第103章
When put into this context, most students begin to understand why prefrontal lobotomies were
used as frequently as they were in the 1940s and 1950s. Most college students find it difficult to
imagine a world in which there were no drugs that could be effectively used in place of
procedures such as prefrontal lobotomy. Visiting a mental hospital today, it is difficult for most
of us to imagine the general level of uproar and violence in the hospitals as recently as the 1940s.
The 1948 movie “Snake Pit,” starring Olivia DeHavilland, portrayed the horrors of life as a
patient (and staff member) in state mental hospitals during that “pre-chemotherapy” era.
Identifying Therapists
Ask students to compile a list of therapists in your area. They should gather information about
the therapists’ professional degrees, fees, areas of specialization, forms of treatment, and other
factors. You might divide them into groups and have each group attempt to locate therapists
from a particular theoretical orientation (i.e., psychodynamic, etc.). They might call some
therapists for such information, consult a local mental health association, check the web pages of
professional organizations such as the APA, and consult phone book listings as ways of gathering
this information.
Should Psychologists Prescribe Medication?
Since your text contains an excellent review of psychopharmacology, you might want to discuss
the issue of whether counseling or clinical psychologists should be able to prescribe medication.
Some have argued that it is ludicrous to have family physicians and surgical specialists, who may
have no psychological training at all, able to prescribe the entire range of psychoactive drugs for
treating mental illnesses, while psychologists, who specialize in treating mental illnesses, cannot
prescribe any medications. Although it is true that historically most psychologists did not have
the training in pharmacology that physicians were given, in recent years, many graduate
programs in psychology have added coursework in physiology and pharmacology to narrow this
gap. While most would agree that psychologists probably should not be able to prescribe
nonpsychoactive medications, the wisdom of prohibiting them from prescribing any medications
seems doubtful. Since psychologists are pressing for legislative changes in some states that would
allow psychologists to prescribe some medications in some circumstances, this issue is likely to
become more important in the near future. How do students feel about this issue? Do they see
any potential dangers if psychologists begin prescribing medicine?
329
PSYCHOLOGY AND LIFE
BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILES
Albert Ellis (b. 1913)
Obtaining his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1947, Albert Ellis made early contributions to
psychoanalytic theory, although he has since become one of its major dissenters. Rebelling
against what he perceived to be rigid psychoanalytic dogma, Ellis established Rational Emotive
Therapy or RET in 1955. The development of RET is considered by many to represent the
informal founding of cognitive therapy, popular in many forms today. Ellis has also influenced
the development of sex and marital therapy, and his book Sex Without Guilt is recognized as an
important cultural impetus to the American sexual revolution of the 1960s.
Frederick “Fritz” Perls (1893-1970)
Fritz Perls was born in Berlin, studied at the University of Freiburg, and obtained his Ph.D. at the
University of Berlin. In 1926, he became Kurt Goldstein’s assistant at the Institute for Brain-
Injured Soldiers, where he developed the notion of “gestalt,” or integrative wholes. He then
studied psychoanalysis, being analyzed by such luminaries as Wilhelm Reich, Karen Horney, and
Otto Fenichel. Perls left Germany in 1933, shortly after Hitler’s rise to power, spent the next
decade in Holland and, in 1946, came to the United States, where he established the New York
Institute for Gestalt Therapy. Although accepting the importance of unconscious conflicts, Perls
believed it was necessary to deal with the present, rather than dwelling exclusively on the past.
The basic philosophy and practice of Gestalt therapy is described in his book Gestalt Therapy
Verbatim (1969).
Joseph Wolpe (b. 1915)
Joseph Wolpe was born in South Africa. He developed interests in chemistry as a teen, and
would channel this passion into medical school training, earning his M.D. in 1948 at the
University of Witwatersand. He worked as a lecturer in psychiatry for the next ten years. After
becoming increasingly dissatisfied with Freudian psychoanalysis, Wolpe turned to the empirical
works of Ivan Pavlov, with which he had become familiar as a medical student
During the late 1940s, influenced by the theories and research of Clark Hull, Wolpe conducted
experiments on “reciprocal inhibition,” in which cats were “cured” of experimentally induced
neuroses. Based on these findings, Wolpe developed a therapeutic practice, resulting in the
publication of the classic book Psychotherapy by Reciprocal Inhibition (1958). In 1960, he came to the
United States, establishing himself as the foremost proponent of behavior therapy.
