Procrastination

Patricia Seemer
March 20, 2011
Social Psycholgy
Interpersonal Attraction

Why do we become attracted to one person, but feel completely indifferent about another? Is this an unconscious behavior, to be more attracted to someone rather than someone else? What makes us become friends with our social group? We are all looking for that someone to fall in love with, but what makes us fall inlove? There are so many leading factors to interpersonal attraction and everyone's preference is different then others. If a friend of yours has dissimilar values and beliefs then you may not find yourself that comfortable when being around him and so you may not be attracted to them there for will not want to continue a friendship. people tend to look for those who are similar to them because theytend to feel more comfortable with the known than the unknown. You may see someone at the store and feel a strong connection by looking into their eyes, is it because their eyes are beautiful, or maybe you both are holding the same scented candle you didn’t even know anyone liked that scent besides you, or perhaps they helped a child up to reach the water fountain, what makes us want to get to knowmore about that person?  Dating always becomes a game, and we must all win at all cost. The main factors that lead to interpersonal attraction are,  propinquity, physical attraction, similarity, status, goals, education and the list goes on and as time goes in the near future the list will be never ending.
    Similarity is a crucial Interpersonal attraction, the more things we have in commonwith people the more we feel comfortable to hang out with them because we can relate to things on the same level. When you have similar goals, ethnicity, education levels, appearance the more you are able to connect on a more intimate level, and are able to be happier in a relationship. It used to be thought that opposites attract, That is a statement that doesn’t make sense anymore. If you are aChristian dating a Jewish person, how are you supposed to incorporate your values on to your children there is going to be different views, and those will therefore lead to arguments and disagreements? You are more satisfied and attracted to someone who is more like you. If you are proud of your education background while possessing a Doctorate Degree you are going to want someone who is also selfsufficient and goal oriented as yourself. You worked hard in school, and you want to be able to relate to someone who knows what it’s like to strap down, and work hard. This also goes for interpersonal attraction towards friends, it will be hard to be friends with someone if you are a twenty two, struggling college student with an older successful married, career oriented person. You won’t have muchin common rather than the older has most likely been in your shoes at one point. You need to be able to go through the same things as someone at the same time in your lives, because it makes it easier. I am really proud of my nationality; I am Irish Hungarian, and Italian. I feel like it is important for me to be with someone who shares the same nationality as me so when I bring them home to mymother my family will as well be happy with my decision because we can incorporate traditions in both the families easier. It seems like people are looking to find an image of them. I know I will even ask someone what kind of music they listen to and I feel more attracted to them if we both share the same lyrics, and music can tell you a lot about a person if you really think about it. Ifsomeone loves the Beatles it tells you they are likely to be free spirited and loving, if someone listens to country they are a sweet gentlemen or southern like girl, or if someone listens to rap it mean they are more likely to have been raised a little on the rough edges and maybe have an unstable life. That may seem like judging, but everyone does it to have a better idea of what people are like. ...