (g) Males and females also differ with respect to one form of aggression called as sexual coercion. It involves words and deeds designed to overcome a partner’s objections to engaging in sexual behavior and they can range from verbal tactics such as false statements of love to threats of harm and actual physical force. It has been found (Mussweiler and Forster 2000, Hogben et al 2001) that males are far more likely to indulge in sexual coercion as compared to females. (h) Research findings indicate that males are more likely than females to engage in various forms of direct aggression - actions aimed directly at the target and which clearly stem from the aggressor, e.g., physical assaults, pushing, shoving, throwing something at another person, shouting, making insulting remarks, etc. Females CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Aggression 117 were found to indulge more in indirect forms of aggression - actions that allow the aggressor to conceal his/her identity from the victim, and which, in some cases, make it difficult for the victim to know that they have been the target of intentional harm doing. Such actions include:  Spreading vicious rumors about the target person.  Gossiping behind this person’s back.  Telling others not to associate with the intended victim,.  Making up stories to get them in trouble, etc. 4. Situational Causes of Aggression: Heat (Temperature) and Alcohol: Though aggression is strongly influenced by social and personal factors, Situational forces also considerably influence aggressive behaviour. Situational forces refers to the context in which the aggression occurs and weather it is viewed as acceptable in a given culture or not. There are many situational factors that influence aggression. The two most important situational factors that can influence aggression are as follows: (a) Heat (Temperature) (b) Alcohol We would now briefly discuss these two situational causes of aggression. (a) Heat (Temperature): Social psychological researchers have found a close connection between temperature (heat) and aggression. Some earliest classic studies in this area was conducted in the 1970s by Baron (1972) and his associates (Baron and Lawton, 1972). Their results indicated that heat increases aggression, but only up to a point. Beyond some level, people become so uncomfortable that they lack the energy for engaging in aggression or any other kind of vigorous activity. Paul Bell and Baron (1975) have presented a negative affect escape model to explain this phenomenon. According to them aggression did increase as temperatures rose in to the mid-80s Fahrenheit, but then dropped off at higher levels. Recently Anderson, Bushman and Groom (1997) obtained correlation between temperature and violent crimes. These researchers collected average annual temperatures for 50 cities in the USA over a 45-year period (1950 – 1995). In CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

118 Social Psychology addition, they obtained information on the rate of both violent crimes (aggravated assault, homicide, etc.) and property crimes (burglary, car theft, etc.) as well as another crime that has been often viewed as primarily aggressive in nature: Rape. They then performed analysis to determine whether temperature was related to these crimes. Results indicated that the hotter years did indeed produce higher rates of violent crimes, but that they did not produce increase in property crimes or rape. This was true, even when the effect of many other variables that might also influence aggressive crimes (e.g. poverty, age distribution of the population, etc.) was eliminated. These findings and those of related studies (e.g. Anderson, Anderson and Deuser, 1996), suggest that heat is indeed linked to aggression. Recent research by Rotton and Cohn, (2000), has revealed that the relationship between heat and Aggression is curvilinear. These researchers found that in two large U.S. cities, the incidence of violent assaults rose with increasing temperatures, but only up to a point; beyond this level, as temperature continued to rise, the incidence of assaults actually dropped. (b) Alcohol: Social Psychologists have found a close relationship between alcohol and aggressive behaviour. Bars, nightclubs, and other places in which people consume alcohol are often the scene of aggressive behaviour. These results and those of several related studies (e.g., Jeavons and Taylor, 1985) suggest that alcohol does not automatically increase aggression by individuals who consume it. Such persons do sometimes become more aggressive, but only in the context of social or situational cues suggesting that such behaviour is appropriate (e.g., strong provocation from others, social pressures to behave aggressively, etc.). Subjects who consumed a large amount of alcohol were more willing than subjects who consumed no alcohol to yield to social pressure suggesting that they harm another person. When such social pressure was removed, however, the former reverted to relatively non-aggressive actions. These findings suggest that persons who consume alcohol are not automatically, or always more aggressive than those who, do not. Recent research has also established a strong correlation between consumption of alcohol and aggressive behavior. In several experiments, participants who consumed substantial doses of CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Aggression 119 alcohol (enough to make them legally drunk), have been found to behave more aggressively and to respond to provocations more strongly, than those who did not consume alcohol (Bushman and Cooper, 1990, Gustafson, 1990). Similarly, empirical research by Phil, Lau and Assad (1997) has revealed that individuals with relatively weak tendencies to aggress (low aggressors) become more aggressive when intoxicated. In contrast, individuals with strong aggressive tendencies become slightly less aggressive when intoxicated. Similarly, Gantner and Taylor (1992), has suggested, on the basis of their research, that alcohol may indeed be one situational factor contributing to the occurrence of aggression and that such effects may be especially strong for persons who do not normally engage in aggression (persons low in tendency to aggress). Alcohol triggers aggression because consumption of alcohol impairs our cognitive functions of higher order such as rational and logical thinking. It makes us more impulsive thus leading to higher levels of aggression. 6.4 Summary Aggression is a behaviour which injures or harms the person towards whom it is directed. The present age is the age of aggression. The determinants or causes of aggression are social, cultural, personal and situational. The social determinants are frustration, provocation, heightened arousal exposure to media violence and violent pornography. The cultural determinants are culture of honor and sexual jealousy. The personal determinant are personality factors type A behaviour pattern, Narcissism and Eg. Threat, sedation seeking and gender differences. The situational determinants are effects of heat and alcohol. 6.5 Key Words/Abbreviations  Aggression: A violent behaviour of human society.  TASS Model: (Traits as Sensitivities to Various Situations): CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

