Sociology of Psychology Exam Review

Question

Amy, Juan, and Jenn are interacting. Amy and Juan dislike each other, and the same is true for Amy and Jenn. If the situation is balanced, we would suspect Juan and Jenn to

a. like each other

b. none of the other answers are correct.

c. not like each other.

d. make an attribution

Answer 1

To solve this, you'll need to know about balance theory / Heider's triangle / P-O-X triangle. Think of Amy, Juan, and Jenn as the three points on the triangle. Amy is at the top of the triangle. She doesn't like Juan, who's at a bottom corner. Amy also doesn't like Jenn, at the other bottom corner.

How does Jenn feel about Juan? Well, we know that Jenn and Amy don't like each other. And Jenn knows that Juan and Amy don't like each other (we assume Jenn knows that). So if Jenn also doesn't like Juan, that's going to cause her some discomfort to agree with Amy on that. Jenn would rather like Juan, since she dislikes Amy so much that she doesn't even want to like who he likes.

Alternatively, just think that two negatives need a positive to balance them. two positives need a third positive. anything else is unbalanced.

a) like each other.