[The relationships between the difficulty of goal attainment and interpersonal attraction].
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the goal attainment difficulty upon interpersonal attraction for the partner. Eighty female undergraduates participated the experiment. They were given tasks with one of four different goal attainment level (very easy, easy, difficult, and very difficult). Each subject solved it with partners of one of three ability levels (superior, similar, inferior to the subject). After the completion of the task, all subjects were requested to evaluate the three partners' instrumental and emotional attractiveness. The main results were as follows: (1) The subjects evaluated the more capable partner as more attractive on the instrumental attraction dimension. (2) The subjects in easy and difficult goal attainment conditions evaluated the superior partner as most attractive on the emotional attraction dimension. While the subjects in very easy and very difficult goal conditions evaluated the similar partner as most attractive on that dimension. These results were discussed in terms of the relationship between the reward value of interaction partner and the task environment.
Hida
M
M
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Letters, Gakushuin University, Tokyo.
D000328:Adult; D001076:Aptitude; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis