Examples Of Interpersonal Relationships In The Movie The Social Animal

We are social animals that interact with others and form a close relationship. Close relationships are sometimes called interpersonal relationships. These relationships are found within families, co-workers, and small circle of best friends. According to the book The Social Animal, interpersonal relationships consist of interpersonal attraction. Interpersonal Attraction states that there are four reasons why you will like a person, such as the similarities you have with the other person, skills/ability of another, quality, and simply because they like you. Interpersonal relationship is not difficult to acquire but to maintain your relationship it takes a lot of commitment. To demonstrate this, I chose the movie Silver Linings Playbook and related concepts from chapter 8. Few concepts that I will discuss are exchange relationship, ego protecting

In the beginning of the movie, when Solitano first met Tiffany he thought that she was beautiful, however, he still had feelings for his wife, who had a restraining order against him. This simultaneous thought created cognitive dissonance, he had two thoughts “Tiffany is pretty,” but “I still like my wife.” In order to reduce his dissonance, he tells himself that Tiffany is crazy and that his wife will take him back because he’s a changed man. Cognitive dissonance is the state of tension that occurs when an individual holds two cognitions that are simultaneous (pg.180). Another previous concept that relates to this movie is self-justification. The reason Solitano and his wife separated was because she cheated on him and Solitano almost killed the other guy that his wife affiliated with. During his therapy session, he would try to justify his action by claiming that his mental illness was the reason for his behavior and that he’s a good human being. Self-justification is our tendency to justify our actions in order to maintain our self-esteem (pg.