8 Human relationships
Human relationships applies the approaches to how people behave in groups and in close relationships: how they are influenced, how they form bonds and conflicts, and how relationships can be improved.
- IB Psychology
- SL and HL
What 8 covers
From the subject guide: what you need to know and be able to do.
Group behaviour and interpersonal relationships.
10 subtopics in Human relationships
Each one has its own page once something is published for it.
- 8.1Acculturationnotes
- 8.2Compliance techniquesnotes
- 8.3Conformitynotes
- 8.4Cultural dimensionsnotes
- 8.5Social identity theorynotes
- 8.6Social learningnotes
- 8.7Chemical messengersnotes
- 8.8Cognitive explanationsnotes
- 8.9Communication and languagenotes
- 8.10Strategies for improving relationshipsnotes
Key terms introduced here
Each is in the Psychology glossary, with every other term in the subject.
- Group behaviour
The ways people think, feel and act as members of groups, including conformity, compliance, intergroup relations and how individuals become part of a group.
- Interpersonal attraction
A positive evaluation of another person that makes someone want to approach them and spend time with them, the first step in forming a relationship.
- Interpersonal relationships
Relationships between two people in which each influences the other's thoughts, feelings and behaviour, such as romantic partnerships, friendships and family relationships.
An overview of 8 Human relationships
Human relationships is the context in which psychology studies how people relate to each other, both as members of groups and as partners, friends and family members. People are interdependent: what one person thinks and does affects others, and much human behaviour only makes sense in the light of the relationships and groups a person belongs to.
The context has two parts. Group behaviour concerns how people think, feel and act as members of groups: how they become part of a group, why they favour their own group, how groups influence their members and how this varies across cultures. Interpersonal relationships concerns relationships between two people, such as romantic partners and friends: how they form, what keeps them together, why they break down and how they can be improved.
Group behaviour includes very large groups, such as nations and religious communities, as well as small ones, such as teams and classes. Interpersonal relationships are smaller still, but they draw on the same processes of influence, identity and culture.
Romantic relationships are the main example of interpersonal relationships in this context, with friendships, parent–child relationships and interpersonal conflict and aggression used where the research covers them.
Questions the topic tries to answer
How do people become part of a new group or culture, and what happens to their behaviour and mental health when they do?
Why do people favour their own group, and how can hostility between groups be reduced?
Why do people conform to groups and comply with requests, and how can this influence be used to change group behaviour?
How do cultural values such as individualism and collectivism change the way groups work?
Why are people attracted to some people and not others, and what keeps partners together?
How much do biology, thinking and communication each explain about love, commitment and conflict?
Can relationships be improved by therapy, education or cooperation, and how long do the improvements last?
The subtopics
Subtopic | What it covers |
|---|---|
8.1 Acculturation | Acculturation strategies in groups in contact, acculturative stress and mental health, intergroup relations and the attitudes of the host community |
8.2 Compliance techniques | Applying techniques such as social-norm messages and commitment to change the behaviour of groups |
8.3 Conformity | Group norms, pluralistic ignorance, groupthink, group polarisation and minority influence |
8.4 Cultural dimensions | How dimensions such as individualism and power distance explain social loafing, conformity, deference and trust in groups |
8.5 Social identity theory | Explaining intergroup favouritism, prejudice, conflict and helping, and changing them through contact, shared goals and a common group identity |
8.6 Social learning | How modelling spreads norms, aggression and prosocial behaviour through groups, and how media can change them |
8.7 Chemical messengers | Dopamine, oxytocin, vasopressin, serotonin and testosterone in attraction, love and bonding |
8.8 Cognitive explanations | Attraction, social exchange, equity and the investment model; attributions and relationship schemas |
8.9 Communication and language | Self-disclosure, conflict patterns such as the Four Horsemen and demand–withdraw, responses to good news, culture and online communication |
8.10 Strategies for improving relationships | Couples therapies, relationship education, online programmes and cooperative strategies such as the jigsaw classroom |
How the subtopics connect
Six group behaviour subtopics apply sociocultural approach terms to groups. Acculturation and social learning describe how a person comes to share a group’s norms; social identity theory explains why people favour their group and how conflict between groups arises; compliance and conformity describe how groups influence their members; and cultural dimensions explain why all of these vary between societies. Many of them describe the same events from different angles: a newly arrived student who copies classmates is acculturating, conforming and learning socially at once.
Four interpersonal subtopics form a sequence of explanations followed by an application. Chemical messengers, cognitive explanations and communication explain relationships at the biological, cognitive and behavioural levels: a partner’s kind act is rewarding partly through the brain’s reward system, is interpreted through attributions, and is expressed and received through communication. Strategies for improving relationships then apply all three, and testing them shows which explanations identify real causes.
Several points join the two halves. Research on cultural dimensions explains why disclosure and conflict styles differ between couples from different cultures; social identity research on contact and superordinate goals is applied in strategies such as the jigsaw classroom; and social learning explains how people learn both group norms and ways of behaving in relationships, including aggression.
Links to the concepts and the rest of the course
Concept | Where it appears in human relationships |
|---|---|
Causality | Most relationship research is correlational: do negative attributions cause dissatisfaction, or the reverse? Field experiments, such as contact between football teams or a radio drama, test causes in real groups |
Measurement | Questionnaires on attitudes, satisfaction and commitment; observational coding of couples’ conflict; hormone levels and brain imaging; national scores on cultural dimensions |
Bias | Young, Western, heterosexual student samples; imposed etic measures; publication bias in oxytocin and therapy research |
Perspective | Biological, cognitive and sociocultural explanations of love and of prejudice; reductionism in single-hormone or economic explanations; emic views of relationships |
Change | Changing group behaviour through norms, contact and media; couples therapy and relationship education; how long change lasts |
Responsibility | Deception in classic group studies; research with vulnerable groups such as refugees and people in abusive relationships; the use of influence techniques |
The context draws on approach terms from all three approaches. From the sociocultural approach it reuses acculturation, compliance techniques, conformity, cultural dimensions, social identity theory and social learning theory, each applied to groups rather than taught as a theory. From the biological approach it uses chemical messengers, and from the cognitive approach it uses schemas, cognitive biases and cognitive dissonance. The class practical linked to this context is the questionnaire (survey), which suits research on attitudes and relationships; well-known examples are the "love quiz" of Hazan and Shaver (1987) on adult attachment styles and Buss’s (1989) survey of mate preferences in 37 cultures.
How SL and HL differ
SL and HL students study the same human relationships content and sit the same Papers 1 and 2. HL students go further through the HL extensions: culture (for example, cultural differences in conformity, communication and marriage, and the risks of applying Western concepts elsewhere), motivation (for example, what motivates commitment, cooperation and prosocial behaviour) and technology (for example, online dating, social media and group polarisation, and digital relationship programmes). In Paper 3, HL students apply this knowledge to unseen sources, which may be set in the human relationships context.
Assessment
Paper 1 Section B: a short scenario may be set in human relationships, for example a conflict between two groups or a couple’s difficulties, and ask how an approach term such as social identity theory, conformity or a cognitive bias applies to it.
Paper 1 Section C: one of the two essay questions may be set in this context, combining an area of study, such as cognitive explanations or strategies for improving relationships, with a concept such as change or measurement.
Paper 2 Section A: when the survey or questionnaire is the class practical examined, the questions concern the questionnaire used in that practical, which is linked to this context.
Paper 2 Section B: the unseen study may come from human relationships research, such as a field experiment on group behaviour or a questionnaire study of couples.
Paper 3 (HL): sources may explore the role of culture, motivation or technology in human relationships, for example the effects of technology on communication between partners.
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