Social Psychology- Power of Familiarity Essay Example

away and guarding yourself.

Such individuals sap your liveliness. The extra time you get to spend with these people the more you become aware of how different you are. When with these people you struggle hard to establish a common field on which you can both communicate. Such individuals view the world through different perspective, and you recognize that these people even have a different approach of life in total. Though, its correct that opposite things do attract, it’s very different when it’s about creating relationships with individuals who have opposite values than you (Morry, 2007).

The possibility of misunderstandings and disagreements is quite high. Such relationships will lead to difficulties in finding a common ground where each individual in the relationship does not sense as being compromised. So as such relationships works, each one of the individual has to be more than willing to accept and tackle their differences. Each one in the relationship has to be as well willing to dedicate time and energy to this relationship; this is not very easy to do, unless each of the individuals acknowledges his/her behavior and why there is a difference.

Each person externally transmits his/her individual “fingerprint” model of energy which communicates to other people who that individual is. That model of energy is what defines the individual personality. When such an individual meets a person with same energy model or personality, then there is attraction. But, when such an individual meets a person with varying energy or personality, there might be an attraction between these two people, however, soon their differences will come into open and if they can cope up

with these differences then they will foster their relationship.

But, if they fail to cope with their differences then, the relationship will break. What makes each person be different from one another? What presents every individual his/her own distinctive individual behavioral traits? How comes that individuals want to be close to people who have similar behaviors like them and have problems relating with individuals who are differing with their traits? To answer these questions, we have to look at various concepts, theories or hypotheses and also personality traits which explain this phenomenon.

The following section will highlight reasons why we are attracted to people who have similar characters like ours. Reasons why people are attracted to those with similar characters as them Similarity The saying “birds of same feather flock together”, indicates that similarity plays a critical role in interpersonal attraction. Looking at Morry’s (2007) concept of attraction-similarity, there is some conviction that individuals with real similarity create first attraction. When someone rates others according to how similar they are to him/her, then that is perceived similarity.

This perception is can be friendship or romantic. As Newcomb (1963) observed, people seem to adjust perceived similarity in order to get a balance in a relationship. Similarity in various characters According to findings carried out by Jamieson; Lydon & Zanna (1987) it was proposed that attraction and interpersonal similarity are multi-dimensional aspects whereby individuals are attracted to other individuals who are having similar characters like them. These characters can be physical look, demographics, conduct, personal style, cultural background, interests, social skills and communication.

In a study conducted in college regarding dorm roommates by

Newcomb (1963), it revealed that students with shared background, values, majors, political views and beliefs easily became acquaintances. Physical look Newcomb (1963) explaining matching hypothesis of Goffman (1952) explains that, Goffman (1952) proposed the matching hypothesis in trying to explain why people are attracted to their partners; he suggests that, individuals are likely to fashion long lasting relationships with people who similarly physical attractive as themselves.

This hypothesis was supported by Singh & Ho, (2000) who concluded in their research that partners who are same in terms of their physical attractiveness exhibited a high liking for one another. Another supporting evidence of this hypothesis came from Newcomb (1963) who showed that photographs of dating as well as engaged couples were related in their attractiveness. Attitudes Basing on “law of attraction” formulated by Byrne (1971), an attraction towards another individual is positively associated with the amount of attitudes similarity linked with that individual.

Singh & Ho, (2000) as well indicated that a person with same attitudes as the ones you have will be more agreeable with the way you perceive things and that individual will be more reinforcing to you. Thus, you will like hi/her more. Basing on cognitive consistency concepts, variation in interests and attitudes can result to avoidance and dislike (Singh & Ho, 2000), but on the contra, similarity in interests and attitudes enhances social attraction (Singh & Ho, 2000; Bryne, 1971).

As Byrne (1971) observed, attitudes similarity stimulates the perceived attractiveness as well as favorability communication form one another, while dissimilarity reduces the intensity of these signals. In another study carried out by Jamieson; Lydon & Zanna (1987) it revealed

that similarity in attitudes could forecast how individuals assess their respect for one another as well as their social and academic first impression.