120 Social Psychology  Narcissus: Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection in the water and drowned trying to reach it. His name has now become a synonym for excessive self-love.  Alcohol: Social Psychologists have found a close relationship between alcohol and aggressive behaviour.  Excitation Transfer Theory: One of the theories that explain the relationship between heightened arousal and aggression is called as Excitation Transfer Theory introduced by Zillmann (1983). 6.6 Learning Activity 1. Write an event happened at your area due to aggression of an individual and its effects to society. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Can you variate with an example for situational aggression and Personal ego based aggression of an individual behaviour. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.7 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive) A. Descriptive Types Questions 1. What is aggression? 2. Define aggression. 3. Explain the determinants of aggression. 4. What are the social determinants of aggression? 5. What are the personal determinants of aggression? 6. What are the cultural determinants of aggression? 7. What are the situational determinants of aggression? CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Aggression 121 B. Multiple Choice/Objective Type Questions 1. _________Causes injury or harm to another living person (a) Attitude (b) Attribution (c) Aggression 2. Frustration is a_________ determinant of aggression (a) Personal (b) Social (c) Cultural 3. Gender differences is a___________determinant of aggression (a) Personal (b) Situational (c) Social 4. Sexual jealousy is a ________ determinant of aggression (a) Cultural (b) Personal (c) Social 5. Alcohol is a ___________ determinant of aggression (a) Situational (b) Cultural (c) Personal Answers: 1. (c), 2. (b), 3. (a), 4. (a), 5. (a) 6.8 References 1. David G. Myers (2006), Social Psychology, (8th ed.) Tata McGraw Hill. 2. Roy F. Baumeister and Brad J. Bushman (2014), Social Psychology and Human Nature, (3rd ed.), Cengage Learning India Pvt. Ltd. 3. Kool, V.K., “The Psychology of Nonviolences and Aggression”, 20078, Palgrave- Mcmillan. 4. Leonard Berkowitz, “Psychology ”, 1993, McGraw-Hill, 5. www.google.co.in/search?tbm=bks&hl=en&q=aggression+definition&oq=aggression CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

UNIT 7 INTERPERSONAL ATTRACTION Structure: 7.0 Learning Objectives 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Concept of Interpersonal Attraction 7.3 Internal Determinants of Interpersonal Attraction 7.4 External Determinants of Attraction: Proximity and Others’ Observable Characteristics 7.5 Factors Based On Interacting with Others: Similarity and Mutual Liking 7.6 Summary 7.7 Key Words/Abbreviations 7.8 Learning Activity 7.9 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive) 7.10 References 7.0 Learning Objectives After studying this unit, you will be able to:  Explain, the concept of interpersonal attraction.  Analyse the determinants of interpersonal attraction.  Describe the factors of interacting with others: similarity and mutual liking. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Interpersonal Attraction 123 7.1 Introduction Interpersonal attraction is the attraction between people which leads to friendships and romantic relationships. The study of interpersonal attraction is a major area of research in Social Psychology. Interpersonal attraction is related to how much we like, love, dislike, or hate someone. It can be viewed as a force acting between two people that tends to draw them together and resist their separation. This unit will help you to understand the concept of interpersonal attraction and the determinants of interpersonal attraction (internal and external). 7.2 Concept of Interpersonal Attraction Interpersonal attraction is a topic that has, in recent decades, attracted a great deal of attention of social psychologists. This topic came with in the scope of psychology in 1960’s when social psychologists devoted their attention to study this most intimate aspect of human behaviour. Theodore Newcomb (1956, 1961) has made the major classic contribution to the study of interpersonal attraction in his study of “The Acquaintance Process”. Interpersonal attraction deals with forming close, long-term intimate relationship with some one whom you truly love. Forming and maintaining long-term intimate relationship is very necessary and makes life meaningful and worth living. Interpersonal attraction refers to the evaluation one person makes of another. Such evaluations are made along an attitudinal dimension that includes strong liking (towards a friend), mild liking (towards a close acquaintance), neutral feelings (towards a superficial acquaintance), mild dislike (towards an annoying acquaintance), and strong dislike (towards someone considered undesirable). 7.3 Internal Determinants of Interpersonal Attraction Human beings have a tendency to affiliate and this tendency seems to have a neurobiological basis (Rowe, 1996). The need to affiliate is basic need for our psychological well being just like hunger and thirst. In this section we would discuss the following topics: 1. The importance of Affiliation for Human Existence: (a) Individual differences in the need to Affiliate CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

124 Social Psychology (b) Situational influences on the need to Affiliate (c) Are there people who do not need other people? 2. Affect and Attraction: Feeling as a basis for liking 3. The Affect-Attraction Relationship and Social Influence We would discuss each of these briefly. 1. The importance of Affiliation for Human Existence: Need for affiliation is an important motive in which individual seek interpersonal relationship and form friendship. According to Wright (1984) people are intrinsically motivated to establish enjoyable friendship. Individuals differ to a great extent in their affiliative tendencies. Some of us are loners, while others are extremely sociable. Even the same person may feel different on different days. Sometimes desiring company and sometimes preferring to be alone. The stronger the need for affiliation in an individual the more likely it is that the individual would make an effort to become closely acquainted with those they meet. Besides individual differences in affiliation motivation the need for affiliation is also strongly influenced by the nature of the specific situations. Certain situations make us associate with others to a greater extent, especially when we are under anxiety or fear. Need for affiliation is a social motive and a personality trait in many individuals. Murray has developed instruments to measure need for affiliation. He has developed two different types of personality test to study affiliative needs. These are as follows:  Self-Report Questionnaires.  Thematic Apperception Test. Research studies with such instruments have shown that males high on affiliation needs are self-confident and they tend to talk more to attractive females than do males whose affiliation need is low. In study of the university freshmen, it was found that those high in need for affiliation were increasingly satisfied as their relationship progressed over the first semester of college (Eidelson, 1980). In contrast those with low affiliative needs tended to feel less satisfied with their associates over time, especially if the person also had a high need for independence. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Interpersonal Attraction 125 Murray has also found that affiliation need can be either explicit or implicit. He found that explicit and implicit affiliation need represent different aspects of this need and results in different behaviour. Craik and her colleagues (1994) found that those with explicit affiliative motivation were very sociable and interacted with many people, while those with high implicit motivation were more likely to interact in two-person situation involving close relationships. (a) Individual differences in the need to Affiliate: Individuals differ in their need to affiliate. These differences can be due to experience or genetic factors. When our affiliation needs are met we feel happy and satisfied. It makes our life meaningful and pleasant. Frustration of affiliation needs makes us sad and angry. Many individuals retaliate when their need for affiliation is scuttled (spoiled). Thus, there are dispositional differences in the need to affiliate. Individuals inherently differ in their need to affiliate. Some are very high on this need whereas others are very low. Individuals who are high on need for affiliation generally demonstrate the following:  They write more letters and make more local telephone calls.  They laugh more and remain physically close to others.  Generally avoid making negative comments to fellow workers.  More likely to be emotionally involved in a relationship.  They are also more likely to be viewed by others as likeable, natural and enthusiastic. When our affiliative needs are not met, we are more likely to feel frustrated and experience negative emotions. (b) Situational influences on the need to Affiliate: Need to affiliate increases as a result of certain situational forces. Whenever there is danger or threat to one’s life or whenever there is stress as a result of environmental factors people prefer to affiliate with others. The need for affiliation is considerably influenced by wide variety of social factors. It has been observed that strangers and unknown people come together and interact in a CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

126 Social Psychology friendly way in response to unusual events. It was Schachter (1959) who demonstrated that when individuals are under stress, they tend to demonstrate friendliness and affiliation. On the basis of this research, they concluded that “misery does not just love any kind of company, it loves only miserable company”. Schachter, further demonstrated that as our anxiety in social situations and events increases so does our tendency to affiliate also increases and that anxious people generally prefer or seek the company of other anxious individuals. One reason as to why people who are anxious demonstrate a high need for affiliation is due to their desire to compare themselves with others. People tend to seek out others, in order to communicate about what is going on, to compare their perceptions and to make decisions about what to do. People want to compare their emotional reactions with the reactions of others. In short, it is their desire to seek cognitive clarity and to know what is going on that makes them demonstrate strong affiliative need. It has also been demonstrated by Kulik, Mahler and Moore (1996) that affiliation has positive practical benefits. In the case of hospitalised patients who had interacted and associated with a roommate, who had already undergone a surgery, were found to make fewer requests for medication and that they were also able to show quick recovery and seek early discharge from hospital following surgery. (c) Are there people who don’t need other people? The need to affiliate is a strong need which is generally found in most people. It is one of our most basic needs or concerns. However, few individuals show an avoidant attachment style. It is a pattern in which they claim to have little or no need for emotional attachments to others, and who, in fact, tend to avoid close relationships. Recent research by Carvallo and Gabriel (2006) has demonstrated that even such people (one who have avoidant attachment style) do have affiliation needs. After learning that they have been accepted by others, both the moods and self-esteem of such people increase relative to a control condition in which they did not learn of such acceptance. 2. Affect and Attraction: Feeling as a basis for liking; Affect is roughly equivalent to emotions. The presence of positive affect often leads to positive evaluations of other people (i.e., CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Interpersonal Attraction 127 liking) and the negative affect leads to disliking and negative evaluations. Thus, our emotions or moods considerably influence interpersonal attraction. A large number of research studies (Berry and Hansen, 1996, Forgas, 1995, Zajonc and Mcintosh, 1992) have revealed that our emotional state influences not only interpersonal attraction but also many other psychological variables such as perception, cognition, motivation and decision making that are related to interpersonal attraction. The two most important characteristics of affect consist of intensity (the weakness or strength of the emotion) and direction (whether the emotion is positive or negative). Once it was believed that positive and negative emotions fall at the two extremes and are a part of the same continuum. Recent research indicates that positive and negative emotions involve two separate and independent dimensions (Smeaton and Byrne, 1988). A large number of research studies have consistently demonstrated that positive feeling lead to positive liking, while negative feelings lead to negative evaluation, i.e., dislike. Affect influences attraction in two ways. (i) First, when other person or event does something to make us feel good we feel happy and positive emotions are aroused in us. However, if they do something, which makes us feel bad, we develop negative emotions and come to dislike them. (ii) Second, anyone or anything simply present when our positive or negative feelings are aroused (by something else entirely) is also liked or disliked as a consequence. Thus, from the above discussion two important conclusion related to affect and attraction can be drawn. (a) A person who does something that arouses positive or negative effect is liked or disliked accordingly and (b) A person who is simply associated with positive or negative affect is liked or disliked accordingly. With respect to the first conclusion mentioned above research studies have been carried out to investigate the effect of opening lines of conversation with a stranger. Kleinke, Meeker and CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

