Social Behavior: Attraction, Aggression, and Altruism (8C) - MCAT Psychological and Social Foundations

People are more attracted to others who share attitudes and values. We like those who are like us - a fundamental principle of attraction.

People tend to like those who communicate liking toward them. We tend to return the feelings others express toward us.

Relationships persist when perceived rewards exceed perceived costs. Views relationships as cost-benefit analyses of interpersonal exchanges.

Satisfaction is highest when partners perceive fair input-output balance. Partners compare their contribution-benefit ratios for relationship health.

Passionate: arousal/intense; companionate: intimacy/commitment. Distinguishes initial intense attraction from deeper, stable attachment.

Intimacy, passion, and commitment. These three dimensions combine to create different types of love.

Frustration increases the likelihood of aggressive behavior. Blocked goals create negative arousal that can trigger aggression.

Instrumental: goal-oriented; hostile: driven by anger to harm. Distinguishes calculated aggression from emotion-driven aggression.

People tend to pair with others of similar physical attractiveness. Based on research showing couples typically have comparable attractiveness levels.

Aggression is learned through observation and reinforcement. Bandura showed children imitate aggressive models they observe.

Expressing aggression reduces aggressive drive (not well supported). Research shows venting anger often increases, not decreases, aggression.

Helping decreases as the number of bystanders increases. More witnesses paradoxically leads to less individual helping.

Responsibility to help is spread across observers, reducing action. Each bystander assumes others will act, so no one does.

Empathy for a person in need can produce altruistic helping. True altruism may exist when we feel another's pain as our own.

Passionate: arousal; companionate: intimacy and commitment. Passionate fades quickly; companionate grows over time.

Satisfaction depends on perceived rewards minus costs. We evaluate relationships like economic transactions.

Disclosure by one person tends to elicit disclosure by the other. Sharing personal information creates mutual vulnerability and trust.

Perceived similarity increases interpersonal liking. We like those who share our attitudes, values, and interests.

One positive trait leads to globally positive judgments. Initial impressions color all subsequent evaluations.

People prefer partners with similar physical attractiveness. We seek partners at our own attractiveness level to avoid rejection.

Repeated exposure increases liking, even without interaction. Familiarity breeds comfort and positive feelings.

Helping motivated primarily by concern for others. Pure altruism lacks self-interested motives.

Intimacy, passion, and commitment. Complete love requires all three; absence creates different love types.

Propinquity (proximity) effect. Physical closeness increases interaction opportunities.

Behavior intended to harm another person. Intent to harm is key, regardless of actual damage.

Frustration increases the likelihood of aggression. Blocked goals create negative arousal that motivates harm.

Aggression increases via observational learning and reinforcement. We imitate aggressive behaviors that are rewarded.

Hostile: anger-based; instrumental: goal-oriented. Hostile seeks to hurt; instrumental uses harm as a means.

Helping decreases as the number of bystanders increases. Responsibility dilutes across multiple potential helpers.