Attraction and Interpersonal Relationships: Exploring Social Factors - Essay Sample

Introduction

People are influenced by social factors to get attracted to another person. In most cases, people who get attracted to each other must share some sociological factors. People engage in interpersonal relationships for romantic and sexual interests. Interpersonal relations are those relationships that people form with those that are around them or those that they share some common characteristics with. These may range from close romantic relationships and extend to more casual relationships among people. Some factors that determine the choice of romantic and sexual interest include similarity, proximity, personal characteristics, reciprocity, social class among others.

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The attraction theory shows personal appearance as physical attraction. Despite this, personal appearance deals with the ideals of beauty. It is a widely known phenomenon that chemical attraction between two people is not likely correlated to personal appearance. It is sometimes not possible to clearly explain why one person gets attracted to each other since this is a hardwire phenomenon. Sometimes what one feels that it is not good for them might attract another person. However, it is good to note that the brain, which is the decision-making organ is influenced by various sociological factors.

To begin with, reciprocity is a factor that determines one's choice of romantic and sexual interest. Reciprocity is a term that refers to the tendency to get attracted to people who like us and not get interested in people who do not like us. This means that if one of the people develop an interest in the other and both show a positive response, then there is a high likelihood for the two people to get attracted to each other. For example, if one was told that a particular group liked them, it would be easy for such a person to get attracted to the members of that group.

Physical attractiveness is a great factor that determines who one is interested in. As it is with stereotypes, they can be positive or negative, physical attractiveness leads to positive stereotypes (Couch, 1984). A person is likely to get romantically attracted to a person that he or she considers physically attractive. In physical attractiveness, every person has what he or she considers attractive. While some will go for a fair-skinned person, others will prefer a dark complexion. As such, physical attractiveness is a person and follows the adage that, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Gender defines the choice of a romantic partner. Physical attractiveness affects, to a great extent, the mating choices and, to an extent, the long-term relationship. The evolutionary theory shows men as having an infinite reproductive faculty and as a result, they must seek many offspring in mating. In choosing their partners men will consider factors such as age, appearance, smoothness of the skin and also the color of the teeth. On the other hand, women mainly get attracted to men only if they can offer basic, social and economic needs. As such, both genders consider genetic qualities which they perceive will make their children thrive. Males seek females who are youthful and attractive.

Gender also dictates how people view a relationship. The way a man views a relationship is totally different from the way in which a woman views it. The differences between gender are also pushed to the parenting styles that are employed by different people. Research shows that men are likely to report more situations of parenting failure because they are regarded to use parenting styles that are less appropriate. Besides, they are perceived to have ineffective child efficacy when compared to women. In the same way, men and women have different reasons that push them to enter into a relationship. For women, a relationship must have something to do with sex, intimacy and continued care and protection. As such, women view men as both financial supporters and physical protectors in a marriage. However, this is not the case with men. Men view need a person that can help them to grow their dreams. Age in gender also serves a great role in determining the perception of a relationship. Young women, for instance, place greater emphasis as well as a sense of self-worth on the status of a current relationship. On the other hand, young men will usually find the quality of a current relationship to be of greater importance.

Religion is a social factor that has been used as a tool to develop romantic relationships. Every religion has its norms which are supposed to be adhered to. Besides, it has a set of laws which all the members are expected to adhere to. Although these laws and norms are not forced, the members are expected to adhere to them without fail. Many religions teach about the beauty and authenticity of that religion and how it is superior to others. Besides, many religions advise their members on what to look for in finding a partner. As such, members of the same religion are likely to get into romantic relationships than it is for members of different religions. Additionally, some religions organize interactive functions which are likely to increase the chances for people to meet and start a relationship which grows into a romantic relationship.

Social status is another social factor that can serve as an ingredient for people to have a romantic relationship. A social hierarchy refers to the arrangement of people in society, with some people having more power and others having less. Social hierarchies, also referred to as social stratification largely refers to socioeconomics or the amount of material and social capital that an individual possesses. However, the socioeconomic classification is a stand-in for the amount of power possessed by an individual. Max Weber classified people into social classes based on their measure of power, property, and prestige. In many cases, interactions are based on social class. People are classified as either belonging in the lower class, middle class or the upper class. In the United States, very few people are in the upper class, but the upper class possesses a disproportionate amount of the nation's wealth.