128 Social Psychology Staneski (1986) found that the initial words that we use (i.e., opening lines) in beginning a conversation with a total stranger considerably influence their attraction towards us. They found that when opening sentence made use of certain words which gave the impression that you are disrepectful or that you are taking serious things lightly the other person would develop negative affect towards you. However, when the opening lines are more direct and innocuous the other persons are likely to give a positive affective response. Thus, these researchers found that in a social situation, how one initiates a conversation with a stranger of the opposite sex can be crucial in creating a favourable first impression. Research indicates that the best strategy is to avoid cute or flippant (disrespectful or treating serious things lightly) openers. Women are especially negative in evaluating men’s attempts to be amusing. Recent research (Kleinke and Dean, 1990) has investigated the relationship between opening lines and attraction towards the person using them. The results of this research has shown that most positive response was towards a person saying something simple and direct and the most negative was towards something using a cute or flippant line (flippant means either being disrespectful or treating serious things lightly). With respect to the second conclusion, mentioned above, it has been found that if another person just happens to be there when your feelings are good you tend to like him or her; if that person is present when your feelings are bad, you tend to dislike him/ her (Byrne and Clore, 1970). A large number of research studies have been carried out with respect to the effect of negative or positive emotions on attraction. In one interesting study May and Hamilton (1980) aroused affect with background music that had been rated by undergraduates as pleasant or unpleasant. When other female undergraduates made judgements about male strangers based on their photos, the researcher played either no music, pleasant music (rock), or unpleasant music (avant-garde classical) in the background. The women were asked to indicate how much they liked each man on the basis of his photograph. Compared to the no-music condition, student listening to the pleasant rock music liked the strangers better and even thought they were more CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Interpersonal Attraction 129 physically attractive. The most negative evaluations were made by subjects listening to the unpleasant avant-garde music. The same photographs were used in each condition, so the different response were obviously based on affect and not on the appearances of the strangers. Similarly, negative or positive emotions have been aroused by different research in following ways.  Good versus bad news on the radio (Kalpan, 1981).  Happy versus sad movies (Gouaux, 1971) and.  Pleasant versus unpleasant room lighting (Baron, Rea and Daniels, 1992). The results of all these studies have repeatedly shown that positive affect result in liking others while negative affect leads to dislike. 3. The Affect-Attraction Relationship and Social Influence: Affect-attraction can be used to influence our behaviour to buy a particular product or service or to indulge in certain action. Advertising professionals attempt to influence us by arousing positive affect in us through attractive models and messages. Similarly, people in political advertisements smile because it makes us believe that smiling people are better and more likable human beings. Political parties present their candidates with adjective which are positive such as “moral”, “courageous”, “strong”, “caring”, etc., where as they present the candidate of the opposite party with negative adjectives such as, “corrupt”, “destructive”, “incompetent”, “communal”, etc. Advertisers often attempt to influence our behaviour by influencing our moods. 7.4 External Determinants of Attraction: Proximity and Others’ Observable Characteristics Interpersonal attraction is influenced by external factors also. Two important external determinants of attraction include proximity and observable characteristics including physical attractiveness. 1. The Power of Proximity: Unplanned Contacts: Though more than 6.3 billion people live on this planet and more than one billion live in India we are likely to come in contact with CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

130 Social Psychology only few people in our lifetime. The term proximity is used to refer to physical closeness between two individuals with respect to where they live, where they sit in a class room, where they work, and so on. The smaller the physical distance between two people, the greater the probability that the two will come in to repeated contact experiencing:  repeated exposure to one another,  positive affect and  development of mutual attraction Attraction between two individuals especially strangers often begin with unplanned encounters that depend upon the physical details of their shared environment. Two individuals are usually brought together due to the nature of their physical environment. Since they encounter each other frequently in staircase, bus stops, classrooms, market areas, etc., they become acquainted with each other and develop liking for each other. Thus, we meet many people in our everyday life but we do not become friendly and acquainted with everybody. We narrow our social world to only few acquaintances. We become acquainted to only those who are familiar to us or to whom we meet very often? Thus, proximity or physical closeness due to environmental factors or geographical location results into repeated contacts between strangers and lead to the development of attraction between them. 2. Physical Surroundings: Repeated Interpersonal Contact Leads to Attraction: The way in which we become acquainted with each other and the development of liking for strangers as a result of repeated contact is greatly dependent upon our physical surroundings. In order for interpersonal attraction to take place it is necessary that two individuals should be in repeated contact with each other. This phenomenon has been labelled as physical proximity or propinquity. Physical proximity is the most important and fundamental prequisite for the establishment of any kind of direct-interpersonal relationship. There must be opportunity for two people to come into contact and interact before any kind of interaction can be established (of course psychological interaction may be achieved through many different forms of communication, including written correspondence, telephone, e-mail, radio or television but ordinarily friendship evolve out of direct face to face interpersonal contact). CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Interpersonal Attraction 131 Most research investigation shows rather clearly that physical proximity is closely related to the formation of individual friendships. Individuals who live close to one another are more likely to become friends than individuals who live some distance apart and people who interact frequently are more likely to become friends than people who interact rarely. Opportunity for extended interaction, then, is vital to the formation of friendship and all other things being equal, people who are psychologically near to one another (in close communication and interaction) are considerably more likely to become friends than people who are psychologically distant from one another. It has been known for several decades now that any characteristic of the environment that increase the propinquity (physical proximity) of two individuals in their everyday lives increases the probability of their getting to know and like one another (Festinger et. al., 1950). Thus, you are more likely to get acquainted with the person sitting next to you in a class or a person assigned to the room next to yours than with anyone sitting or living further away from you. This is true regardless of such things as whether you share similar academic majors, religious background or interests (Caplow and Forman, 1950). A large body of research studies has shown that the closer two people live the more likely they are to be “best friends” as opposed to simply good friends. Repeated exposure is an important factor influencing interpersonal attraction. Repeated exposure is defined as a frequent contact with a stimulus person. Long ago Zajonc (1968) found that repeated exposure to a new stimulus, such as a stranger’s face, or abstract drawing or a given product, etc., results in an increasing positive evaluation of that stimulus. 