330
CHAPTER 16: THERAPIES FOR PERSONAL CHANGE
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READINGS
Bergin, A., & Garfield, S. (1994). Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavior Change, 4th Ed. New York:
John Wiley & Sons. This handbook is a reference for students, researchers, and practitioners
on a variety of aspects of psychotherapy and behavior change.
Crowder, A. (1995). Opening the Door: A Treatment Model for Therapy with Male Survivors of Sexual
Abuse. New York: Brunner/Mazel Publishers. Presents a model for treatment that is tailored
to the male victim—a much-needed addition to a field that has female-as-norm for its model.
Garfield, S. L., & Bergin, A. E. (1986). Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavior Change. New York:
Wiley. A standard reference book on psychotherapy. Covers the history and conceptual
foundations as well as current descriptions of various therapies.
Henggeler, S. W., & Borduin, C. M. (1990). Family Therapy and Beyond. A Multisystemic Approach to
Treating the Behavior Problem of Children and Adults. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Addresses a variety of significant issues relative to children and adolescents, to include
parent-child difficulties, difficult peer relations, delinquent behavior, and chemical
dependency.
Ivey, A. E. (1986). Developmental Therapy: Theory into Practice. The Jossey-Bass Social and
Behavioral Science Series. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Drawing on the works of Piaget and
Erikson, Ivey offers examples of how the cognitive and developmental levels of the child are
taken into account when designing an appropriate treatment model.
Maxmen, J. S. & Ward, N. G. (1995). Essential Psychopathology and Its Treatment, 2nd Ed. Revised
for DSM-IV. Not only does this volume orient readers in terms of DSM-IV; it also provides
much needed information on childhood disorders and sleep disorders.
Minuchin, S. (1974). Families and Family Therapy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Although an older volume, this book provides an excellent introduction to systems theory, as
applied to the family therapy situation. Provides transcripts of actual family therapy sessions,
with the author’s commentary on the processes.
Rogers, C. R. (1961). On Becoming a Person. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Rogers’ perspective on the
potential of the human being for growth and creativity.
Shapiro, F., & Forrest, M. (1997). EMDR: The Breakthrough Therapy for Overcoming Anxiety, Stress,
and Trauma. New York: Basic Books. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and
Reprocessing) is the innovative clinical treatment that has helped individuals who have
survived trauma-including sexual abuse, domestic violence, drive-by shooting, combat, and
crime.
Smith, M. L., Glass, G. V., & Miller, R. L. (1980). The Benefits of Psychotherapy. Baltimore, MD:
Johns Hopkins University Press. The authors argue that psychotherapy works, as indicated
by a meta-analysis of published studies.
Valenstein, E. S. (1986). Great and Desperate Cures: The Rise and Decline of Psychosurgery and Other
Radical Treatments for Mental Illness. New York: Basic Books. An interesting description of
various approaches to treating emotional problems.
Walker, L. E. A. (1994). Abused Women and Survivor Therapy. Washington, DC: American
Psychological Association. A blend of theory, research, and practical application for the
therapist and attorney working with the abused woman. Walker has provided an excellent
resource for those working with this segment of the population.
331
PSYCHOLOGY AND LIFE
332
CHAPTER 16: THERAPIES FOR PERSONAL CHANGE
Wedding, D., & Corsini, R. J. (Eds.). (1979). Great Cases in Psychotherapy. Itasca, IL: Peacock. A
collection of case histories drawn from cases treated by great psychotherapists and theorists.
Contributions are drawn from a variety of contemporary modes of therapy.
Whitaker, C. A. (1989). Midnight Musings of a Family Therapist. Edited by M. R. Ryan. New York:
W. W. Norton. Family therapist Whitaker addresses the integrity of the family system, the
marital partnership, and dialectics of the “happy” family.
Wolpe, J. (1990). The Practice of Behavior Therapy, 4th Ed. New York: Pergamon. Deals with the
history and research foundations of behavior therapy, as well as the practice of behavior
analysis, specific techniques, case studies, and methods of evaluating the effectiveness of
behavior therapy.
DISCOVERING PSYCHOLOGY
PROGRAM 22: PSYCHOTHERAPY
Overview
The relationship among theory, research, and practice, and how treatment of psychological
disorders has been influenced by historical, cultural, and social forces.
Key Issues
Psychosurgery, electroconvulsive therapy, drug therapy, genetic counseling, psychodynamic
therapy, rational emotive therapy, behavioral modification therapy, humanistic therapy.
Archival Demonstrations
A therapist uses fear reduction strategy to help a young boy overcome his fear of dentists.
