PSY 2110 Chapter Notes - Chapter 14: Attachment Theory, Homeostasis, Avoidant Personality Disorder
27 Apr 2018
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CHAPTER 14: INTERPERSONAL ATTRACTION
NEED TO BELONG
•Psychological need: mechanism for regulating behaviour to acquire the tangible or intangible resources
necessary for survival and well-being
•Need to belong: motivation to bond with others in relationships that provide ongoing positive
interactions, willingly conform to gain acceptance
•Supported by most people’s subjective emotional experience
feel joy when they form new social attachments and feel anxiety or grief when these bonds are broken
feel happy when they get attention and sadness or depression when they are ignored
Most people feel comfort when they are accepted, but distress when they are rejected
•People with a network of social ties have better mental health, happier, healthier cardiovascular and
immune system
•Needs are based on the principle of homeostasis: experience a deficiency that motivates thoughts and
behaviours until the need is satisfied.
Monitor levels of resources
People will vary in terms of how much affiliation they require
When deficient, experience motivation to acquire the resource
Flexible
When satiated, attention turns to other needs
•The need to belong also resembles biologically based needs in that it can be satisfied inflexible ways.
when people are unable to satisfy their need to belong in their existing relationships, they turn to
other relationships.
EVOLUTIONARY BASIS OF THE NEED TO BELONG
•early humans who successfully formed close social bonds were more likely to survive and reproduce than
were the loners and outcasts
•being embedded in a network of social relationships helped people survive and have children who would
grow to maturity and also reproduce
•infants with a tendency to form close attachments to their parents would have been more likely than aloof
offspring to receive the care and protection they needed to survive until they could function on their own
•4 pieces of evidence
motive to belong is universal
people care deeply about forming and maintaining romantic bonds, parent-offspring attachments,
and close relations with siblings, friends, and group members
innate affiliation behaviour
Newborn infants instinctively engage other people.
Document Summary
People will vary in terms of how much af liation they require. When de cient, experience motivation to acquire the resource. Newborn infants instinctively engage other people. rejection hurts - literally nervous system responds to rejection with a stress response similar to our response to physical pain reproductive success. Long-term relationships promote successful procreation and raising of offspring. Barriers to social affiliation: high in rejection sensitivity rejection sensitivity: strong fear of being rejected or evaluated negatively by others. people with high rejection sensitivity don"t function well socially and avoid seeking social relationships. Irrational fear and avoidance of social situations in which people believe they might embarrass or humiliate themselves by appearing clumsy, foolish or incompetent. Pervasive avoidance of interpersonal contacts and extreme sensitivity to criticism and disapproval. Avoid being centre of attention, public speaking, eating in. Restrict their social interactions to people they know will public, using public washrooms not criticize them.