3. Why does Repeated Contact Increase Interpersonal Attraction?: Some of the important explanation as to why repeated contact increases interpersonal attraction is as follows: 1. According to Zajonc (1968) repeated exposure to a new stimulus or frequent contact with that stimulus leads to more and more positive evaluation of that stimulus. The new stimulus can be anything, either a drawing or a word in an unknown foreign language, a new product or a stranger in the classroom. According to Zajonc we often respond with CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

132 Social Psychology atleast mild discomfort to anything or anyone new. With repeated exposure, the feelings of anxiety decrease, and the new something or someone gradually becomes familiar. Moreland and Beach (1992) have carried out an important study with respect to how repeated exposure affects liking. These researchers asked one female research assistant to attend a college class fifteen times during the semester, another to attend ten times, another five times, and one not to attend at all. Then, at the end of the semester, all four individuals came to the classroom, and the experimenters asked the students to indicate how much they liked each one on a rating scale. The assistants were fairly similar in appearance, and none interacted with any of the class members during the semester. The findings of their study showed that as the exposure increased the attraction also increased. It was found that on a seven point rating scale of attraction a person who attended the class 15 times received an average rating of 4.38 followed by a rating of 4.25 for person who attended the class 10 times. A rating of 3.88 was received by a person who attended class 5 times and the least rating of 3.62 was given to a person who did not attend a single class in a semester. These results are in confirmation with the observation of Zajonc that repeated exposure increase interpersonal attraction between classmates. It has also been observed (Brooks-Gunn and Lewis, 1981) that even infants tend to smile at a photograph of someone they have seen before but not at a photograph of someone they are seeing for the first time. Additional research (Harman-Jones and Allen, 2001) has revealed that a familiar face not only elicits positive affect and activates facial muscle and brain activity in a way indicative of a positive emotional response. Hansen and Bartsch (2001), in their recent work, have revealed that not all individuals are equally responsive to exposure effect. Only those individuals are influenced by the exposure effect who demonstrate a strong need for structure. If you are high in need for structure, you are more likely to respond favourably to a “familiar” object, event, person or a situation. On the basis of their study they concluded that “the statement, ‘familiarity CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Interpersonal Attraction 133 leads to liking’, should be modified to say ‘familiarity leads to liking if a person has a high need for structure’. 2. Another reason why repeated exposure leads to interpersonal attraction can be explained on the basis of subliminal conditioning of attitudes. This theory states that attitudes can be classically conditioned by exposure to stimuli that are below the threshold of conscious awareness. According to this view repeated exposure operates even when one is not consciously aware that stimulus is present. In an interesting study Bornstein and D’Agostino (1992) presented stimuli to some research participants at a normal speed and to others at a sufficiently rapid speed that they afterward were not aware of having seen anything. In both conditions, the more frequently the stimulus was presented, the more positive the ratings; but the effect was greater when the stimuli were subliminal than when they were shown slowly enough to be perceived at the conscious level. According to Bornstein rapidly exposed stimulus, in fact, is perceived at some level of awareness, and so it too becomes increasingly familiar. When research participants are asked afterwards to rate the picture that has been presented subliminally, however, they aren’t aware that the stimulus is familiar, so the positive reaction is attributed to liking. It has also been observed that subliminal repeated exposure effect influences not only the evaluation of specific stimuli, but also the evaluation of other stimuli (Monahan, Murphy and Zajonc, 2000). In other words, the positive effect generated by exposure to a specific set of stimuli generalizes to other stimuli. 3. The third explanation as to why repeated exposure leads to interpersonal attraction is that since, we have more contact with those next to us, we learn more about them and become attracted to them. Propinquity provides greater opportunities to interact and also provides to the members interacting something in common such as common community, culture, religion, environment, etc., therefore, common interests develop and develops the friendship. 4. According to fourth explanation, we interact more with those who are near to us and that such interactions are rewarding. In normal, everyday interaction, we are more likely to say nice things to others and to hear compliments in return. So the more we interact with CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

134 Social Psychology others, the more often we may be rewarded by them. Since, it is thought that reward leads to greater liking it would then follow that those who give us the greatest opportunity for frequent interaction would be rewarding to us and therefore be liked by us. 5. Lastly, those who are nearer to us in our jobs, our houses, and so on, are likely to be near to us tomorrow and the next day as well. That is we expect to interact with them again and again. Darely and Berscheid have demonstrated that the expectation of interacting with another person induces a tendency to like person. One limitation of repeated exposure effect should also be noted. Research studies have shown that repeated exposure doesn’t always have a positive effect. Attraction seems to develop only if the initial reaction to the other person is neutral or mildly positive. If the very first impression is negative, increased familiarity may only make things worse (Bwikener and Swap 1976, Grusn, 1979). The nature of the interaction also matters, repeated exposure to someone who insults you, each time, is unlikely to lead to friendship. 