Attachment behavioral system

• A motivational system selected throughout evolution to maintain proximity between a young child and his or her primary attachment figure.

Attachment behaviors

• Behaviors and signals that attract the attention of a primary attachment figure
• function to prevent separation from that individual or to reestablish proximity to that individual (e.g., crying, clinging).

Attachment figure

• Someone who functions as the primary safe haven and secure base for an individual.
• In childhood, an individual’s attachment figure is often a parent.
• In adulthood, an individual’s attachment figure is often a romantic partner.

Attachment patterns

• (also called “attachment styles” or “attachment orientations”)
• Individual differences in how securely (vs. insecurely) people think, feel, and behave in attachment relationships.

Strange situation

• A laboratory task that involves briefly separating and reuniting infants and their primary caregivers
• a way of studying individual differences in attachment behavior.

Confidante

A trusted person with whom secrets and vulnerabilities can be shared.

Correlation

A measure of the association between two variables, or how they go together.

Health

The complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being—not just the absence of disease or infirmity.

Health behaviors

• Behaviors that are associated with better health.
• Examples exercising, not smoking, and wearing a seat belt while in a vehicle.

Machiavellianism

• Being cunning, strategic, or exploitative in one’s relationships.
• Named after Machiavelli, who outlined this way of relating in his book, The Prince.

Narcissism

A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), a need for admiration, and lack of empathy.

Objective social variables

Targets of research interest that are factual and not subject to personal opinions or feelings

Operationalization

• The process of defining a concept so that it can be measured.
• often happens by identifying related concepts or behaviors that can be more easily measured.

Ostracism

Being excluded and ignored by others.

Psychopathy

A pattern of antisocial behavior characterized by an inability to empathize, egocentricity, and a desire to use relationships as tools for personal gain.

Shunning

• The act of avoiding or ignoring a person, and withholding all social interaction for a period of time. occurs as a punishment and is temporary.

Social integration

Active engagement and participation in a broad range of social relationships.

Social support

A social network’s provision of psychological and material resources that benefit an individual.

Subjective social variables

Targets of research interest that are not necessarily factual but are related to personal opinions or feelings

Subjective well-being

The scientific term used to describe how people experience the quality of their lives in terms of life satisfaction and emotional judgments of positive and negative affect.