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Commitment:
feelings and actions that keep partners working together to maintain the relationship.
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Communal relationships:
close relationships in which partners suspend their need for equity and exchange, giving support to the partner in order to meet this partner needs, and without consideration of the costs to themselves.
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Complementary relationships:
each person in the relationship brings different personality attributes to the relationship which can help satisfy the other person’s needs
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Evolutionary theory:
our behavior reflects evolved adaptations for the survival of our ancestors.
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Exchange relationships
, relationships in which each of the partners keeps track of his or her contributions to the partnership
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Functional distance
or the frequency with which we cross paths with others
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Interpersonal attraction
- the strength of our liking or loving for another person
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Mere-exposure effect
. the more often we are exposed to a stimulus (e.g., sound, person) the more likely we are to view that stimulus positively
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Modularity hypothesis
explains homosexuality as different from heterosexuality only with respect to the sex of the desired partner, and suggests that homosexual and heterosexual individuals show similar patterns regarding other aspects of sexual psychology.
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Self-disclosure
—the tendency to communicate frequently, without fear of reprisal, and in an accepting and empathetic manner
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Similarity thesis
we are attracted to and tend to form relationships with others who are similar to us.
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Sociocultural Perspective
acknowledges that evolution plays some role in sex differences in attraction; however, the sex differences may be more to do with social and cultural factors.
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Sunk cost bias
When we choose to stay in situations largely because we feel we have put too much effort in to be able to leave them behind.