4. Proximity and Repeated Exposure in Natural Settings: A large number of research studies with respect to the nature of residence and interpersonal attraction between the members living in these residences have consistently shown that as the distance between residences decrease, random contact between the residents become more frequent and positive relationship develops. Similarly, numerous studies over the past fifty years in college classrooms in European countries and in USA have revealed that students are most likely to become acquainted if they are assigned to sit in adjoining seats (Segal, 1974). Some important research studies with respect to residence and proximity are as follows. (i) In one of the early studies carried out on multi-storied undergraduate dormitories it was found that two thirds of friendship develop among people living on the same floor, and only rarely do students get to know those living more than one floor away. (Lundberg and Beazley, 1948 and Evans and Wilson, 1949). CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Interpersonal Attraction 135 (ii) Similarly, in a housing project for the elderly, the distance between rooms determines friendship patterns in much the same way as in college dormitories (Nahemow and Lawton, 1975). (iii) Bossard (1932) was one of the first to examine the importance of physical distance in mate selection for marriage. Examining 5,000 marriage license applications in Philadelphia, he found an inverse relationship between the number of such applications and the physical distance of the addresses of the two engaged partners, as the distance increased the number of applications sharply decreased. Similar support has come form surveys conducted by Danie and Resves (1989) and by Katz and Mill (1958). In the above studies the investigators reported a correlation between distance and attraction. However, the relationship between distance and attraction is not so simple because many other factors (such as religion, race, social class, etc.) have also been found to influence attraction. (iv) Similarly, in an earlier study Festinger, Schachter and Back (1950) found that proximity had a powerful effect on attraction. Couples whose assigned apartments were located within 22 feet of one another were very likely to become acquainted. In contrast, if couples were located in apartments more than 88 feet apart, they were quiet unlikely to form relationships. Using these and other recent findings, architects have designed offices and neighbourhoods in a way that encourages interaction and communication (Giovannini, 2000, Gladwell, 2000). 1. Manipulating Proximity to determine its Effects: Experimental studies have been carried out by manipulating proximity to determine its effects on interpersonal attraction. Festinger, Schachter and Back conducted the most systematic investigation of proximity and attraction in 1950. Westgate West, a new housing project for married students, was constructed in the form of small two-storeyed garden apartment complexes. Each unit contained ten apartments. New residents did not have a choice as to which apartment to live in; they were assigned apartments on a nearly random basis, that is, they filled apartments as these become vacant. In addition, very few of the tenants knew one another prior to coming to Westgate West. After sometime, all of the residents were asked which members of the complex they saw socially most CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

136 Social Psychology often. The results showed that the distance between people on the same floor and on different floors was closely related to friendship patterns—the closer two individuals lived to each other, the more likely they were to be friends. Living on different floors (bottom line) reduced the likelihood of friendship because this increased functional distance. For the people on the same floor, it is quite remarkable that 41 per cent of the next door neighbours indicated that they got together socially whereas, only 10 per cent of the people at opposite ends of the hall mixed socially especially since the maximum difference in distance between the closest and the farthest was only 69 feet. Similarly, it has been found that whenever students are randomly assigned to classroom seats at the beginning of a semester and relationships develops during the semester as a function of the distance between seats, it indicates that proximity influences which students become acquainted. This is precisely what has been found. Some important research studies with respect to this viewpoint are as follows:  Students assigned to a middle seat in a row are much more likely to become acquainted with the two students sitting close to them (those sitting to their left and right) than to get to know any other students in the class (Byrne and Buehler, 1955).  When a student is assigned a seat on the end of a row, fewer relationships develop than if the seat is elsewhere in the row (Maisoneuve, Palmade and Fourment, 1952).  If the random seat assignments are made alphabetically, friendships form between those whose last names begin with the same or a nearby letter (Segal, 1974).  If the instructor makes new seat assignment at various times during the semester, more students will become acquainted than if they remain in one location all semester (Byrne, 1961). 2. Observable Characteristics of Others: Observable characteristics of others especially their looks and attractiveness influences interpersonal attraction. One of the most important observable characteristics that help us to become acquainted with others is physical attractiveness. By physical attractiveness we mean a combination of facial and bodily characteristics perceived as aesthetically appealing (for example, beautiful or handsome) by others. Physical attractiveness CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Interpersonal Attraction 137 is also defined as those aspects of a person’s appearance that people regard as visually appealing or unappealing. Some important points with respect to physical attractiveness and interpersonal attraction are as follows:  Physical appearance influences many types of interpersonal evaluations, including liking, judgments of guilt, innocence in courtroom, etc.  Individuals are more influenced by attractive people and respond positively to them.  There are sex differences in how we react to attractiveness. Female attractiveness is more important to men than male attractiveness is to women.  An individual who has an appealing appearance is also presumed to have positive characteristics and traits.  It has also been observed that men overestimate how attractive they are to others. Both, men and women demonstrate appearance anxiety. It is defined as undue concern with how one looks.  There is a general agreement across cultures that attractiveness indicates social competence, adjustment, intelligence and sexual warmth.  It has also been found that attractive persons indulge more in self-disclosure to the opposite sex, thus facilitating the establishment of a relationship. Calvert (1988) has observed that like many other observable characteristics there are many stereotypes concerning attractiveness. Dion and Dion (1987) in their study observed that people tend to believe that attractive men and women had the following characteristics as compared to unattractive persons. Attractive individuals were viewed as being:  More poised  Interesting  Sociable CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