Another therapist trains a young girl to control her epileptic seizures.
Actual therapy session with a girl who fears dating.
Interviews
Hans Strupp explains the kinds of patients most suited for psychodynamic therapy.
Enrico Jones explains his problems in selecting the most effective therapy for various people
and their various disorders.
Cognitive therapist Albert Ellis explains how to treat patients’ irrational attributes, false
beliefs, and expectations of failure through rational emotive therapy.
Humanistic therapist Rollo May discusses therapy for “normal” people seeking greater
fulfillment.
333
PSYCHOLOGY AND LIFE
FILMS AND VIDEOS
Abnormal Psychology: The Psychoses (1980). HARR, 22 minutes
This film is a tour of a ward in a mental institution in which the patients are interviewed. It is an
introduction to the etiology of psychosis, treatment, and prognosis.
Anyplace But Here, Parts 1 and 2 (1978). IU (CARSL), 50 minutes
Examines the problems that result when mental patients are released into communities
unprepared to treat and accept them and lacking facilities to help them return to useful lives. A
look at life inside Creedmore Psychiatric Center in Queens, New York. Reveals the dissatisfaction
of patients, staff, and relatives with myriad problems of budgets, paperwork, and bureaucracy.
Biofeedback: Medical Applications of Psycho-Physiologic Self-Regulation (1987). Insight
Media, 54 minutes
This program reviews treatment procedures from both the patient’s and the therapist’s
perspectives. It describes the rationale for the self-regulation process, presenting cases involving
self-regulation training for hypertension, migraine, chronic back pain, anxiety, and posttraumatic
rehabilitation.
Carl Rogers Conducts an Encounter Group (1975). JEMC UCI, 70 minutes
Rogers is shown interacting with a group and its individual members. He also discusses factors
that he considers important in facilitating a group. “Words from the Master.”
Childhood Aggression: A Social Learning Approach to Family Therapy (1974). JREPR, 30
minutes
Gerald Patterson’s approach to behavioral intervention in family therapy is demonstrated-an
older film, but still worthwhile.
The Class That Went to War (1997). CRM, 35 minutes
An estimated 40 percent of Vietnam War veterans have had problems adjusting to civilian life.
Close to a quarter million are unemployed and thousands have become the forgotten wounded,
the ones nobody wants to talk about. Through the microcosm of one New Jersey high school
class, this film focuses on the war and its legacy. Useful film to introduce the concept of posttraumatic
stress disorder.
Depression: Beating the Blues (1983). NCIU (FML), 28 minutes
Examines how clinical depression differs from the normal day-to-day feelings of being blue.
Focuses on old and new techniques for treating clinical depression. Uses interviews with several
depression sufferers to show reactions to different kinds of therapy: drug, electroshock, cognitive,
and psychiatric. Discusses the contribution of modern life to the psychological basis of
depression, and encourages sufferers to seek help. An interesting look at the “pre-Prozac” days.
Frontline: Mind of a Murderer (1985). PBS, 120 minutes
This show is long, but it also is an Emmy Award Winner for 1985. It describes how Kenneth
Bianchi, the Hillside Strangler who terrorized the Los Angeles area in the late 1970s, almost did
not stand trial due to the fact that he was not mentally competent. The controversy revolved
around his claim to multiple personalities. The videotape includes segments revealing Bianchi’s
interactions with a team of psychologists and psychiatrists.
334
CHAPTER 16: THERAPIES FOR PERSONAL CHANGE
Gheel: A Changing Tradition (1973). EMC UC, 41 minutes
Gheel, a Flemish town, is the oldest center of home care of the mentally ill. The problems and
advantages of this form of treatment are examined.
Harry: Behavioral Treatment of Self-Abuse (1980). REPR, 38 minutes
This is an account of the implementation of a behavioral treatment program for a young man
who engaged in chronic self-abuse.
Peer-Conducted Behavior Modification (1976). VCIREPR, 24 minutes
Paul Clement discusses the role of peers in shaping deviant behavior, as well as the value of
peers as positive modifiers in a therapy program.
Portrait of Manic Depression (1988). FANIJI, 60 minutes
Profiles four individuals who struggle to control the extreme mood swings caused by bipolar
depression-an illness that affects nearly three million Americans. Current treatments are
reviewed.
R. D. Laing: A Dialogue on Mental Illness and Its Treatment (1976). Assoc. Films, 22 minutes
Laing presents his critical views as an “anti-psychiatrist” on what creates abnormal behavior and
how it should be treated.
