Understanding Interpersonal Dynamics and Social Connections

Key Concepts in Social Interaction and Group Formation

Interpersonal Dynamics and Social Connections

Artist’s Circle: A small group of peers who work together for an extended period (a collaborative circle).

Five-Factor Model: A model of the primary dimensions that structure individual differences in personality.

  • Extraversion: The degree to which an individual tends to seek out social contacts.
  • Agreeableness: The degree to which an individual tends to respond positively across situations.

Relationality: The degree to which one’s values, attitudes, and outlooks emphasize and facilitate establishing and maintaining connections to others.

Need for Affiliation: A motivating state of tension that can be relieved by joining with other people.

Need for Intimacy: A motivating state of tension that can be relieved by seeking out warm, positive relationships with others.

Experience Sampling: A research method that asks participants to record their thoughts, emotions, or behavior at the time they are experiencing something rather than at a later time or date.

Need for Power: A motivating state of tension that can be relieved by gaining control over other people and one’s environment.

Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation (FIRO): A theory of group formation and development that emphasizes compatibility among three basic social motives: inclusion, control, and affection.

Shyness: The tendency to be reserved or timid during social interactions, usually coupled with feelings of discomfort or nervousness.

Social Anxiety: A feeling of apprehension and embarrassment experienced when anticipating or actually interacting with other people.

Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD): A persistent and pervasive pattern of overwhelming anxiety and self-consciousness experienced when anticipating or actually interacting with other people.

Attachment Style: One’s characteristic approach to relationships with other people; the basic styles are secure, preoccupied, fearful, and dismissing.

Affiliation: The gathering together of individuals in one location.

Social Comparison: The process of contrasting one’s personal qualities and outcomes, including beliefs, attitudes, values, abilities, accomplishments, and experiences, to those of other people.

  • Downward Social Comparison: Selecting people who are less well-off as targets for social comparison.
  • Upward Social Comparison: Selecting people who are superior to oneself as targets of social comparison.

Self-Evaluation Maintenance (SEM) Model: A theoretical analysis of social comparison processes that assumes that individuals maintain and enhance their self-esteem by associating with high-achieving individuals who excel in areas that are not relevant to the individual’s own sense of self-esteem and avoiding association with high-achieving individuals who excel in areas that are important to the individual’s sense of self-esteem.

Proximity Principle: The tendency for individuals to form interpersonal relations with those who are close by.

Elaboration Principle: The tendency for groups to expand in size as nonmembers become linked to a group member and thus become part of the group itself.

Homophily: “Love of the same”; the tendency for individuals to be attracted to or associate with others who are similar to them.