In terms of inter-group relations, more attitude similarity would result in harmony among the group members, while less attitude similarity would result in discrepancy among the group members. Though Singh & Ho, (2000) notes that, attitudinal similarity are linearly related to attraction, attraction might not be able to contribute much to attitude modification. Socio-cultural background According to Byrne (1971), people who have same economical statues are most probable to become attracted to one another.

This observation was supported by Buss& Barnes (1986) who established that people like it better when their partners are in the same particular demographic characters, comprising political viewpoint, religious background, and more so social and economic class. Personality Studies have revealed that there is a positive correlation between interpersonal attraction and personality similarity (Buss & Barnes, 1986). People are inclined to prefer and like romantic partners who have got similar thoughts like them regarding emotional stability, experiences, agreeableness, and extroversion and attachment approach (Buss & Barnes, 1986).

Interests as well as activities Similarity in activities among people was particularly prognostic of favoritism judgments which have an effect on attraction judgments (Jamieson; Lydon & Zanna, 1987) According to Jamieson; Lydon & Zanna (1987) they asserted that high self-supervising people highly controlled through activity preference similarity rather than by attitude similarity concerning first attraction, whilst low self-supervising people were highly controlled by value-based attitudes on their first attraction rather than by activity liking similarity.

Social skills Basing on post-conversation measures regarding social attraction Buss & Barnes

(1986) suggested that tactical similarity has got a positive correlation with the level of satisfaction of a partner in regard to global competence measures. However, this satisfaction level was not correlated with attitude or viewpoint change in regard to perceived persuasiveness levels. Studies have indicated that educational level and age of a person plays important role in mate attraction.

This is so since people who have same age interact and study a lot in similar type of schools, this builds the propensity of individuals to meet and interact with those individuals who share similar characters. It has been established that primary assortment for example the similarities that couples share at that start of marriage is what plays a major part in explaining the spousal similarity that convergence which is increasing similarity of couples as time as passes. Personality traits

Every individual is born with innate personality traits, this means that we have different biological genetic traits which determine the manner our intellect develops and the manner our personality exhibits itself. That’s the main part. An individual’s personality traits show themselves early in life and they remain unvarying throughout that person’s life. Traits fashion an individual’s involuntary characters and determine the path that individual life will take. Traits determine an individual’s preferred manner of gathering information, how he/she makes conclusions regarding the information and the manner he/she relates with others.

The parts that a person learns in his/her life is define as characteristics. These characteristics define the behavioral approaches an individual develops due to what he/she has learnt. The characters indicate a person’s biographical history, as well as want distinguishes this individual from

others. Characters help in formation of a person identity and how a person expresses him/her self to the external world. Characters also present biographical information revealed in an individual’s emotional reactions. Thus when you integrate personality traits together with characteristics, you get personality type.

This means the consistent expected patterns which guide the way an individual act, and why he/she acts in that manner. Personality type is a representative of the orderly manner through which a person forms his/her attitudes, values, beliefs and perceptions. Taking personality type as a clear-cut method makes it simpler to understand why people easily identify with others who have similar personality type. They are able to easily communicate, recognize their thoughts and predicate their pattern of behavior.

This in turn creates a strong chemistry between the two individuals. It’s against this background that you hear people saying that you are my type. Conclusion Interpersonal attraction attempts to explain how people create personal relationships, and answer the question asked: How we are attracted to people that have the same traits of personality and beliefs as we do? This field has in the recent past become a major field in social psychology. Interpersonal attraction is related with the intensity of how much an individual likes, dislikes, hates or loves another one.

Interpersonal attraction might be perceived as some kind of pull acting between two individuals appearing to pull them together, at the same time opposing their parting. There are several of factors which have been observed impact interpersonal attraction. These factors are: Similarity in various characters, attitudes, Socio-cultural background, Social skills, Interests as well as activities and Personality traits.

Though it said that opposites attracts, it has been revealed that this is not easy when it becomes to personal relations. Instead that saying that “birds or same feathers flock together” carries day.