Biological, psychological and social origins of attraction.

The biological, psychological and social origins of attraction

Attraction

Biological origins of attraction

Attachment

Evolutionary explanation 1: Neurobiology of love

Fisher (2004): love is a human universal emotion and evolution has produced three distinct motivational brain systems in all birds and mammals to direct courtship, mating, reproduction, and parenting: attraction, the sex drive, and attachment. The three systems interact with each other to produce the combination of emotions, motivations, and behaviors associated with “love”.

Fisher (2004): Attraction is the equivalent to human romantic love in animals and evolved to motivate individuals to select and focus courtship attention on a favored partner.

Attraction is characterized by:

- increased energy

- focused attention on a specific mate

- obsessive following

- romantic gestures

- possessive mate-guarding

- motivation to win a preferred mating partner

Evolved to motivate individuals to stay with the preferred reproductive partner long enough to complete parental duties and experience this as rewarding.

Attachment in animals in characterized by:

- Mutual nest building

- grooming

- maintenance of close proximity

- separation anxiety

- shared parental chores

Animal research suggests that this brain system is associated primarily with oxytocin in the nucleus accumbens (the brain’s reward centre).

Bibliography:

Hannibal, Jette. Psychology for the IB Diploma. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2012. Print.

Markey and Markey (2007)

Romantic ideals, romantic obtainment, and relationship experiences – similarity or complementarity?

Festinger et al. (1950)

The role of proximity on friendship patterns

Participants:

- Self-selected sample of 103 female and 66 male undergraduate students who were single but interested in finding a romantic partner (mean age 19.01)

- Recruited through advertisements

Procedure:

- Participants completed a questionnaire where:

- They rated their own personality

- Described the personality of their romantic ideal.

- Completed filler questionnaires to disguise the true purpose of the study

Results:

- All participants wanted a romantic partner similar to themselves.

- Warm people were attracted to others who were warm.

- The same was found for dominance.

- Indicates that people believe that similarity in a potential partner is important but maybe this ideal partner is difficult to find.

- A follow-up study with a new sample found that romantic couples who experienced high levels of love and harmony were more likely to consist of one individual who was dominant and one who was submissive

- Indicates that complementarity on certain personality factors could affect harmony positively.

Psychological origins of attraction

Fisher et al. (2003)

fMRI study of neurobiological mechanism of attraction

Similarity-attraction hypothesis:

- Assumes that people are likely to be attracted to individuals who are perceived to be similar to themselves.

- Because people who share our attitudes and values validate ourselves and boosts our self-esteem, which in turn leads to attraction.

Aim:

To investigate formation of friendship patterns

Participants:

Student couples at Westgate Housing (MIT)

Procedure:

Researchers made observations and interviewed residents regularly.

Results:

- Proximity or opportunities to bump into each other on a daily basis increased chances for friendships.

- After a couple of months more than 10 times as many friendships had developed with people who lived in the same building, and even more with people who lived next door.

Conclusion:

- Researchers suggest that physical proximity increases opportunities for interaction, which in turn increases familiarity.

- The mere exposure effect is enough to increase liking.

- Geographical proximity may still be a factor in finding friends and lovers but with the Internet, dating sites, and chat rooms people at distance can now easily contact each other and develop friendships or romantic relationships.

- The Internet is thus creating a “psychological proximity” that can replace the “geographical proximity”.

Social origins of attraction

Proximity factor – physical closeness is important in attraction

Proximity theory of attraction:

Simply being in the physical presence of another individual will enhance the probability of becoming friends.

Sex drive (libido)

Aim:

To investigate the neural mechanisms associated with the attraction system (romantic love).

Participants:

10 women and 7 men aged 18 to 26, who reported being in love for an average of 7.5 months.

Procedure:

- Participants first filled out a questionnaire (The Passionate Love Scale) to investigate how they felt about their relationship.

- Then they were placed in the fMRI scanner.

- They first looked at a photograph of their beloved, then performed a distraction task of counting backwards, and finally they looked at a photograph of a neutral acquaintance.

- This was repeated six times.

Results:

- There was increased activity in the dopamine rich brain areas associated with reward, motivation, and goal orientation (dopamine-rich areas associated with mammalian reward and motivation) when participants looked at their lover.

- The results indicate the possibility of brain circuits dedicated to attraction (romantic love).

- The same brain circuits have been associated with “addiction”, which could support the hypothesis that “romantic love is an addiction”.

- Fisher argues that “romantic love” is universal and based on neurobiological factors.

- Evolved to produce offspring.

Characterized by:

- Craving for sexual gratification

In humans, this is associated primarily with testosterone in both men and women.