Romance to Recovery (1979). FMS, 36 minutes
Dr. Joseph Pursch describes how alcoholism adversely affects the normal relationships of the
family and turns other family members into co-alcoholics who operate to reinforce the alcoholism
of one member Follows an alcoholic/co-alcoholic family through cover-up, manipulation,
medical complications, child abuse, remorse, separation, revenge, and reunion. Emphasizes that
all family members need treatment and that solutions are available, and talks about how to find
them. This is a good depiction of family therapy, and it focuses on a problem that personally
affects 10% of the American population.
335
CHAPTER 17
Social Processes and Relationships
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
On completion of this chapter, students should be able to:
1. Explain how the environment or social factors help determine how individuals think,
feel, and behave
2. Discuss the important lessons learned from the Stanford Prison Experiment
3. Describe and discuss the processes of conformity
4. Describe the concepts and processes involved with persuasion and attitude change
5. Explain the concept of the social construction of reality
6. Discuss the importance of attributions and the significance of the fundamental
attributional error
7. Describe theories of social expectancy and self-fulfilling prophecy
8. Demonstrate a thorough knowledge and understanding of cognitive dissonance
9. Explain how interpersonal attraction relates to prejudice
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. The Power of the Situation
A. Definitions
1. Social psychology is the study of the ways in which thoughts, feelings,
perceptions, motives, and behavior are influenced by interactions
and transactions between people
2. Social context includes the real, imagined, or symbolic presence of
other people; the activities and interactions that take place between
people; the features of the settings in which behavior occurs; and the
expectations and norms that govern behavior in a given setting
B. Roles and Rules
1. A social role is a socially defined pattern of behavior that is expected
of a person when functioning in a given setting or group
2. Rules are behavioral guidelines for specific settings
a) Explicit rules are specifically stated or taught to children
b) Implicit rules are learned through transactions with others in
particular settings
3. The Stanford Prison Experiment demonstrated the effects of roles and
<br /> rules
a) Roles were designated randomly
336
CHAPTER 17: SOCIAL PROCESSES AND RELATIONSHIPS
(i) “Guards” were put in charge of “prisoners” and
behaved aggressively, sometimes even sadistically
(ii) Prisoners behaved passively, resigned to an
unexpected fate.
b) The simulated prison environment created a new social
reality
c) Coercive rules included explicit punishments for violations
d) Prisoners could only react to the social structure of the
prison like setting created by those in power
C. Social Norms are specific expectations for socially appropriate attitudes and behaviors
that are embodied in the stated or implicit rule of a group
1. Adjustment to group norms occurs in two ways:
a) Observation of uniformities in certain behaviors of all or most
members are noted
b) Observation of negative consequences for norm violation
2. Coercive power of the group can be experienced by implementation
of three painful R’s:
a) Ridicule
b) Reeducation
c) Rejection
D. Conformity
1. Conformity is the tendency for people to adopt the behavior and
opinions presented by other group members. Two types of forces
may lead to conformity:
a) Informational influence where individuals conform in an
effort to be correct and to understand how best to act in a
given situation
b) Normative influence where individuals conform in an effort
to be liked, accepted, and approved of by others
2. Informational Influence: Sherif’s autokinetic effect
a) Norm crystallization is the formation and solidification of
norms
b) Autokinetic effect refers to “a type of apparent motion in
which a small, objectively stationary spot of light in an
otherwise dark room appears to move about”
c) Although individual judgments vary widely, stating
judgments aloud brought about convergence of opinion
3. Normative Influence: The Asch Effect
337
PSYCHOLOGY AND LIFE
a) Asch created circumstances in which participants made
judgments under conditions in which physical reality was
absolutely clear, but the rest of the group reported that they
saw the world differently
b) Procedure
(i) Both participants and confederates agreed on first
three trials
(ii) On fourth trial, first confederate “matched” two
stimuli that were not a true match; all confederates
did the same
(iii) Participants had to determine whether to confirm to
the group view or remain independent
c) Results
(i) Roughly one-fourth of participants remained
independent
(ii) Between 50% and 80% of participants conformed to
the false majority estimate at least once
(iii) Participants yielding to majority were “disoriented”
and “doubt ridden,” experiencing “a powerful
impulse not to appear different from the majority”
(iv) Two complementary lessons learned:
(a) People are not entirely swayed by normative
influence. They assert their independence on a
majority of occasions
(b) People will sometimes conform, even in the most
unambiguous situations. That potential to
conform is an important element of human
nature
4. Conformity in Everyday Life: Minority influence and nonconformity
a) Majority decisions tend to be made without engaging the
systematic thought and critical thinking skills of the
individuals in the group
b) Minority groups have little normative influence, but they do
have informational influence
c) The majority tends to be the defender of the status quo
5. Groupthink is the tendency of a decision-making group to filter out
undesirable input so that a consensus may be reached, especially if
the consensus is in line with the leader’s viewpoint.