138 Social Psychology  Independent  Dominant  Exciting  Sexy  Well adjusted  Socially skilled and  Successful Other studies with respect to observable characteristics, especially physical attractiveness have made the following observations. (i) Gillen (1981) found that handsome men were perceived as more masculine and beautiful women as more feminine. (ii) Essays assumed to be written by attractive individuals were evaluated more positively than those presumed to be written by unattractive individuals. (iii) Attractiveness even affects judgements about a stranger who is HIV-positive. Attractive individuals are assumed to have contacted the infection in a heterosexual relationship, while unattractive ones are assumed to have acquired the virus in a homosexual relationship or through sharing a needle (Agnew and Thompson, 1994). (iv) Less attractive individuals are believed to be deviant in a variety of ways including psychopathology, political radicalism and homosexuality. (v) College students who are low in attractiveness believe they are likely to become mentally ill in the future. Physically attractive males are judged to be more masculine and attractive females to be more feminine than those who are relatively unattractive. (vi) A few negative assumptions are also made about attractive persons. Attractive females, in comparison with other women, are judged to be more vain, more materialistic, and less faithful to their husbands. (vii) Attractiveness influences attraction even for infants and old people. Even newborn infants are rated as more sociable and so forth if they are attractive rather than CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Interpersonal Attraction 139 unattractive. Similarly, stereotypes associating attractiveness with desirable personality traits are also found in ratings of those aged 60 to 90. Most of the stereotypes based on attractiveness have been found to be wrong. However, two aspects of social behaviour found to be correlated with attractiveness are as follows:  Popularity  Good interpersonal skill It has also been found (Langlois et. al., 1990) that infant as old as one year react quite differently to attractive versus the unattractive stranger. These researchers further found that the physical attractiveness of an adult female stranger affected how infants reacted to her. One year olds expressed more positive affect and became more involved in playing with the stranger when she wore an attractive mask than when she wore an unattractive mask. In another study Langlois et al (1991) found that infants prefer attractive to unattractive adults regardless of adult’s gender, race or age. It has also been found that individuals are not accurate in estimating their attractiveness. Men are found to overestimate their attractiveness (i.e., how good they look). Since, in today’s world one’s physical appearance is a matter of great concern, individual today experiences what is called as appearance anxiety. It can be defined as the apprehension or worry about the adequacy of one’s physical appearance and about how others evaluate it. Psychological tests (Self Report Inventories) have been developed to measure appearance anxiety. Some of the items of the tests are as follows:  I feet that most of my friends are more physically attractive than myself.  I enjoy looking at myself in the mirror. The results of the research studies with respect to appearance anxiety have shown the following.  Women score higher on appearance anxiety as compared to men.  For both genders, the higher score on this measure, the greater the person’s social anxiety, the fewer the dates he/she has and the more discomfort in interpersonal interactions. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

140 Social Psychology Attractiveness is not always positive. Sometimes it also has negative effects. Some negative attributes associated with attractiveness are as follows.  Beautiful women are perceived to be vain and materialistic (Cash and Duncan, 1984).  Sigelman et. al., (1986) has found that beauty is not helpful to female candidates. However, attractive male political candidates receive more votes than unattractive ones. 3. Why Should Physical Attractiveness Matter? There are two views that explain how physical attractiveness leads to attraction. 1. Affect Centered Model: According to this model, good-looking individuals arouse positive affect in us and this leads to attraction towards them. 2. Evolutionary Theory: Evolutionary theory provides an interesting explanation as to why physical attractiveness leads to attraction. It attempts to explain why men overemphasise female attractiveness. According to this theory men have been reproductively successful most often when they have favoured females whose appearance was associated with youth and fertility. According to Singh (1993) men basically like women who have a small waist. They rate such women as more attractive, healthy and reproductively valuable. On the other hand women have been more reproductively successful when they have reacted positively to a male’s character and abilities more than to his looks. This is largely due to the fact that a male having such characteristics can provide resources and protection for women and her offspring. Research studies are consistent with the evolutionary perspective. Research data indicate that females prefer males on the basis of their resources, whereas males universally show preference for young and healthy women. Analysis of personal ads in the newspaper and matrimonial sites on Internet is also consistent with the evolutionary perspective. It has been observed (Deaux and Hanna, 1984) that ads placed by women stress their appearance, while those placed by men focus on material resources. Similarly, for women age stated in the ads is negatively correlated to the number of replies. The older a women, the fewer responses she receives. Whereas, the opposite is true in the case of men. The older the man, the more responses he receives. However, the research has not CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Interpersonal Attraction 141 investigated as to how “old” a man can be in order for his attraction, to decline, for women. In other words the most effective male ad is one relating to mature, rich, educated individual, whereas the most effective female ad is one that is simply related to youthfulness and beauty as both these features are related to fertility. Some scholars have pointed out that men’s increased obsession with younger, beautiful women has to do less with reproductive success and evolutionary perspectives and more with cultural and media influences that stress the importance of youth and good looks. Gallo and Byrne (2001) identified the movies that were most successful at the box office across several decades and found that male actors were ordinarily paired as romantic partners with female actors who were younger (often much younger) than them. In conclusion, we can say that the available research evidence is mixed as to whether attraction for attractiveness is genetically programmed or determined by cultural influences. It has been observed that year old infants prefer attractive adults and that they spend more time playing with attractive toys, than with unattractive toys (Langlois et. al., 1991). Thus, human beings are possibly genetically programmed to respond positively to attractiveness and that such preferences are strongly encouraged and reinforced by cultural influences. 