As well as being attracted to someone who directly makes us happy, we also like people who we associate with a pleasant experience. For example, if we meet someone while we are at a party and feeling happy, we may associate them with the happy feeling. We are more likely to be attracted to this person than if we met when we were unhappy. This theory is supported by Griffitt and Guay’s study. Their participants were evaluated on a creative task by an experimenter and then asked to rate how much they liked the experimenter.
Socioemotional Selectivity Theory - developed by Stanford psychologist, Laura Carstensen - is a life-span theory of motivation. The theory maintains that as time horizons shrink, as they typically do with age, people become increasingly selective, investing greater resources in emotionally meaningful goals and activities. According to the theory, motivational shifts also influence cognitive processing. Aging is associated with a relative preference for positive over negative information in attention and memory (called the "positivity effect"). Because they place a high value on emotional satisfaction, older adults often spend more time with familiar individuals with whom they have had rewarding relationships[1].
We are more likely to form a relationship with those people who are associated with pleasant event e.g. we are more likely to like someone when we are in a happy mood opposed to unhappy. Support for this theory comes from Griffitt and Guay, they found that higher ratings were given when the experimenter had positively evaluated the participants, thus showing the importance of positive stimuli in relationship formation. Although, the reward / need satisfaction theory doesn’t take into account cultural and gender differences in the formation of romantic relationships. Lott suggests that in many cultures are more focused on the needs of others rather than receiving reinforcement.
Psychologists often use five key factors to describe personality: openness (to new experience), conscientiousness (how well we plan and carry things out), extroversion (how much we enjoy being around others), agreeableness (how nice we are) and neuroticism (how much we worry or get angry and upset). These five factors in combination tend to describe most personalities quite well. However, when it comes to risk-taking, results are inconclusive. Some people who are more neurotic take risks to help regulate their emotions (as an ‘outlet’ for emotion), while other highly neurotic people are too nervous to take many risks at all. It isn’t completely clear which ‘personality types’ take risks.
Asch also conducted the same study with variations in order to explore conformity further. One of the variations was to increase the difficulty of the task i.e. make the answers less obvious. This increased the rate of conformity. Individual differences were important in this variation as those who were more confident were less likely to conform.
In individualist cultures, individual interests are seen as more important while romantic relationships are more likely to form due to love and attraction. However in collectivist cultures, the group is seen as more important than the individual. Members of collectivist cultures are encouraged to be interdependent rather than independent. This means relationships in collectivist cultures are more likely to form due to the interests of the group compared to individualist cultures where it is based on freedom of choice. Relationships also differ in cultures in terms of norms and rules.
Bipolar I and Bipolar II exist, however the distinctions between the two are not always clear. Bipolar I is more severe and can cause significant difficulty with jobs, school and relationships. (Mayo Clinic 1). Episodes of lows and highs are more severe and psychotic features may be present (Parker 25). Bipolar II is less intense and can cause hypomania, which is a less severe form of mania.
People who think they have taken a drug but really haven’t may display the effects of the drug because they expect to be affected by it. The learned expectations regarding a drugs effect vary from culture to culture. 13.Depressant: reduce the central nervous system activity. Many depressants increase GABA neurotransmitter activity. Effect of alcohol: Alcohol has an impact on the dopamine, serotonin, endorphins, glutamate, and GABA neurotransmitters.
Social comparison theory identified that individuals determine their value by comparing themselves with others who are more like them. Further, body comparisons are more likely to occur between individuals who are similar and considered attractive. Social comparisons are intended to motivate the individual to improve if she discovers herself lacking (Holmstrom, 2004). According to social comparison theory, media and body image comparisons could have negative impacts. Holmstrom (2004) recalled Gerbner’s cultivation theory postulates the increased television watching creates a belief the television depicts real life senerios.
On one hand, the more neurotic a sample, the more liberal their positions were toward immigration, or multiculturalism. This proved the