E. Situational Power: Candid Camera Revelations
1. Smart, independent, rational, good people can be led to behave in
ways that are foolish, compliant, irrational, and evil
2. Human nature follows a situational script to the letter
338
CHAPTER 17: SOCIAL PROCESSES AND RELATIONSHIPS
II.Constructing Social Reality
A. Social Reality
1. Two individuals, observing the same event, may interpret it in very
different ways. Each constructs social reality in a unique way, bringing
his or her personal knowledge and experience to bear in interpreting
the situation
2. There is no objective social reality; there are only the individual’s
construction and interpretation of it
3. Social Perception is the process by which people come to understand
and categorize the behaviors of others
B. The Origins of Attribution Theory
1. Attribution theory is a general approach to describe the ways the
social perceiver uses information to generate causal explanations/>
a) Heider suggested people are all intuitive psychologists,
attempting to discern what people are like and what causes
their behavior
b) Heider suggested that questions dominating most
attributional analyses are whether the cause of the behavior
is dispositional (internal) or situational (external)
2. Kelley observed that people most often make causal attributions for
events under conditions of uncertainty using the covariation principle
a) Covariation principle: People attribute behavior to a causal
factor if that factor was present when the behavior occurred,
but was absent whenever the behavior didn’t occur
b) Covariation is assessed using three dimensions of
information
(i) Distinctiveness refers to whether the behavior is
specific to a particular situation
(ii) Consistency refers to whether the behavior occurs
repeatedly in response to this situation
(iii) Consensus refers to whether other people also
produce the same behavior in the same situation
C. The Fundamental Attribution Error
1. The Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE) represents the dual
tendency for people to overestimate dispositional factors and to
underestimate situational ones when searching for the cause of some
behavior of outcome
a) The FAE may be due in part to cultural sources
D. Self-serving bias leads people to take credit for their successes while denying
responsibility for their failures
E. Expectations and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
339
PSYCHOLOGY AND LIFE
1. Self-fulfilling prophecies are predictions made about some future
behavior or event that modifies interactions to produce what is
expected
2. Expectations are powerful and self-fulfilling prophecies are most
likely to occur when the individual has not had an opportunity to
develop accurate expectations before judgments must be made
F. Behaviors that Confirm Expectations
1. Behavioral confirmation is the process by which someone’s
expectations about another person actually influence the second
person to behave in ways that confirm the original hypothesis
a) Behavior confirmation depends on the availability of
accurate information from the environment
b) Expectations have their greatest effect when the actual state
of the world is uncertain
III. Attitudes, Attitude Change, and Action
A. Attitudes and Behaviors
1. An attitude is a positive or negative evaluation of people, objects, or
ideas
2. Three types of experiences give rise to attitudes:
a) Cognitive
b) Affective
c) Behavioral
3. One property of attitudes that predicts behavior is accessibility, the
strength of the association between an attitude object and a person’s
evaluation of that object
a) Attitudes are more accessible when they are based on direct
experience
4. Attitudes are more predictive of behavior when the attitudes and
behaviors are measured at the same level of specificity
B. Processes of Persuasion
1. Persuasion refers to deliberate efforts to change attitude
2. The Elaboration Likelihood Model suggests that there are two routes to
persuasion:
a) The Central Route represents circumstances in which people
think carefully about a persuasive communication so that
attitude change depends on the logical strength of the
arguments. Central route arguments depend on facts,
features, and objective qualities.
340
CHAPTER 17: SOCIAL PROCESSES AND RELATIONSHIPS
b) The Peripheral Route represents circumstances in which
people do not focus critically on the message, but respond to
superficial cues in the situation. Peripheral route messages
depend on sex appeal, image, prestige, and subjective
qualities.
