031101, 1350hr, illinois time.

the social psychology class yesterday was interesting. in fact, i foresee some very interesting stuff to come up for the next week of classes. see, the current chapter is about attraction and relationships. woohoo! y'know, things like what makes people attracted to one another? what are the gender differences in relationship perception? are hard-to-get women really more attractive to men?

so yesterday, as an introduction, our TA showed us a clip of when harry met sally, where harry explained to sally of why they can never be friends. and in fact, why men and women can never have completely platonic friendships. his basic argument was that guys only make friends with women who they are attracted to, and with whom they want to have a sexual relationship. after the clip, the TA asked the class what we thought of it. some girls disagreed, saying they have great guy friends without any sexual attraction at all, but then the TA asked, "are you sure they don't want to have sex with you?" man, so embarrassing, isn't it?

but seriously, the TA also brought up this journal article published in some renowned pyschology journal, about a survey-based research on this, and it appears that more women than men quote "physical protection" as their reason for seeking opposite sex friendships, while more men than women quote "potential for future sexual relationships." eewwww! that's just such a gross idea to me, that my guy friends see me [and other common female friends] as one-day-maybe-can-have-sex-with-her friends. eew! though of course i have encountered guys who appear friendly when they're single, and then drift away when the potential for relationship disappears. for example, when either he or i get into a relationship with someone else, or when it becomes clear that i'm not attracted to him at all. then poof the guy disappears. so i don't think this conclusion is really altogether wrong. oh, and what about ex-es who disappear or at least appear disinterested in maintaining any form of friendship after break up? hmm.

oh, another thing mentioned in yesterday's class was how people tend to get together based on physical proximity, maybe because people who are physically nearer to one another spend more time together, and familiarity breeds attraction. heh. i guess that's how i fell for alvin eventually, that we both stay in the house. wow. though i also wonder if proximity through the internet accounts for anything, especially for people who spend so much time online, chatting and whatnot, someone who's online but physically further away may seem a lot closer than someone staying right under the same roof. i see this as an area that will grow with research. hmm. ah, the psychology-obssessed cindy emerges.

i have so much fun in my social psychology class. sometimes our TA feeds us candy too. heh.