Social status forms the basis for social interactions. People who are in the upper-class share a lot in common and tend to interact more than they do with people who are in the lower class. In the same way, people who are in the lower class are likely to interact more than they would interact with people who are in the middle class. Following this principle, it is easier for people who are in the same social strata to form intimate relationships than they would do with people who are of different social class.

Race is a social factor that has a high chance of determining the trend of relationships. In countries such as the US, the issue of race and marriages is prevalent. Cases of racial segregation have also been reported where the African-Americans and the other minority groups such as the Hispanics and Latinos suffer greatly by discrimination meted against them by the whites. This kind of segregation has placed different races on hatred and the parents have grown to teach their children about that hatred. Due to the kind of atmosphere created, it becomes difficult for people of different races to engage in a meaningful relationship.

Additionally, the race is a great determinant of the social status of people. Research shows that people who belong to the lower class are mostly the minorities while a majority of those who belong to the upper class are the whites. Minorities who are in white-dominated areas suffer from poorer health and education as a result of social isolation. This kind of social disparity plays a great role in determining relationships. For instance, it might be very hard for a white lady to get engaged in a romantic relationship with a black or Hispanic man. However, it is very easy for a black girl to get married to a black man and it is so for the whites, Latinos, Hispanics, and other races. As such, race serves as a great determinant of the formation of relationships.

Race is a product of stereotypes. Stereotypes are assumptions that one holds of another person of a group and its result is always negative. The generalizations that are made tend to hurt the other party and this greatly affects how such people relate. In a relationship, if one of the people holds some negative perceptions about the other, then it is likely that such a relationship cannot work. Stereotypes can be linked to racism or not. Racism involves making assumptions about a person's racial background (Hausmann, Jonason and Summers-Effler, 2011). Both legitimate and illegitimate heuristics demonstrate how knowledge about one's group affiliations conveys perceived social knowledge about that individual.

Culture shapes the way people relate to each other. In most cases, people of the same cure are likely to come together more than people of different cultures. Racism is directly linked with culture. The two of them appear almost inseparable. Racism is a predominant problem that American culture faced in the twentieth century. Sociologists such as WEB Dubois paid special attention to the effects of what he called the "color line" in America and studied the impact of racism on both whites and blacks. In his analysis, he found out that people of the same color have a higher tendency of engaging in a romantic relationship than it is for two people of different colors.Closely related to culture is counterculture. Counterculture is viewed as a subculture that opposes the dominant culture. For example, the hippies of the 1960s were a counterculture, as they opposed the core values held by most citizens of the United States. Hippies eschewed material possessions and the accumulation of wealth rejected the traditional marriage norm and espoused what they called free love, which was basically the freedom to have sex outside of marriage. Despite the fact that the hippies were more peaceful than the others, they were very vocal in opposing everything that the dominant culture stood for.

The moment different cultures live together, they are bound to have disagreements, misunderstandings, and biases. As such, it is not strange to find two cultures differing greatly on certain aspects. This kind of disagreement may play a great role in sabotaging a relationship. When two people from different cultures come together, they usually find themselves entangled in these differences and biases and this may ultimately affect their relationship. It is not possible for cultures to remain entirely separate irrespective of the differences that might come into play. Although there are differences within cultures, it is also possible for different cultures that live together to experience fair evaluations, relationships, and learning experiences. Such kind of factors may play a great role in the maintenance of a relationship.

Some people consider their culture superior to others and this determines the way they treat them. In every sense, men are supposed to receive the greatest form of respect in the relationship. A man will tend to walk away from a relationship where he finds deficient of respect. In many cases, when a lady comes from a culture that is ethnocentric, then he is not likely to get engaged with a man from a culture she considers inferior because it will be hard for such a relationship to work. The sociological term for this kind of situation is ethnocentrism. It is defined as the tendency to judge another culture by the standards of one's own culture (Cunliffe, 1976). Ethnocentrism usually entails the notion that one's own culture is superior to everyone else's. For instance, Americans have the tendency of valuing technological advancement, accumulation of wealth and industrialization. As such, an...