Personal relationships are seen every day with many different people in your life.  When people are in personal relationships, they also may be dating or married. Applied social psychology can explain personal relationships and help people understand how to strengthen the relationships that they do have with others. The proximity effect and primacy effect can be looked into when understanding what draws people together.

Attractions can happen between people at any given point in time. With regard to relationships, attraction is what pulls you closer to another person (Schneider,2012). Through the proximity effect, it is seen that the nearness of individuals can have an effect on how they feel about each other. When individuals are psychologically and physically close to one another, there is more liking personally for each other (Schneider,2012). With this, it is seen that when close to others you are more likely to form a relationship with them.

Physical attractiveness also has an effect on relationships. With this comes the primacy effect.  According to this effect, people are influenced by what is first presented (Schneider,2012). When meeting another person, one of the first things you are presented is the physical appearance. When this is the case, this is often what first causes people to become physically attracted to someone. Unfortunately, this has an effect on others opinions because the way people look does matter. When being seen, the better you look the better people think about you. When people begin to date, they look at how their mate looks and takes that into consideration.

When thinking about personal relationships, it is not hard to look back at my life and what has attracted me to other people. At twenty-three, I am married and have not been in that many relationships. With that being said, the primacy effect and proximity effect had an impact on the relationships that I have had. When looking back on my relationships, the nearness of my partners and I have always been near. It was often easier to be in a relationship with someone that lived closer to me because we were able to see each other more. Even when I had lived in a college dorm, I went home every weekend to visit my husband. With the primacy effect in mind, I have always been in relationships with people that I have been physically attracted to. In my relationships other than my husband, I had known my partners for a long time before we had got in a relationship. With my husband on the other hand, I had met him and shortly after began to date him. When meeting him, I remember the first thing that I noticed was his looks. This is what had originally drawn me in and had made me want to date him. The way he talked had also made me attracted to him because he had a nice voice and attitude.

In personal relationships, the proximity effect and the primacy effect have an impact on what draws people together. Although looks may not be the most important factor when looking for a partner, it is one of the first information that we are presented. The feelings we have toward other people and the distance between us can have an impact on how we feel about them.

References:

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., and Coutts, L. M. (Eds.) (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.