Psychology 2035A/B Lecture Notes - Interpersonal Attraction, Reciprocal Liking, Elizabeth Barrett Browning

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2035A/B
• Professor: Doug Hazlewood

Document Summary

Why are we attracted to other people: we like to affiliate w/ other people, esp. noticeable when we look at others denied the company of others. True life event: 1960s: dean of indiana university set out on an adventure to east coast of u. s. 51 days later, he arrived in ireland. He was tired, haggered, moldy after a solo trip across the atlantic ocean but also very lonely: when asked whether he would do it again, a clear no . I found the loneliness of the second month excruciating. Found that life w/o people had no meaning. Had a definite need for someone to talk to, someone real and alive. Happened around same time as dean of indiana. A professor at columbia university asked students, offered them a day to stay in a room alone without any contact with the outside world. In initial encounters: proximity, familiarity, physical attractiveness, when getting acquainted, reciprocal liking, similarity.