3. The route that people take depends on their motivation to process
and critically analyze the message
C. Persuasion by Your Own Actions
1. Dissonance Theory
a) Cognitive dissonance is the state of conflict someone
experiences after making a decision, taking an action, or
being exposed to information that is contrary to prior beliefs,
feelings, or values
(i) Dissonance-reducing activities modify the
unpleasant state and achieve consonance among
cognitions
(ii) Dissonance has motivational force and impels the
individual to act to reduce the unpleasant feeling
(iii) The greater the dissonance, the greater the
motivation to reduce it
b) Under conditions of high dissonance, the individual acts to
justify his or her behavior after the fact, engages in self-
persuasion, and often becomes a convincing communicator
c) Recently researchers have begun to question whether
dissonance effects generalize to cultures in which
individuals have an interdependent conception of self, such
as in Japan
2. Self-Perception theory
a) Given that in Western culture, people are quick to make
dispositional attributions about the behavior of others, it
should not be surprising that they have the same bias
toward themselves
(i) Internal states are inferred by perceiving how one is
acting now and recalling how one was active in a
given situation in the past
(ii) Self-knowledge allows the individual to reason
backward to the most likely causes or determinants
of behavior
b) Self-perception theory lacks the motivational components of
dissonance theory
D. Compliance
1. Often people want to change not only your attitudes, but your
behavior so that you comply with their requests. Compliance
techniques include the following:
2. Reciprocity
341
PSYCHOLOGY AND LIFE
a) The Reciprocity Norm states that when someone else does
something for you, you should do something for them
b) The Door-in-the-Face Technique works because when people
say “no” to a large request, they will often say “yes” to a
more moderate request; it arises from the reciprocity norm
3. Commitment
a) The commitment principle states that if you make a small
commitment, you will be more likely to commit to
something larger in the future
b) Use of the commitment strategy in compliance attempts is
often called the Foot-in-the-Door Technique
4. Scarcity
a) The scarcity principle states that people dislike feeling that
they can’t have something; thus, people desire the scare
object more
b) The countdown timer on home shopping networks is a good
example of the scarcity principle in action
5. Modeling
a) People can bring about compliance and behavior change by
modeling the desired behavior
b) This technique draws on the principle of conformity
IV. Social Relationships
A. Liking
1. People tend to become attracted to people with whom they are in
close proximity, by virtue of mere exposure
2. Physical attractiveness often plays a role in development of
friendships.
3. Similarity: Individuals similar to oneself provide a sense of personal
validation, because a similar individual makes one feel that the
attitudes one holds dear are the right ones. Conversely, dissimilarity
often leads to strong repulsion
4. Reciprocity: As individuals, we tend to like other individuals who
like us.
B. Loving
1. In most cases, we first liked the person we come to love
2. The Experience of Love
a) Conceptualizations of love cluster into three dimensions:
(i) Passion: sexual passion and desire
(ii) Intimacy: honesty and understanding
(iii) Commitment: devotion and sacrifice
342
CHAPTER 17: SOCIAL PROCESSES AND RELATIONSHIPS
b) People’s ability to sustain loving relationships also depends
on adult attachment style
(iii) Secure attachment (55 %)
(iv) Avoidant attachment (25 %)
(v) Anxious-ambivalent attachment (20 %)
c) Distinctions between types of love in relationships as they
evolve over time:
(i) Passionate love: a period of great intensity and
absorption
(ii) Compassionate love: a migration toward a state of
lesser intensity, but greater intimacy
3. Factors that Allow a Relationship to Last
a) One theory suggests that having a feeling that the “other” is
included in one’s “self’ helps relationships last
b) The Dependence Model suggests that likelihood to remain
together is based on a series of judgments:
(i) The degree to which intimacy, sex, emotional
involvement, companionship, and intellectual
involvement are important in the individual’s
relationship
(ii) The degree to which each of those needs is satisfied
in the relationship
(iii) For each need, whether there is anyone other than
the current partner with whom the individual has an
important relationship
(iv) The degree to which each need is satisfied by the
alternative relationship
343
PSYCHOLOGY AND LIFE
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. While colleges have historically been thought of as centers of divergent thought and
intellectual freedom, many political conservatives feel that in recent years many colleges and
universities have become centers of “political correctness” and liberal intellectual rigidity.
While these people may be overstating the case somewhat, certainly there are many
pressures on college students to conform to certain “norms” that exist on every college
campus. These norms may be more social than political, but they still exist. You might
explore with your students what pressures they have felt to conform while in college, in
terms of political thought, dress norms, social mores, and social attitudes. Depending on
where your class is taught, this could turn into a very interesting discussion. (From Koss)
2. In discussing Milgram’s studies with your class, you might want to discuss the sociological
implications. Do students believe that people’s willingness to obey an authority figure in
Milgram’s studies is linked to why national populations will sometimes willin