A number of social scientists have conceptualized adults’ close or romantic relation­ships as an attachment process (e. g., Aspelmeier & Kerns, 2003; Feeney & Noller, 1996; Sprecher & Fehr, 2011). From this perspective, individuals transfer attachment styles and patterns acquired from parent-child relationships to peers with whom they become emotionally and sexually involved. In this […]

The way we form attachments, which has its roots in infancy, has a great impact on how we relate to loved partners (Zayas et al., 2011). Much of our scientific knowledge about how attachment styles are established and how they later affect us comes from the work of developmental psychologist Mary Ainsworth (1979, 1989; Ainsworth […]

Attachment is a term for the intense emotional tie that develops between two indi­viduals, such as the tie between an infant and a parent or between adult lovers (Rholes et al., 2006). It is possible to experience attachment without love, but it is unlikely that love of one person for another can exist in the […]

Differences Between American Men and Women in Mate Selection Preferences Researchers Susan Sprecher, Quintin Sullivan, and Elaine Hatfield (1994) surveyed a national representative sample of more than 13,000 English — or Spanish-speaking people in the United States, age 19 or older. I Figure 7.3 shows the average response rating of men and women to several […]

Still another factor drawing us to a particular individual is our perception that that person is interested in us. People tend to react positively to flattery, compliments, and other expressions of liking and affection. In the study of interpersonal attraction, this concept is reflected in the principle of reciprocity, which holds that when we receive […]

Partner Choice and Race The NHSLS provided data about the extent to which people form intimate relation­ships with members of the same race. As described in Chapter 2, a lack of funds forced Edward Laumann and his associates (1994) to include adequate numbers of only the two largest ethnic minorities in America. Consequently, ■ Table […]

Similarity is also influential in determining whom we fall in love with. Contrary to the old adage that opposites attract, people who fall in love often share common beliefs, values, attitudes, interests, and intel­lectual abilities (Graf & Schwartz, 2011; Morry et al., 2011). We also are inclined to pair romantically with people whose level of […]

Although people often overlook proximity, or geographic nearness, in listing factors that attracted them to a particular person, proximity is one of the most important vari­ables. We often develop close relationships with people whom we see frequently in our neighborhood, in school, at work, or at our place of worship. Why is proximity such a […]

People caught up in the intense passion of blooming love often report feeling swept away or feeling a kind of natural high. Such reactions might have a basis, at least in part, in brain chemistry, according to researchers Michael Liebowitz, author of The Chemistry of Love (1983), and Anthony Walsh, author of The Science of […]

What determines why people fall in love and with whom they fall in love? These ques­tions are exceedingly complex. Some writers believe that people fall in love to overcome a sense of aloneness and separateness. Psychoanalyst Erich Fromm (1965) suggested that union with another person is the deepest need of humans. Another psychoana­lyst and writer, […]