4. Why Are Attractive People Viewed Positively? From the above discussion we have seen that attractive people are generally viewed in positive terms. You may ask why? The answer to this question is provided by research studies carried out by Dion and Dion (1987). They suggest that attractive people are viewed in positive term because of stereotyped belief in “just world”. This belief states that people get what they deserve and deserve what they get. One assumed consequence is that “good” people are given good looks while bad people are not. The more people believe in the above stereotype, the more he or she will also believe that attractive people possess positive traits and will do well in life. 5. What Exactly Constitutes Attractiveness: What constitutes “Attractiveness?” has been a research question for many decades. Attractiveness is a highly subjective concept that is culturally influenced. Cultural factors define as to what constitutes attractiveness and that there are cross cultural differences in the definition of physical attractiveness. Physical attractiveness is culturally relative. Each culture has its own concept of physical attractiveness. Cunningham (1986) carried CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

142 Social Psychology out an interesting study in this area. He gathered photographs of females appearing in college yearbooks and of Miss Universe contestants. He found males judged females to be attractive when they have following characteristics: (i) When women have childlike features including widely spaced eyes, a small chin. (ii) When they have mature features such as prominent cheekbones, narrow cheeks, high eyebrow, large pupils and a big smile. (iii) Women are also rated as most attractive if they have medium size breasts and are not overweight. Males are perceived to be attractive when they have the following features: (i) Slim legs and waist. (ii) Broad shoulders and small buttocks. (iii) Are not obese. (iv) Tallness is another characteristic of attractive males. It should be remembered that one’s height considerably influences interpersonal attraction. According to Sheppard and Strathman (1989) shortness is a positive asset for females as tallness is for males. They found that 95 per cent of females preferred to date males who are taller than them, while 80 per cent of the males preferred females shorter than themselves. Recent research (Angier, 1998) has revealed that feminine appearance and attraction, irrespective of sex, is highly correlated. A computerised image of either male or female is preferred to the extent that it is feminine rather than masculine. It has been further observed that men with an extremely macho looks (big jaw, square face, heavy brow, etc.,) are perceived as less warm and honest than men with a slender nose, cupid lips and an “adorable chin” 6. Situational Effects on Perceived Attractiveness: An individual’s judgement concerning whether a target person is physically attractive or not is considerably influenced not only by the physical details of a target person but also by many situational factors. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Interpersonal Attraction 143 In many studies of attractiveness, a research participant simply responds to one stranger and judges his or her attractiveness. What if, just before viewing an individual of ordinary attractiveness, the participants had looked at several other extremely attractive individuals? Kenrick and his colleagues (1993) found that in that situation the target person is rated as less attractive. It has also been found that attractiveness ratings are also affected by the opinions of same-sex peers, at least for women. Similarly, it has also been found that man’s own heterosexual romantic partner is rated less positively if he has just been looking at photographs of very attractive women. Another situational factor that influences attraction is often noted in a bar. Social Psychologists have noted that girls appear prettier at closing time of the bar. In one study conducted at a college bar at night, Gladue and Delaney (1990) asked the patrons to rate same - and opposite-sex fellow drinkers at 9:00 P.M., 10:30 P.M., and at midnight. The results of this study revealed that the opposite sexes were rated as being increasingly attractive as closing time approached. (i) Other Observable Clues that Influence Attraction: One observable characteristics to which people respond is physique. In an interesting study of how males and females stereotype strangers based on body type, Rychman and his colleagues (1989) presented undergraduate subjects with information about somatotypes. This system classifies people into three major physical categories (Sheldon, Stevens and Tucker 1940). These are as follows:  Endomorphs who are round and fat,  Mesomorphs who are muscular and  Ectomorphs who are thin and angular. The subjects were asked to rate the personalities of males and females who fit each of the physical descriptions. As expected, the rating were strongly affected by physique.  Endomorphs were perceived as having the fewest friends and getting teased a lot, as well as being lazy, sickly, ugly, sloppy, dirty and slow. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

144 Social Psychology  Mesomorphs were described as being the least kind and intelligent but as having many friends and being healthy brave and good-looking.  Ectomorphs tended to be judged as falling in the middle on many traits but these thin individuals were also viewed as being the most fearful intelligent and neat. Ryckman and his colleagues (1995) examined the physique stereotypes in still greater details and found that within each stereotype there were subtypes. Among endmorphs, for example, there are very favourable responses to endomorphic clowns, house wives, motherly figures, and Santa Claus. For mesomorphic, very positive reactions were elicited by female athletes, male athletes received mixed ratings, as did jocks, body builders, and studs. Negative ratings were given to mesomorphic males in the subtypes identified as steroid users, bullies and show-offs. Among ectomorphs, male scholars were perceived favourably, “brains” and fashion models elicited mixed ratings, and very unfavourable rating were given to males who were ectomorphic because of AIDS. (ii) Attractiveness and Obesity: Excessive fatness is called as obesity. An obese individual, either male or female is perceived to be unattractive. A few studies have found that people who are overweight are generally perceived as less attractive (Harris, Harris and Bochner, 1982, Larkin and Pines, 1982). Crandall (1994) has pointed out that people in general are prejudiced towards fat persons. He has compared the prejudice against fat people to racial prejudice and has developed a measure, which is called as the “Antifat Attitudes Questionnaire”. According to this measure there are three types of Antifat attitudes. These are as follows: Types Statements  Dislike “ I dislike people who are fat”  Fear of fat “I worry about becoming fat”  Will power “Fat people have poor will power” Research studies have shown that there are many myths and stereotypes about obese women. In fact obese persons have some desirable qualities. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)